The last laugh : folk humor, celebrity culture, and mass-mediated disasters in the digital age /
Blank, Trevor J.
Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press,
c2013.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-151) and index.
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 9/11 to the death of bin Laden : vernacular expression and the emergence of web 2.0 -- "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.
Folklore and the Internet.