Title: Sunny Disposition: Determining The Clown’sAgency In VisualArt
Author: Georgia Dunn
Publication Year/Date: May 2024
Document Version: Fine Art Hons dissertation
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https://doi.org/10.20933/100001303
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my supervisor, whose support for this idea from its developmental stage till now has been so greatly appreciated. Thank you for introducing me to ‘the carnival’ and my now favourite artist, Rose English.
Extended thanks to module co-ordinator, Helen Gørrill. Your kindness towards my year group has been cherished.
Thanks to Eddie Summerton and Dr. Erica Eyres. Thank you for helping me find an art practice that utilises humour and character study.
Finally, thanks to my dad, a wonderful silly man, I credit my sense of humour and interest in comedy to you.
List of Figures
Chapter 1.1
Figure 1.1: The Log Lady (1990), Television, ABC.
Figure 1.2: Naked Omen Kirk (2004), Television, WB
Figure 1.3
Figure 1.4: Lorelai Hates Bush (2002), Television, WB.
Chapter 1.2
Figure 1 5: Yummy Bartenders (2006), Television, WB.
Figure 1.6: Kirk’s Starring Role (2005), Television, WB.
Figure 1.7: Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (1986), Television, NBC.
Chapter 1.3
Figure 1 8: Cousin Greg in a Clown Suit (2018), Television, HBO.
Chapter 2. 1
Figure 2.1: The Journey of Man (2005), Television, W.B.
Figure 2.2 Nora and Dora Dance, Performance, Wise Children (Rice 2018).
Figure 2.3: Kirk Loves Your Daughter (2002), Television, W.B.
Chapter 2.2
Figure 2.4 Sardine Smile, Site-Specific Performance/ Film, How to Shop
Mo and Cat Fear the News, (Comic), The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for (Bechdel 2003) (Baker 1993).
Figure 2.5 The Most Beautiful Girl and Kirk (2002), Television, WB.
Figure 2.6 Dog Queen, Film, Alphabet Soup (Wegman 1995).
Figure 2.7 Desperate Horse Wife Scorned Woman, 84.1cm x 118.9 cm., Screen-Print, (Dunn 2023).
[Grab your reader’s attention with a great quote from the document or use this space to emphasize a key point. To place this text box
Figure 2.8: The Secret of Cows, (2002), Television, W.B.
Figure 2.9: The Secret of Youth, (1997), Television, Fox.
Chapter 2.3
Figure 3.1: Enid Leaves, (Comic), Ghost World (Clowe 1997)
Figure 3.2: Bag Laments, Performance/Film, Untitled ’95 (Bag 1995)
Figure 3.3: Lane in CBGB (2004), Television, WB.
Figure 3.4: Byrne Performs in His Expanding Suit, Concert/ Film,
Figure 3.5: Kirk Up in Drag (2005), Television, W.B.
Figure 3.6 1920s Butch Queen Up in Drag, Photograph, Unknown (Demme1984).
Abstract
Key Words:
Absurd, Agency, American Grotesque, Carnival, Carnivalesque, Capitalist Realism, Clowning, Comedy, Death Drive, Dystopia, Gender, Hermeneutics, Millennial, Neoliberalism, Neurodiversity, Performance Art, Slapstick and Ventriloquism.
This dissertation investigates the figure of the clown in historical and contemporary contexts. I approach this subject via a reflexive case study on the character ‘Kirk Gleason’ from the popular television series Gilmore Girls (2000-2007). Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) is a comedy-drama television series created by Amy ShermanPalladino. Originally, the character was only meant to appear in one episode, however, Sherman-Palladino decided to have Kirk return by working different jobs in Stars Hollow. Kirk is an endearingly odd character; he lives in his mother’s basement, has chaotic career ventures, and views life through a lens that is eccentric, innocent, and lonely. Berman (2010) notes that Sherman-Palladino’s decision was an homage to her father’s (Don Sherman) multiple roles in Here is Lucy (1968-1974). I direct this dissertation to examine the importance of Kirk’s clown identity in a lineage of work that uses humour to navigate the figure of the ‘other’. This dissertation is divided into four main chapters: the introduction, critical literature review, analysis, and conclusion. The critical literature review examines scholarship on the carnivalesque, clowning, and utopian theory. My analysis of the clown's agency is also divided into three consecutive subchapters on the subjects previously mentioned. The analysis chapter relates some of the scholar's ideas on Kirk and other examples of performance and visual artwork such as Bobby Baker’s How to Shop (1993) and Buster Keaton’s Cameraman (1928), among others that are relevant to my art practice. The concluding chapter shall collate the arguments made throughout the dissertation to evidence why the figure of the clown has a conflicting status in art and media
1. Introduction
A ‘Sunny Disposition’ is the attitude of a clown-like individual who has a relentlessly cheerful outlook on life. This dissertation examines clowns' agency as their status fluctuates in social interactions. I extend the definition of ‘clowning’ to behaviour that is comical to watch. Moreso, I expand this dissertation’s research into uncovering different types of humour in utopian and dystopian contemporary American suburbia spaces. This study connects the clown character ‘Kirk Gleason’ from Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) to the figure of ‘the other’ in classical and post-modern visual and textual narratives. I use Kirk as a point of entry into understanding how the figure of the clown has changed and developed over time, and where the figure of the clown is currently heading. The episodes in which Kirk is referenced in the dissertations are further explained in the attached appendix of this document. The examples of clowns on which this study focuses are portrayed through a surrealist lens that champions oddness. Gilmore Girls lays its foundation as a surrealist text when countless absurdist authors and alternative or transgressive artists such as Buster Keaton, Mel Brooks, Lenny Bruce, Samuel Beckett, Kafka, Dostoyevsky, Sparks, Alan Ginsberg, and Helmut Newton, to name but a few, are mentioned throughout one hundred and fifty-three episodes Kirk is the most obscure character in Gilmore Girls, which makes him fascinating. In this dissertation, I seek to connect Kirk to a lineage of absurd clowns on stage and screen from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
I am an interdisciplinary practitioner, and humour and clowning continue to be a great influence on my work. My practice uses media such as film, printmaking, and sculpture. Such works often relate to personal experiences of awkwardness, shame, or ridicule Chang (2016) defines autoethnographic research as a method that uses the researcher’s firsthand experiences throughout the duration of study. My exploration of ‘stock characters’, (a manic pixie dream girl equine academic, sleazy drag king, catty choreographer, and horse medium) embody varied ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ archetypes in mockumentary videos. Much like Amy Sherman-Palladino’s writing of Kirk, I am interested in character-driven absurdity and experiences of failure and loss.
