Becoming Joe Doakes: Averageness, Populism and Seriality in Robert Benchley's 'How to' Short Subjects. Issue 1 (1st October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: King, Rob
• Is Part Of: Film studies. Volume 17:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 32
• Page End: 48
• Publication Date: 2017-10-01
• Subjects: American Film History -- humour -- populism -- Robert Benchley -- seriality -- short subjects; Motion pictures -- History -- Periodicals; Motion pictures -- Periodicals; 791.43
• DOI: 10.7227/FS.17.0003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1469-0314

Abstract

Abstract : Over the course of the 1930s, the comic persona of Algonquin humorist Robert Benchley changed from that of a 'sophisticated' humorist to an 'average man'. This article situates Benchley's 'How to' short subjects for MGM (1935–44) within a broader public preoccupation with averageness that characterised the populist political rhetoric of New Deal-era America. In particular, it explores the function of seriality as a discursive trope conjoining the format of Benchley's MGM shorts to the broader construction of 'average' identities in the era's political culture.