What Made Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic

Lively and highly readable, What Made Pistachio Nuts? examines what Henry Jenkins calls the anarchistic tradition of American film comedy. Anarchistic comedies of the 1930s mock the social order and celebrate the creativity and impulsiveness of their protagonists in a form of clowning that ultimately reestablishes the status quo.Jenkins focuses on well-known films such as the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup and W.C. Fields' It's a Gift, as well as all-but-forgotten works like Diplomaniacs, Hollywood Party, So Long Lefty, and others.Jenkins, Henry is the author of 'What Made Pistachio Nuts? Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic', published 1992 under ISBN 9780231078542 and ISBN 0231078544.