My art practice and research are informed by intersectional feminist thoughtacknowledging that systems of oppression affect people of varied identities in different ways. I approach this piece of research via an epistemological methodology that analyses Kirk’s clown identity in tangent with existing theories on the carnivalesque, comedy and utopia.
This dissertation will discuss the following questions: Does the clown/humour comment on political discourses? Was this type of commentary prevalent in televisual and performance art in the late twentieth century and 2000s? How does the role of the clown negotiate identity politics through absurdist tactics? Is the clown utopian? And if so, how does the figure examine hermeneutic narratives?
2.1 Kirk and The Carnival
The figure of the clown both correlates and associates with the Carnival as both deviate from socio-societal boundaries. The Carnival is a subversive space that transcends social hierarchies and institutionalised formality (Bullock and Trombley, 1999). The clown's transgressions are characterised via performances of order, chaos, and reorder that so too, mirror the political antagonisms of the carnival. The carnivalesque clown is recognisable across modern television and performance art. I submit that Stars Hollow is in many ways a ‘sanitised’ carnivalesque town, as it is an exaggerated space for song and dance and comedic performances. In turn, I also submit that Kirk is the town clown as he embodies the Carnival’s characteristics of liminal time, death, and renewal. The oppositional nature of the Carnivalesque will inform my subversive reading of Kirk’s clown status in Gilmore Girls, and why I submit that the text is rich with radical associations.
The Carnival is a place for transgressive social behaviours that subvert social order (Buchanan 2010). Likewise, the Carnival posits a universal dimensionality where social factors are subverted through Satire and Grotesque Realism. Buchanan (2010) defines these as satirical images The Carnivalesque parodies ‘official life’ and ‘modern times’ through laughter. The Carnival, in Bakhtin’s writings, is a place that opposes feudal systems and the authority of the church. So too, Bakhtin applies this opposition to the logical authoritarianism of Stalinism via semiotic interventions at the time of his writings in The Problem with Dostoevsky’s Poetics (1984).
The American Grotesque has had
The American Grotesque has had a great significance in literacy studies Dias Branco (2015, p. 61) identifies supernatural phenomena with rural American landscapes. The American Carnival was prevalent in The Dust Bowl Age, as referenced in Carnivàle (2003-2005), a television series about a disparate group of performers in the 1930s. Additionally, Johansen argues that these spaces occupy an alternative heterogeneous time that manifests examples of fantastical realism. Historically, the role of the wanderer is present within narratives surrounding the Suburban Gothic. The Suburban Gothic chronologically succeeds the Great Depression in American History. However, it is the site of suburbia itself that manifests cultural anxieties about urbanisation into carnivalesque images, such as nudity and grotesque bodies (Murphy 2009). Twin Peaks (Twin Peaks, 1990-91) and Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls, 2000-2007) are Suburban Gothic towns before and after the new millennium. Each show demonstrates the wanderer’s connections to the supernatural via grotesque imagery that is oddly comedic. The Log Lady, the wanderer in Twin Peaks, audibly advises Laura Palmer about her ill fate, and Kirk, the wanderer in Gilmore Girls runs through the town naked before something consequential affects one of the Gilmore Girls. Johansen (2015) suggests that the wanderer (an individual who is lost or unpredictable in their town) can withstand the effects of horror by manipulating Todorov’s narrative structure. To summarise, Todorov and Weinstein’s (1969) argument is that the hero’s narrative is resolved after the plot's equilibrium is disrupted, recognised, and repaired.
Capitalist Realism narrows the margins for hope amidst bleak social realities (Fisher 2009). In his writings, Fisher (2009) also personifies capitalism as ‘the hoarding father’, a corrupt figure who is a harmful product of modernity and post-Fordism. Indeed, it is he who has limitless access to resources, yet he selfishly keeps them to himself. Fisher largely focuses on Capitalist Realism in the UK and comments that in the time of his research (the early to mid-noughts), aspirational and financial disposition was abundant in the UK. However, Fisher’s assessments of capitalism’s impact are equally applicable to the USA’s political climate under the leadership of Clinton and Bush. The clown’s carnivalesque ability to live both inside and outside the death drive during capitalist realism is remarkable. In the case of Kirk, it is his indefatigable attitude towards fateful experiences that derives much of the character’s humour and relentless aspirations.
Clowning involves scenarios of play. Play, when not enacted in a safe, supervised setting can result in dangerous consequences. Klein (1946) states that every infant is born with a Death Drive. Klein goes on to define this term as an aggressive instinct to self-destruct that is sometimes provoked in instances of unsupervised play. In her subsequent writings, Klein (1952) links the destruction of objects, toys, and the self to overarching feelings of neglect. In the context of her writings, Klein is referring to parental neglect. I extend Klein’s theories of the consequences of absenteeism to that of the ‘Fathering’ nation’s (America’s) Government during the last decade of the twentieth century. Moreover, Fisher relates the insecurity of the sovereign to the disaffection of youth in the early years of the twenty-first century. A trend in Western comedy, at this time, was subverting the slacker mentality through comedically surreal narratives about self-fulfilment. Throughout Gilmore Girls, Kirk has many surreal adventures as he ventures into new career paths. In the episode (The New and Improved Lorelai, 2005) (See Appendix A), Kirk sets up a new business where he sells the wedding rings of deceased older women whom he had recently companioned. Although his ethics are questioned, the ‘oddness’ of his business is accepted, and he proceeds to make sales.
