Event
How Comedy Shaped American History
The Smithsonian Institution and the National Comedy Center hold outstanding collections of objects that illustrate the importance of comedy in American life, from 19th-century vaudeville to internet memes. The new book Funny Stuff: How Comedy Shaped American History showcases these collections with photographs and essays. Coauthors Laura LaPlaca, head of the National Comedy Center's Carl Reiner Department of Archives & Preservation, and Ryan Lintelman, entertainment curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, reveal the stories of rarely exhibited artifacts and recount the lives of several comics and their influence on American culture.
On View At
Devoted to the scientific, cultural, social, technological, and political development of the United States, the museum traces the American experience from colonial times to the present.
Washington, DC
10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily