The Beatles and Humour: Mockers, Funny Papers, and Other Play [Paperback]

The Beatles are known for cheeky punchlines, but understanding their humor goes beyond laughing at John Lennon's memorable rattle your jewelry dig at the Royal Variety Performance in 1963. From the beginning, the Beatles' music was full of wordplay and winks, guided by comedic influences ranging from rhythm and blues, British radio, and the Liverpool pub scene. Gifted with timing and deadpan wit, the band habitually relied on irony, sarcasm, and nonsense. Early jokes revealed an aptitude for improvisation and self-awareness, techniques honed throughout the 1960s and into solo careers. Experts in the art of play, including musical experimentation, the Beatles' shared sense of humor is a key ingredient to their appeal during the 1960s-and to their endurance.

The Beatles and Humouroffers innovative takes on the serious art of Beatle fun, an instrument of social, political, and economic critique. Chapters also situate the band alongside British and non-British predecessors and collaborators, such as Billy Preston and Yoko Ono, uncovering diverse components and unexpected effects of the Beatles' output.

Katie Kapurchis Professor of English at Texas State University, USA. Her books includeVictorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century(2016),New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles(2016 with Kenneth Womack), andBlackbird: How Black Musicians Sang the Beatles into Being(2023). Forthcoming books includeDisney Plus Beatleswith Bloomsbury Academic.

RichardMillsis Senior Lecturer in Literature and Popular Culture at St Mary's University, UK. He is the author ofThe Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia(2019) and co-editor ofMad Dogs and Englishness(2017). Forthcoming books includeThe Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culturewith Bloomsbury Academic.

Matthias Heymanis Assistant Professor in the Arts at Vrije UnivlCÓ