2.2. Kirk and Others
Gilmore Girls follows a similar joke pattern to Gimme a Break (1981-1987) (Berman 2010) The latter would set up a joke at the beginning of the episode by casually mentioning it in its dialogue, but by the end of the episode, the joke would later revolve full circle. For Gilmore Girls, the jokes are around Kirk’s desire to complete an extravagant task. In (‘I Get a Sidekick Out of You’ 2006) (See Appendix B) the town hosts a wedding of young couple Lane and Zac Kirk is privy to an earlier conversation about anxiety over the possibility of alcoholic beverages at the event. Later in the episode, during the wedding Kirk launches Yummy Bartenders, employing attractive male staff to serve alcoholic drinks. Here, Kirk’s clown identity and humour are somewhat camp.
Sontag (1966) states that for something to be classified as ‘Camp’, there is to be a delicate relationship between parody, self-parody, and failed seriousness. In the context of the episode, Kirk’s flat delivery of the line “I’m talking mouth-watering, tasty morals of manhood” is comedic. For Kirk, the parody in his character lies in the awkward sincerity of his voice and body language. The series, at this point, has a reputation for showing Kirk as being extravagant, however, it is his genuine belief in what he is doing that signs his actions as self-parody, as opposed to a parodied rhetoric around him. Sontag (1966) extends her analysis stating that camp is also naïve, innocent, and corruptible. Kirk, to an extent, becomes the ‘circular’ joke of the episode: he panics that the bartenders he hired are in fact ‘too yummy’, which causes him to momentarily panic and fire his workers. In a self-parodic effort, Kirk
admits his actions to the wedding reception and announces that he will instead, become the singular bartender. Sontag (1966) also proposes that Camp resolves itself with pathos that dethrones seriousness but never digresses into tragedy, like much of the humour of Kirk in Gilmore Girls
Comedy relates to physical, verbal, and social clumsiness. Zupančič (2008) finds humour in separating the Ego and the Id. According to Freud (1923), the Id is the irrational part of the psyche driven by want. The Ego is the completive part that oscillates between the Id’s desires and reality. The difference between the Ego and the Id is drawn wider by passionate attachments; and acts of emotional importance regarding things, persons, or animals that often land the clown in absurd situations. Kirk’s actions and passionate attachments are theatrical and absurd. Much like the figure of the wanderer in The American Grotesque, Absurdist authors have a historical reputation for being outsiders who find greater meaning in their imaginary lives instead of their current realities. In a musical context, ‘Absurd’ means out of harmony and has broader connotations to suspended time, lyricism, and horror. The absurd is a prolific aesthetic in Gilmore Girls, however, I argue that Kirk’s absurdity is the most profound. On a surface level, an example of such is from (‘The Real Paul Anka’ 2006). Lorelai dreams that her dog Paul Anka is a singer, as she walks the human Paul Anka around Stars Hollow. The episode successfully displays Lorelai’s identity crisis as her romantic relationship with diner owner Luke begins to disintegrate.
Kirk’s awkwardness is heightened when he tries to please his primary school teacher girlfriend Lulu, (his passionate attachment) when he agrees to star as Tevye in the school’s production of Fiddler on The Roof, (‘Jews and Chinese Food’ 2005) (See Appendix C). It soon becomes apparent that Kirk is not a skilled singer, however, it is rather his lack of Ego that propels him to complete his turn in the principal role. The comedy in the episode is also accentuated as Kirk sincerely performs next to children who appear to be genuinely talented.
In an initial viewing of the series, it is surmisable that Kirk is developmentally compatible with the children next to him, thus making him appear vulnerable and absurd (Esslin 1991). Sean Gunn’s deadpan delivery invisibly winks to the camera, implying Kirk is in on the joke. Moreso, this gesture shows that he is enjoying himself, without the judgment of others. Kirk’s absurdity is more transgressive than Lorelai’s because hers is rooted in anxiety and Kirk’s stems from self-indulged ridicule. Berman (2010) adds that the humour in Gilmore Girls was inspired by PeeWee’s Playhouse (1986). Paul Reuben’s clown character, Pee-Wee Herman exists in children's and adult’s screen cultures. Herman is referenced anecdotally throughout the series, and coincidentally, Kirk also has a transgressive identity.
Throughout the series, Kirk continuously tries to seek the approval of Luke and Taylor (the town mayor and owner of the local grocery store). Luke and Taylor are often at odds with each other as they are often bickering about how the town is organised. Kirk’s efforts to please Luke and Taylor mirror the relationship between the servant and the master in Commedia Dell ‘Arte. Kirk occupies the role of the Zanni, a clown who goes to extreme physical efforts to fulfil the demands made by their master. Gilmore Girls pays homage to the classic Commedia Dell ‘Arte play; The Servant of Two Masters (Goldoni, 1746). In the play, the servant goes between serving two opposing masters from high society. The servant’s objective is to keep his two servant roles; however, he is only permitted to have one. (‘Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom!’ 2004) (See Appendix D) mirrors Goldoni’s plot as Kirk is sent on a mission, from Taylor, to search the town for rotting eggs while he simultaneously seeks Luke’s approval
Kirk’s lack of coordination relates to the Zanni clown, as he has over-exerted himself at the behest of his ‘Master’ Taylor, in his attempt to please him. Commedia Dell ‘Arte is canonical to The Theatre of the Absurd, because of the power of wordless and purposeless action that dissociates from reality in a way that is reminiscent of clowns in silent cinema. Commedia Dell ‘Arte has influenced canonical comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and The Marx Brothers (Clark and Holquist 1984) Gilmore Girls employs an intellectual cultural zeitgeist in much of its dialogue, however, in original viewings, many key references go unnoticed in the show’s rapid-fire dialogue. In the later part of the episode, Loralei compares her parents' dinner guests to Harpo, Chico, and Groucho. This comparison intelligently acknowledges the Commedia Dell ‘Arte-inspired excerpts that preceded the next scene.
