The Last Laugh: Folk Humor, Celebrity Culture, and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Digital Age

Contents

Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xxvii Introduction: Cyberspace, Technology, and Mass Media in the Twenty-First Century   Searching for Connections: How and Why We Use New Media for Vernacular Expression   Changing Technologies, Changing Tastes: The Evolution of Humor and Mass-Mediated Disasters in the Late Twentieth Century   From / to the Death of bin Laden: Vernacular Expression and the Emergence of Web .   “Intimate Strangers”: The Folk Response to Celebrity Death and Falls from Grace   From Sports Hero to Supervillain: Or, How Tiger Woods Wrecked His Car(eer)   Dethroning the King of Pop: Michael Jackson and the Humor of Death   Laughing to Death: Tradition, Vernacular Expression, and American Culture in the Digital Age  Afterword: Predictions on Future Trajectories of Vernacular Expression and New Media  Glossary  Notes  References  Index  ...