Comedy and Distinction provides the first ever empirical examination of British comedy taste. Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews carried out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this book explores what types of comedy people like (and dislike), what their preferences reveal about their sense of humour, how comedy taste lubricates everyday interaction, and how issues of social class, gender, ethnicity and geographical location interact with patterns of comic taste.

Sam Friedman, is Assistant Professor in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has published widely on comedy, social mobility and social class. He is also the publisher of Fest magazine, the largest magazine covering the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

1. Introduction: Funny to Whom? Part I: Positioning the Research 2. From Music Hall to the Alternative Boom: The Changing Field of British Comedy 3. Cultural Capital: From Resources to Realisation Part II: The Cultural Currency of a 'Good' Sense of Humour 4. Liking the 'Right' Comedy 5. Working for your Laughter: Comedy Styles and Embodied Cultural Capital 6. Cultural Omnivores or Culturally Homeless? Exploring the Comedy Tastes of the Socially Mobile Part III: Comic Cultural Capital: Strength and Legitimacy 7. Comedy Snobs and Symbolic Boundaries 8. The Tastemakers: Comedy Critics and the Legitimation of Cultural Capital 9. The Hidden Tastemakers: Comedy Scouts as Cultural Brokers 10. Conclusion