Funny Stuff: How Comedy Shaped American History

LAURA LAPLACA is the founding director of the National Comedy Center's archive in Jamestown, New York, the United States' congressionally-designated home for the preservation of comedy history. She holds a PhD from Northwestern University and has published, taught, and presented about American popular culture for over 15 years.

RYAN LINTELMAN is the curator of entertainment at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and is one of the curators of the landmark exhibition Entertainment Nation. He contributed essays to Smithsonian Books' Entertainment Nation (2022) and Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection (2013).