Introduction: American humor and its discontents -- Making connections: building cultural citizenship through charged humor -- Twentieth-century stand-up: a history of charged humor -- Laughing into the new millennium -- When women perform charged humor: the (gendered) politics of consumption -- Robin Tyler: still 'working the crowd' -- Micia Mosely: humor out of the mouths of babes -- Hari Kondabolu: performing in the age of modern-day minstrelsy -- Conclusion: How to avoid the last laugh.