Beatles and Humour

Katie Kapurch is Professor of English at Texas State University, USA. Her books include Victorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century (2016), New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles (2016 with Kenneth Womack), and Blackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being (2023). Forthcoming books include Disney Plus Beatles with Bloomsbury Academic.Richard Mills is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Popular Culture at St Mary’s University, UK. He is the author of The Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia (2019) and co-editor of Mad Dogs and Englishness (2017). Forthcoming books include The Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culture with Bloomsbury Academic.Matthias Heyman is Assistant Professor in the Arts at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Lecturer at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he is the Vice-chair of Research. He also is Postdoctoral Fellow at LUCA School of Arts, Leuven and freelances as a double bassist. He has a forthcoming monograph on jazz bassist Jimmie Blanton.

The Beatles changed the world in so many ways—one of them was changing how the world laughs. The Beatles and Humour is a fascinating study of the Fabs’ madcap comic innovations, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.'

• Editor and Contributor BiosIntroduction: Mockers, Funny Papers, and Rolling Up: Why the Beatles are Still in Play Katie Kapurch, Texas State University, USA, Matthias Heyman, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and Richard Mills, St Mary's University, UKPART I: Playing Together1. The Beatles and the Bard, the Walrus and the Eggman: Playing with William Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll and/as Perspective by IncongruityKatie Kapurch, Texas State University, USA2. I Laugh and Act Like a Clown: The Beatles as Paradoxical ClownsMatthias Heyman, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium3. Defuse, Dilute, Deflate: The Beatles Turn It On and Laugh It OffAviv Kammay, Wingra School, USA4. Billy Preston and the Beatles Get Back: Black Music and the Wisdom of Wordplay and WitMike Alleyne, Middle Tennessee State University, USA, Walter Everett, University of Michigan, USA, and Katie Kapurch, Texas State UniversityPART II: Playing Solo5. Madcap Laughs: The Evolution of John Lennon’s HumorJeffrey Roessner, Mercyhurst University, USA6. “Shall We Dance? This is Fun!”: Paul McCartney’s Popular Song PastichesDavid Thurmaier, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, USA7. “I Was So Young When I Was Born”: George Harrison and the Mansion of MirthJohn Covach, University of Rochester, USA8. George Martin, Parlophone Records, and Great Britain’s FunnymenKenneth Womack, Monmouth University, USA, and Ed Zareh, writer, USA9. Yoko Ono’s Avant-Garde HumorStephanie Hernandez, Independent Scholar, UKPART III: Playing in Context10. Bug Music: Beatle Memes in Sixties American SitcomsMatthew Schneider, High Point University, USA11. The Beatles and the Birth of British Comedy in the 1960s with Beyond the Fringe and Monty Python's Flying CircusRichard Mills, St Mary’s University, UK12. Pastiche, Parody, or Post-Irony? The Beatles’ Influence on Tears for FearsMark Spicer, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, USAIndex