Every time we come across viral anger about popular culture, it can feel like “[w]e are engaged in a battle for the soul of the nation,” writes Nesteroff, a pop culture historian, in his new book. Having cut his teeth as a stand-up comic, Nesteroff is best known as a welcome talking head in numerous documentaries about the history of comedy, as well as the author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy (2015) and We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy (2021). Purposefully avoiding comment on today’s debates, Nesteroff’s goal is to show us that the old refrain that “you can’t joke about anything anymore” is just that—an outdated chorus. “The purpose of this book is to provide context for showbiz controversies as they arise—and how to make sense of them,” he writes.
Comedy (and the larger scope of popular culture) has always pushed boundaries and, therefore, has been designed to offend. Though Nesteroff is careful to avoid any showbiz controversy in the 21st century, he recognizes that so many national conversations are “intentionally composed to incite and manipulate the reader.” While this may feel like a new phenomenon to some, sadly it is not. Nesteroff quotes historian Richard Hofstadter’s 1964 The Paranoid Style in American Politics to establish continuities with the present: “The paranoid spokesperson sees the fate of this conspiracy [to upend a specific way of life] in apocalyptic terms […] [H]e constantly lives at a turning point: it is now or never in organizing resistance.” This paranoid style of outrage and fearmongering has been at work in our society for well over a century.
Outrageous starts by showing us that “American show business essentially begins in the 1830s with the blackface minstrel show.” “Ever since that time,” writes Nesteroff, “audiences have complained.” Though Outrageous makes very minimal connections to today, these minstrel controversies persist, most commonly relating to “digital blackface” and white people’s use of GIFs featuring African Americans. However, as Nesteroff chronicles, not all outrage has aged as well. Many people disapprove of blackface today—though perhaps not as many as you’d think. There was also a time when the Twist sent shock waves through the nation’s prudes, but today the dance raises very few eyebrows. Same goes for the Beatles—what was once the Devil’s music is now classic rock playing at your local department store.