Beyond a Joke

At the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics a global audience of nearly one billion viewers were treated to the unprecedented sight of James Bond meeting Queen Elizabeth II. Shortly after the 'Queen' hurled herself out of a helicopter her Union Jack parachute guiding her down to the Olympic Stadium. What it is about moments such as these that define both a particular idea of Britishness and a particular type of British film comedy? How has British cinema exploited parody as a means of negotiating its sense of identity? How does this function within a globalized marketplace and in the face of dominant Hollywood cinema?<br/><br/>Beyond a Joke explores the myriad ways British film culture has used forms of parody from the 1960s to the present day. It provides a contextual and textual analysis of a range of works that while popular have only rarely been the subject of serious academic attention - from Morecambe and Wise to Shaun of the Dead to the London 2012 Olympics' opening ceremony. Combining the methodologies both of film history and film theory Beyond a Joke locates parody within specific industrial and cultural moments while also looking in detail at the aesthetics of parody as a mode. Ultimately such works are shown to be a form of culturally specific film or televisual product for exporting to the global market in which 'Britishness' shaped in self-mocking and ironic terms becomes the selling point. Written in an accessible style and illustrated throughout with a diverse range of examples Beyond a Joke is the first book to explore parody within a specifically British context and makes an invaluable contribution to the scholarship on both British and global film culture.