Introduction: Understanding Comedy as a Cultural Industry

This opening chapter will discuss the importance of understanding comedy as a cultural industry, as well as outlining some of the debates around whether or not comedy should be understood as an art or as a commercial form. After placing the book within the context of these debates, the chapter then goes on to provide an outline of the book and the methodology used to carry out the research. The chapter will then outline the comedy ecosystem in the UK and why the East MidlandsEast Midlands was chosen as a case study in the book.