2.3 Kirk and Utopia
The clown socially and politically oscillates between abstract and concrete utopia. Concrete utopia anticipates the future realistically, whereas abstract utopia is ruled by ‘wishful thinking’ (Halberstam 2011). The clown has a unique relationship with failure because the experience of failing itself has the potential to emancipate both society and the individual (Levitas 1990). Muñoz (2009) also states that utopian spaces are ephemeral, as they move between realist environments. Gilmore Girls presents the fictional town of Stars Hollow as a smooth and liminal space. Besides Kirk, the town hosts a variety of ‘wacky’ and eccentric characters who rarely leave Stars Hollow This raises the question of whether or not they be accepted in other spaces. Lysen and Pisters (2012) discuss the differentiation between smooth and striated spaces in regard to Deleuzian philosophy. To summarise, Smooth spaces occupy nomadic characters, whereas homogeneous characters make up the territory of striated spaces, (Lysen and Pisters, 2012). The quirky residents of Stars Hollow foster a great sense of community that is utopian
Stern (2012) compares the utopian, postfeminist ideology of Gilmore Girls to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s It Takes a Village (1996), which discusses the impact of community/communities on a child’s upbringing. The concept of ‘family’ in Gilmore Girls has plural signs and significations; much of the series’ dramatic material is sourced from the three generations of the Gilmore family. Other forms of family are
reflected through Sherman-Palladino’s combination of ‘Chick Lit’ (a genre of femalecentric stories) and dialogism. Holquist (2003) explains that dialogism proposes multiple readings through an epistemological framework.
Kirk frequently mentions that he lives at home with his unrelenting mother, however, she never appears on screen. Characters who are verbally mentioned, but never seen, are a staple in sitcoms. The storytelling device allows viewers to visualise their version of the script’s eccentricities. Such characters include ‘Phil Petrillo’, The Golden Girls (1985-1992) (See Appendix E) and ‘Bob Sacamano’, Seinfeld (19891997) (See Appendix F). In (‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’ 2002) (See Appendix G), Kirk reveals that he has seven brothers and sisters, yet Kirk is the only member of his family to be seen in Stars Hollow. Comparatively, many of the older town residents have known Kirk since he was a child. Miss Patty taught Kirk how to dance and Lorelai offered to teach Kirk how to swim. My intersectional reading of the text hypothesises that the residents of Stars Hollow raised Kirk, and that the town is a holistic parental body
Conway (2023) states that Gilmore Girls tackles the generational trauma of children who were parented in an economically privileged environment. Conway (2023) compares the Gilmore family dynamics to that of the Roy family in Succession (2018-2023), a series that prominently features emotional abuse between parents and children. Conway justifies her comparison by relating the series’ comedic and tragic explorations of family. Expanding on Conway’s existing analysis, I submit that both Gilmore Girls and Succession mediate their ratios between comedy and tragedy through the efforts of a comedic outsider, i.e., the clown. As established, Kirk is both a wanderer and clown of Stars Hollow. However, ‘Cousin Greg’, Greg Hirsch, an awkward outsider to the inner workings of the Roy family, is indeed, the clown of Succession. Greg is first introduced in (‘Celebration’ 2018) (See Appendix H), where he is working as a clown in one of the Royco theme parks and he contends with his vomit inside the costume. The very character’s name questions the show’s selfawareness of the clown’s relationship to wealth and access. ‘Greg Hirsch’ linguistically resembles the name Anne Hirsch, a performance artist whose work Scandalicious (2008) is known for comedically showing class mobility.
What separates Kirk and Greg are their differing ideologies; Kirk’s is utopian, whereas Greg’s is dystopian. Referring to the circularity of Todorov’s narrative structure, Kirk’s ending is economically stable, he has a partner and a home, and he is settled. Greg’s ends in loss and his position in the family is uncertain after the death of his grandfather.
Gilmore Girls doesn’t subscribe to a specific ‘model’ of parenting; if anything, it highlights the inevitable impact of childhood trauma in the adult lives of its characters. In the original series, Rory Gilmore was a child prodigy, destined for greatness. However, by the time of the sequel, Gilmore Girls: A Year in The Life (2016), she is unemployed and living between friends' and relatives’ houses. Lorelai Gilmore was the neglected child of upper-class parents who fell pregnant at the age of fifteen. What is transgressive about Gilmore Girls as a post-modern text, is that it acknowledges different pedagogies of parenting. Kirk is a prime example of this, because multiple characters have influenced his development. Halberstam (2011) notes that collage is a utopian construct because it is dominated by a mode of ‘unbeing’. Kirk, as an adult is symbolically presented as a collage because he doesn’t belong to any family, instead, he belongs to the town.
The clown is an accessible symbol of this attitude, as silliness is often attributed to being an example of Low Theory (Ryynänen 2018). Halberstam (2018) also comments that the identity of the white male hero privileges actions of stupidity and behaviours that dare to go outside of social norms. Halberstam (2018) goes on to
define Low Theory as a form of capitulation. ‘Capitulation’ has connotations of resisting demand. Interestingly, Halberstam (2011) defines ‘stupidity’ as a form of unknowing. The examples of clowning addressed thus far subvert the gender politics of the white cis man as stupidity becomes a form of critique
2. Analysis
2.1 Kirk, Performance, and Transgression
Carnivalesque performances show birth, death, and gore, and these elements are transferable between media. The carnival has a historical legacy that spans centuries in textual media. Marlowe’s Dr Faustus (1592) is a classical Carnivalesque text. Marlowe subverts Faustus’s formalised pursuit of knowledge by showing his moral and social decline after he offers his soul to the devil. The plot is symbolic of the death drive, as Faustus falls victim to his self-destructive tendencies when he is unable to control himself in his isolated environment and is pursued by the devil’s messenger.
