The performativity of comedic apologies

This essay examines the comedic apology ritual as a complex site of struggle over competing cultural values. First tracing the multilayered process of the categorical apology, we detail performative dimensions of apology specific to the dealing of comedy and the interpretive ambiguities of irony. Turning next to the context of the "apology epidemic," we examine how the call for, and possible delivery of, an apology marks a performative struggle over competing norms and values. Finally, the essay traces a series of performative effects emerging from the repetition of this cultural comic apology ritual, both in its compliance and refusal.