Taking Stand-Up Seriously: Comedy as a Site for Imagining Decolonial Futures

Abstract

Stand-up comedy is a rich arena of sociological inquiry that enables social actors to utter bold truths in a way that educates rather than offends. As such, stand-up comedy can inform conversations around potentially “thorny” issues like racial inequality. This article draws on primary qualitative content analysis of the work of Kura Forrester, a female, Indigenous comedian in Aotearoa New Zealand, to illustrate the potential of comedians and the medium of stand-up comedy as agents of change. We employ the concepts “parrhesia,” “critical public pedagogy,” and “prefiguration” to argue that stand-up comedy provides a valuable opportunity to challenge racist stereotypes, encourage critical reflection on “race-thinking,” and imagine out loud what an alternative, decolonial future in Aotearoa New Zealand might entail.