Kirk’s performance
The Journey of Man, in (‘We’ve Got Magic to Do’ 2005) (See Appendix I) highlights the inevitability of death Kirk mimes his conception and demise, both features allude to a broader consensus that life is ruled by death in an elaborate extension of Klein’s death drive. The performance has genuine artistic merits such as mime, theatricality, and sound. Like Dr Faustus, ‘The Journey of Man’ is a morality tale where Kirk abstractly mimes his conception, birth, childhood, adulthood, and death. The performance veers into the grotesque as he imposes acts of self-violence and makes exaggerated facial expressions that range between terror, possession, and ecstasy. The performance is unfortunately, misunderstood and in a poorly aged moment (on the part of the series), referred to as ‘spazzy’ by Lorelai. We’ve Got Magic to Do is a polarising episode of the series. Ableist language is never funny, and Kirk is being laughed at, rather than laughed with and
these actions jeopardise his agency as a character Carnivalesque entertainment has a dark history of exploitation and ableism. A canonical example is Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) which associates ‘real-life’ carnival performers conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and Harry Earles, a vaudevillian performer with dwarfism alongside the horror genre. Lorelai’s ableist remark at Kirk’s expense deems his status as a clown because her word choice others him in the tradition of the disabled performers in Freaks, who are similarly othered.
Carnivalesque artwork strongly correlates to political criticism (Clark and Holquist, 1984). Rose English’s My Mathematics (1992) is a performance work about past, present, singular, and plural identities. English’s oeuvre has been titled Abstract Vaudeville (Guy 2014), as she disjunctively reflects on herself and society. My Mathematics is a narrative piece where Rosita Chavel (played by English) reminisces about how she was once a great circus rider. In the latter part of the show, Chavel summons Mathematics, a horse that used to belong to her. Mathematics is referred to as ‘a horse who knew too much.’At this point in the show, a horse shares the stage with English. Rose and Mathematics (the horse) perform a sequence of biomechanical movements together. Biomechanics is a transgressive form of theatre that uses exaggerated mimetic movements. Braun (1998) asserts that the form has a carnivalesque origin (1906), as Vsevolod Yemilyevich Meyerhold pioneered the movement’s opposition to Soviet Social Realism. My Mathematics (1992) was presented in the Serpentine Gallery, London, and uses the vulnerability of the clown to address loss and self-belief in post-Thatcherite Britain (Guy 2014)
The Journey of Man is ironically tender and self-compassionate when Kirk holds himself in the foetal position as he ‘dies’ on stage. The jerking motions that his legs make on stage resemble biomechanical movements. The gestures, however, are marked more tenderly, compared to his eccentric expressions from earlier on in the piece. These movements call for a sympathetic response from the audience, as from Kirk’s point of view, the ‘seriousness’ of a man dying is tragic.
Buchanan (2010) refers to Angela Carter as a carnivalesque author, because she pairs opposites and pluralities with Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism. Wise Children
(Carter 1991) is a realistic and fantastical text about twin girls Nora and Dora Chance. The term ‘Sunny Disposition’ is both true and ironic because whilst the clown masks under the guise of a smile, i.e., humour in the cases of Nora and Kirk, there are much darker elements of tragedy under the surface. The text, narrated in Nora’s voice, is as much satirical and bears similarity to the style of an insult comic as she is aware of the fantastical realism amongst her family. This type of humour contrasts with the allusiveness of Kirk’s humour which is ambiguously strange in its origin. Carter’s writing and Emma Rice’s 2018 stage adaptation of Wise Children explore paternal absenteeism through a carnivalesque lens. There are also intertextual similarities between the trajectories of the Chances and Kirk. Nora and Dora Chance are the illegitimate daughters of Melchior Hazard, a selfish theatre actor who ignores his children. Like Kirk, the Chances are the breadwinners for their family; they work tirelessly as song-and-dance girls, and they move from job to job throughout the text.
Carter uses the carnivalesque to oscillate between social boundaries, one of the ways that she does this is through ‘second hand’ incest (Hardin 1994). At the age of seventeen, Dora confides in Nora that she has become infatuated with her boyfriend, the blond tenor. Nora helps Dora plan her first sexual experience by agreeing to have Dora impersonate her. In (‘An Affair to Remember’ 2003) (See Appendix J), Kirk prepares for a date with Lulu, his brother’s ex-girlfriend. The sharing of a
romantic and sexual partner between siblings is ignored by the show which uncomfortably disables social boundaries, reminiscent of Wise Children.
One of the most unsettling examples of behaviour in Wise Children happens offstage. Dora is briefly engaged to Genghis Khan, a film producer who is very much her senior. Throughout this period, Dora is stalked by his ex-wife. On the day Dora is meant to be married, his ex-wife arrives at the wedding after having extensive plastic surgery so that she can successfully masquerade as Dora. Wearing a mask to embody a different person besides the self is a carnivalesque motif, because it is a fetishist form of masquerade (Tseëlon 2001).
Sherman-Palladino explores cringe comedy, through Kirk’s oversharing and awkward interactions with the Gilmore girls in (‘Always a God Mother, Never a God’ 2005) (See Appendix K). In the episode, the town hosts a baptism for Sookie and Jackson’s children, (the couple are close friends of the Gilmores and have asked Lorelai and Rory to be their godparents). On their way to the ceremony, Rory compliments Kirk’s suit and he replies that ‘it is the suit that they buried his dad in’. Rory decides to ignore Kirk’s comment, because it is too strange to decipher. Kirk’s comment has a dark subtext. It questions if the suit he is wearing is the same suit that his father was buried in and, if this were the case, has Kirk dug up his father’s grave and stolen his suit? Kirk’s isolation from his mother and the death of his father further underpins the morbid origins of the clown, which extends more broadly to the series, because absent fathers are used to criticise the darker side of suburban family life. The episode expresses themes of death, renewal, and liminality (Clark
and Holquist, 1984), as Kirk’s suit acts as a metaphorical bridge between the beginning and end of life.
In (‘Teach Me Tonight’ 2003) (See Appendix L), Kirk declares his passion for filmmaking and his wishes to show his short film I Love Your Daughter in Stars Hollow’s annual film festival. The film is nonsensical and brutal towards Kirk (who stars as himself) in his efforts to win over his fictional love interest’s family. After an expressive dance piece, Kirk is left half-naked and alone on screen. Whilst Lorelai is planning the festival, she mentions the possibility of screening Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective (1986-1988). Across his oeuvre, Potter’s work veers into grotesque and absurdist by contrasting violence and noir with ‘sitcom’ dialogue and hallucinogenic dance sequences (Creeber 2007).
