Neoliberal capitalism dominates American society despite its reproduction of mass inequality. The most vulnerable individuals are tasked with maintaining the health and morality of the marketplace by becoming the entrepreneurial self, and are placated with false promises of American Dream mythology that promotes unattainable ideas of success. In the following, I consider two television satires of capitalism—Killing It and Severance—as disruptive stories that raise critical ethical questions about neoliberal capitalism through the humorous perspective of the neoliberal worker.
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Killing It. 2022a. Episode no. 101, first broadcast 31 March 2022 by Peacock. Directed by Mo Marable and written by Luke Del Tredici and Dan Goor.
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Killing It. 2022b. Episode no. 103, first broadcast 14 April 2022 by Peacock. Directed by Mo Marable and written by Max Silvestri.
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Killing It. 2022c. Episode no. 105, first broadcast 14 April 2022 by Peacock. Directed by Angela Barnes and written by Jamie Lee.
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Severance. 2022a. Episode no. 101, first broadcast 18 February 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Ben Stiller and written by Dan Erickson.
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Severance. 2022b. Episode no. 102, first broadcast 18 February 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Ben Stiller and written by Dan Erickson.
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Severance. 2022c. Episode no. 103, first broadcast 25 February 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Ben Stiller and written by Andrew Colville.
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Severance. 2022d. Episode no. 104, first broadcast 04 March 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Aoife McArdle and written by Kari Drake.
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Severance. 2022e. Episode no. 105, first broadcast 11 March 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Aoife McArdle and written by Anna Ouyang Moench.
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Severance. 2022f. Episode no. 106, first broadcast 18 March 2022 by AppleTV+. Directed by Aoife McArdle and written by Amanda Overton.
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WeinsteinCorinneFeldmanLauren. 2024. “Comedy for Racial Justice? The Mediating Roles of Narrative Mechanisms and Perceived Humor Types on Persuasive Outcomes Related to Racially Biased Policing.” Mass Communication & Society27 (5): 1277–1301.
