From broadcast to social media, comedy plays a prominent role in Japan’s cultural landscape and political landscape. The Time of Laughter explores how comedy grew out of the early days of television to become a central force in shaping Japanese media over the past half-century. Comedy and its impact, David Humphrey argues, established a “time of laughter” in the media of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in Japan. Through masterful interrogation of Japanese televisual archives and media discourse, Humphrey demonstrates that the unique temporality of laughter has had a profound role in the cultural atmosphere of Japan’s recent past. Laughter both complemented and absorbed the profound tensions and contradictions that emerged in Japanese television. Joyous and cacophonous, reaffirming and subverting, laughter simultaneously alienated and unified viewers. Through its exploration of the influence of comedy and the culture of laughter, The Time of Laughter presents a vibrant new take on Japan’s recent media history.

David Humphrey is Assistant Professor of Japanese and Global Studies at Michigan State University.

"...an exquisitely written monograph that is vital to the study of Japanese comedy and laughter--and of the central role they play in Japanese media and the country's cultural and political landscapes. Humphrey's knowledge and presentation of televisual archives and media discourse are superb and will be accessible to a wide range of readers, from advanced undergraduates and up." — Monumenta Nipponica

"This widely researched and documented study of Japanese comedy on TV productions shows and how on internet proves that laughter is not only a source and sign of present enjoyment but also a vehicle of economic and societal lived experience."— KronoScope

"The Time of Laughter is a book that will delight scholars of comedy and humor with both its theoretical rigor and abundant examples. By the end of the book, most readers will come away convinced that it is impossible to study Japanese television, or even its broader media culture, without understanding how it has been informed and shaped by comedy." — Film Quarterly

"Humphrey effectively traces how comedy came to occupy a central place on Japanese TV, to the point that it's rate to turn on a television and not find someone laughing. Overall, this book is substantive enough that even those most familiar with the history of Japanese mass media will likely encounter new information."— Journal of Japanese Studies

"The Time of Laughter is a must-read for scholars of Japanese media, humor, and cultural studies, offering a rich and nuanced understanding of how comedy functions within the Japanese media landscape. It is accessible to readers with hitherto limited engagement with the world of Japanese comedy and situates those examples which might be familiar to English-speaking audiences in an illuminating historical and cultural context."— Humor