3.2 Kirk, People, Animals, and Inventions
One of Gilmore Girls’ main themes is unrequited love (Berman 2010) In (‘The Haunted Leg’ 2003) (See Appendix M), Kirk professes that Lorelai “is the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen outside a really filthy magazine” and he officially asks her out on a date. Kirk’s mention of ‘a really filthy magazine’ is a form of verbal slapstick. Slapstick means to have a violent mishap. His comparison between Lorelai and adult material is a slapstick form of self-sabotage, as he accidentally embarrasses himself and Lorelai. The concept of a task going wrong is not unusual in clown and vaudevillian entertainment. Physical comedy was used to explore isolation in Buster Keaton’s The Camera Man (1928). In the film, Keaton plays a cameraman who is fumbles at the sight of a beautiful studio receptionist. Keaton tells the receptionist that he wishes to take her picture, and she agrees but he must wait for three hours until she is finished. In the next shot, the woman is photographed but as the shot widens, Keaton is disappointedly still waiting whilst another photographer takes pictures of the receptionist. Keaton’s disappointment mirrors Kirk’s loneliness arc (Berman 2010) as in both scenarios leave the clown isolated and vulnerable.
Humour is often derived when the Ego is ‘over-ruled’ by the Id (Zupančič 2008) I argue that this imbalance exposes the clown’s death drive on a conscious or unconscious level. Bobby Baker’s How to Shop (1993) is a piece of video performance art that explores humour and psychoanalysis. The video shows Baker shopping in a supermarket. Baker is dressed in a white dress coat that looks like a strange combination of a doctor’s lab coat and a hospital gown. As she walks through the store’s aisles, a voice-over narrates her internal dialogue as she tries to appease her Id’s destructive desires. After trying to reason with her Id, (which the viewer can assume she hears in private), she removes the outer cardboard from a tin of sardines and places the tin in her mouth. After placing the tin in her mouth, Baker hunches over her trolley whilst her face shows physical and emotional anguish. Self-inflicted violence and humiliation are an extreme form of slapstick comedy that amplifies the clown’s social awkwardness. Whether the action is physical or verbal, both Kirk’s and Baker’s scenarios show how the clown is ‘injured’ by their self-destructive behaviours. In the later part of The Haunted Leg, Kirk is rejected by Lorelai. Kirk is not surprised by her response, instead, he looks down as though he is looking deep within himself, confirming his expectation to which he replies, ‘at least I tried’. Similarly, Baker acknowledges her humiliation when she states, ‘Oh god, I feel so stupid’.
Comparatively, (‘Scene in a Mall’ 2004) (See Appendix N) exudes absurdity as Kirk establishes himself as the town’s dog walker and soon appears to be walking eight dogs at once. Human-to-animal relationships are shown in William Wegman’s video work. Wegman humorously presents his Weimaraner dogs’ responses to different phonetics in alphabetical order in Alphabet Soup (1995). Eyres (2018) states that awkwardness is characterised by pauses that are definitively unclear Throughout, the same episode, Kirk carries the dog around town in a handbag and his interactions with the dog/bag resemble the delayed responses in ventriloquist acts where the performer goes between being themselves and another being. Alphabet Soup displays this type of interaction as Wegman gives the illusion that the ‘queen’ dog is moving her hand by hiding behind the pillar where the dog is placed.
This form of visual ventriloquism has influenced my artistic practice. In 2023, I developed a series of screen prints called ‘The Desperate Horse Wives’. Unlike Wegan and Kirk, the screen prints diverge from working with live animals, however, the part animal and the part human composition remains the same. This hybrid is inherently awkward and comedic, as the form of the being in the image is unclear. Moreover, it is a co-dependent dynamic that humorously moves between human and animal characteristics.
Waiting for Godot (Beckett 1953) is an absurdist text, because it explores a static situation and the banality of the human condition (Esslin 1991). In contrast, Gilmore Girls creates comedy out of Kirk’s determination for purpose and self-fulfilment. In (‘Those Lazy, Crazy, Days’ 2003) (See Appendix O), Kirk proclaims that he has revolutionised skincare. Kirk explains that he has ‘discovered the secret of cows’ as one day, it occurred to him that ‘cows never wrinkle’. Kirk’s passion for cows and skincare is fleeting, and by the end of the episode, he realises that the product is poisonous. The temporal nature and inadequacy of Kirk’s invention relates to the sense of foreboding in Waiting for Godot. Just as Becket explores anticipation and limitations of hope, so too, Kirk’s experiences of disappointment rotate throughout the series as Kirk’s creative abilities are not immediately rewarded.
The artist’s iteration of a mass-produced product creates a sense of incongruity that juxtaposes methods of making (Eyres 2018). Object-orientated comedy was similarly shown in the sitcom Ally McBeal (1997-2002). Throughout the series, Elaine Vassel creates many inventions that feature her take on functional products. In (‘Only the Lonely’ 1997) (See Appendix P), Elaine creates ‘The Face Bra’, a cumbersome garment to be worn throughout the day to reduce the movement of facial skin. Like Kirk, Elaine’s inventions are met with cynicism by those around her, and the consensus is that she makes inventions because she seeks gratification.
3.3 Kirk and The Road to Somewhere
Depictions of American suburbia in the late 90s and early 00s show utopian and dystopian spaces. Gilmore Girls is predominately utopian and shows both neoliberalist and individualist attitudes through rose-tinted glasses. Ghost World (Clowe 1997) is another millennial text that uses humour, in contrast to clowning, in a suburban space, however, this portrayal is profoundly dystopian. Edelman (2004) states that nihilism was a consequence of cultural and interpersonal uncertainty before the beginning of the twenty-first century. Comparatively, Daniel Clowe’s comic Ghost World (1997) is a sombre reflection of modern life that provides a darkly
comedic commentary on adolescent anxiety about the future. Both Clowe’s comic and Terry Zwigoff’s (2001) film adaptation detail the summer separation of sardonic best friends Enid and Rebecca. Rebecca gradually conforms to suburbia; she gets a steady job and moves into a rented apartment whilst Enid becomes progressively detached. Enid pursues a relationship with an older man, Seymour, that ends in dismay. Enid also loses her place at art college, due to a misunderstanding about a sourced piece of artwork. In the tradition of the American Grotesque and suburbia, Enid occupies the role of the wanderer, and she wanders into the darkness of the unknown. Subsequently, the film and comic ends with her leaving town on a bus to nowhere.
