Comedy Critic Jesse David Fox on the Cultural Role of Comedy

Jesse David Fox works as Vulture’s comedy critic and hosts the podcast “Good One,” where each episode features comedians like John Mulaney and Sasheer Zamata spending up to two hours breaking down one joke and why it makes us laugh. But his new book, “Comedy Book,” questions whether comedy has to be funny at all. It takes us from the premiere of “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” in 1989, to the new relationship between politics, journalism and humor engendered by John Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” to the — sometimes politically contentious, sometimes camp — comedy landscape of today. We’ll talk with Fox about how we use comedy to make sense of the news, social media fads, identity and both personal and collective grief. Guests: Jesse David Fox, senior editor and comedy critic, Vulture; creator and host, "Good One: A Podcast about Jokes"; author, "Comedy Book"