Ghost World is a critique of Neoliberalism, Free-Market Capitalism, and the phony middle class (Giroux 2003). The text replaces privatised utopias with dystopian notions, individualised values, and low-skilled labour (Giroux 2003). Ghost World has a conclusive attitude towards suburbia; once you leave, you can never return. Ghost World’s ending has multiple interpretations. Thora Birch (2003), (the actress who played Enid), speculated that the ending was a metaphor for Enid’s decision to end her life. Comparatively, Clowes and Zwigoff (2002) stated that the ending is unclear and that her decision to board the bus is symbolic of her decision to move on with her life.
Gilmore Girls, in contrast, depicts a fantastical version of middle-class neoliberalism. Financial reward is evident across the entire town of Stars Hollow because, as a place, it runs solely on free-market capitalistic structures. Throughout the series, labour is portrayed as a ‘fun’ activity in which all residents have varying success (Mastrocola 2017). The consistent wholesomeness of the town’s community runs throughout the series. If Stars Hollow needs money, the residents will collectively host a fundraiser, e.g., the Tennessee Williams look-a-like contest mentioned in (‘They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?’2004) (See Appendix Q). The show balances community and free-market capitalism through privatisation and organisation via the work of the town selectman and elders. Stars Hollow has a utopian and individually orientated ideology unique to the people and businesses of the town. Suburbia in Gilmore Girls operates more compassionately than the suburbs of Ghost World
Concrete utopias were interrogated via American examples of clowning and performance art in the 90s after the post-Gulf War economic recession. Walsh (2015) notes that the change in America’s economic climate prevented educated graduates from capitalising on their qualifications. Bag’s video work Untitled ’95 comments on said disaffection by using signifiers of grunge. During the video, Bag
quotes ‘deadpan’ characters Beavis and Butthead and wears heavy black eye makeup. Untitled ’95 shows Bag becoming increasingly dissatisfied with art school and the social inequalities of low-paid work. Bag’s progressive detachment is heightened for comedic effect when she cries and dances to Morrissey’s ‘Suedehead’ which simultaneously shows her vulnerability and the consequences of neoliberalist trajectories on alienated youths.
Stars Hollow is in many ways, an abstract utopia, as it plays into the fantasies of the character's hopes and dreams. It is also mostly devoid of grunge. A character who is considerably ‘grunge’ is Lane Kim, Rory Gilmore’s best friend. She is a secondgeneration Korean immigrant who (against her Christian mother’s beliefs) is deeply passionate about rock music. During the series, she joins a band named ‘Hep Alien’, although the band never reaches great success. By the end of the seventh series, many fans consider Lane’s storyline a disservice. After Lane marries her band member Zac, she falls pregnant and is forced to grow out of the rock and roll life that she once envisioned for herself. Furthermore, Diffrient (2010) goes as far as to say that P.O.C. (People Of Colour) characters are confined to the background in Gilmore Girls. Ultimately, Lane has an unresolved ending as she becomes alienated from her former self, just as Bag lost touch with the hope of becoming an artist.
Gilmore Girls is guilty of privileging the trajectories of white men over P.O.C. and female characters. Portrayals of masculinity and ‘normative’ behaviour can be interrogated by inverting the status of white men through low theory (Halberstam 2010). Gilmore Girls, in many ways, is a product of its time Lane, Lorelai, and Rory fall into the manic pixie girl trope which provides comedy through the idiosyncrasies of ‘quirky’ women, but also limits their agency over men (Rabin 2009) Gender representation in comedy has since moved on and women and gender nonconforming people’s quirks have been narratively grounded and substantiated such as in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-19), (See Appendix Q).
In (‘An Affair to Remember’ 2003), Kirk is anxious about his date with Lulu Kirk’s oversharing goes into the realm of blue humour when Kirk says to Luke, ‘I’m so lonely, not even Animal Planet does it for me anymore’ (Kirk, 2003). Kirk’s behaviour becomes more outlandish, as he goes as far as to videotape his practice dates with himself and asks other customers if meatloaf is romantic food that ‘gets you hot’. Kirk’s solo dates and questions are a form of capitulation, and he is contrasted by the naturalistic backdrop of the diner, where the date is set to take place. Kirk’s practice dates show comedic repetition, carnival time, and Meisner’s philosophy of rehearsal. Meisner’s rehearsal technique requires persistent repetition of a line of text until the performer feels that they have captured the ‘truth’ of the dialogue (Moseley 2012). This repetition mirrors Kirk’s search for realism as he goes to surreal lengths to find a version of himself that he is comfortable with presenting to a prospective partner.
Kirk’s actions are not stopped by his fellow townspeople, instead, they co-exist with him. Bloch (1986) states that utopias are liberated environments that draw upon educated hope, a relationship between empathy and possibility. Across the internet on sites such as Instagram and Reddit, influencers and commenters have speculated on weather Kirk is Autistic, (Neurodiverse). I believe this to be true and I empathise with Kirk’s social experiences as an autistic person myself. Furthermore, I see many parallels between Kirk and the artist David Byrne. Byrne is also autistic and uses heightened movement and visual surrealism as a performance intervention. Stop Making Sense presents David Byrne, the frontman of Talking Heads wearing an absurdly large and ever-expanding suit (inspired by Noh Theatre), throughout the whole concert. The suit adds an unexpected irony to the film as the suit comedically propels him to move awkwardly as he dances. Upon further reflection, I submit that Kirk is perhaps based on David Byrne and his cultural legacy. Gilmore Girls is transgressive because it does not try to define his character via a neurodiverse or neurotypical lens. Kirk’s identity privilege allows his portrayal of ‘diversity’ to be more nuanced, as in this period, normative examples of masculinity went through a process of ‘unknowing’ (Halberstam 2018).
Hegemonic order in the Gilmore Girls universe is suspended through drag. Gender is not a biologically binary subject and ideas of gender can be instituted through repeatedly stylised acts (Butler 1993). In (‘A Woman of Questionable Morals’ 2005) (See Appendix R), the town hosts a reenactment that displays how a ‘woman of virtue’ distracted an invading British General to save Stars Hollow. Lulu is cast in the role of ‘woman of virtue’, however, after she is unwell, Kick willingly gets into drag so that the reenactment can continue. In this case, Kirk is a ‘Butch Queen Up in Drag’ (Bailey 2011), as he has not manipulated his body to present more ‘feminine’. Although Kirk is portraying the ‘woman of virtue’, he does not alter his masculine features, i.e. his chest is flat, (some drag queens choose to wear a breastplate), and his thick eyebrows are still visible, as is stubble on his chin. Kirk’s gender fluidity is highlighted throughout the series as he works ‘traditionally’ masculine and feminine jobs; in (‘Face-Off’ 2003) (See Appendix S) he works as a sports commentator, whereas in (‘Ballroom and Biscotti’ 2004) (See Appendix T) he is a beauty expert in the town make-up store.
Historically, the clown’s transgressive nature relates to their androgynous form as generations of mimes, jesters, and picaros have rejected gender binaries (Tobias 2007). In turn, I argue that Kirk is ‘A-gendered’, (an identity that does not subscribe to a dominant gender), as he oscillates between masculine and feminine signification. This oscillation happens between Kirk’s different jobs from episode to episode. The transition is seamlessly ephemeral as Kirk’s vocations are side plots to the drama within the Gilmore Family. Kirk’s gender identity relates to Muñoz’s (2009) argument that utopian ephemera exists on images left behind, ‘hanging in the air like a rumour.’
Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls, was influenced by satirist Dorothy Parker. Parker is known for her witty pessimism and leftist ideology during Hollywood’s golden era (Meade, 1989). Kirk’s uninflatable aspiration for work against his consistent failure is an interesting parallel to the influence of Parker. Conversely, the townspeople do not try to stop his future ideas, he is given the space to form his version of success. Kirk’s success is exemplified in (‘Blame Boose and Melville’ 2005) (See Appendix V), he is revealed to be the richest person in Stars Hollow. Kirk
explains that he saved a quarter of a million dollars by working fifteen thousand jobs over the past eleven years.
3. Conclusion
This dissertation has focused on the character of Kirk Gleason from Gilmore Girls, a specific clown character from the early noughties in America. The literature review and analysis sections of this study have traced the lineage of the clown from morality plays, silent film, the dust-bowl age, pre-millennial and post-millennial performance art, and visual media. Over time, clowning has become more expansive, and open to different interpretations of humour, physicality, and representations of gender identity. To return to the question of whether the clown is utopian, the answer is in flux with gender politics and equality. I argue that whilst Kirk is indeed utopian, this is not the case for all the clowns mentioned in this study, i.e. Alex Bag and Bobby Baker. Through the interventions of fourth-wave feminism and conversations about gender becoming more prevalent in the cultural zeitgeist the clown (as a holistic figure) is gaining agency on an upward trajectory. The literature reported in this study also indicates that this is a growing inquiry as gender binaries continue to be deconstructed in media. A ‘Sunny Disposition’ is perhaps a luxury to clowns who can afford such a position via their social currency and identity privilege.
The examples of visual media, performance art, and clowning discussed address political discourses through absurdist actions. This form of action is rooted in Bakhtin’s analysis of the carnival, which is schematically traced to performance interventions against feudal culture in the fifteenth century. Bakhtin continues this analysis in his writings about the carnival as a critical device against Stalinism. Such criticism is also seen in Gilmore Girls in the recurring death drives of the clown, (Kirk) against the capitalist realist backdrop of the early twenty-first century.
Clowning that is devised via the ethos of the carnival is enthused with parody. Such examples of parody include campiness, physical comedy, slapstick, and sardonic nihilism. The visual media discussed in this dissertation is navigated by the figure of the wanderer, (an isolated individual), e.g. Kirk, Keaton, and Enid, among others. These figures extend the figure of the clown into a comedically surreal character that is placed in a space of heightened reality that depicts either a fantastical or bleakly realist atmosphere.
The clown has a complicated relationship with hermeneutic narratives and ‘the hero’s journey’. In many of the examples discussed, the clown is beaten by society and occupies the figure of ‘the other’. Kirk subverts this tradition as although he is, in many ways, disappointed by life, he learns how to fail in style. The style and aesthetic of the ‘clown’ or performer is an important factor in asserting agency as it compensates for failure I relate these components to the comedy of awkwardness, props, costume, ventriloquism, and person-to-animal performance. Such examples are evident in the works of Wegman, Byrne, and Bag. The clown’s agency in visual art remains unresolved. This is a subject of great interest and inquiry that wish to pursue in my application for PhD study. The clown was and remains an elusive symbol that sees deeply into the most internal workings of culture and society.
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Appendix
Appendix
A – ‘The
New and Improved Lorelai’ (2005).
Death and reincarnation are major themes of this episode. Such themes are reminiscent of the American Grotesque. The episode begins after the fallout of Gilmore mother and daughter, Lorelai, and Rory (short for Lorelai). Lorelai and Luke are newly engaged, and Luke is looking to purchase a ring to give to Lorelai. Furthermore, Rory’s academic career ‘dies’ as she drops out of Yale and moves in with her grandparents. Rory becomes ‘The New and Improved Lorelai’, a statement made in spite, by Lorelai Lorelai refers to this plot as a ‘do-over’ for her parents as she moved out and cut ties with them when she was younger than Rory. The American grotesque is also shown via Kirk’s collection of jewellery that he has collected from elderly dead women whom he has befriended Kirk profits from the heirlooms given to him by his deceased companions as he travels around town selling the rings. Kirk is matter of fact in his justification of this venture when he explains that it is ‘…as serious as a heart attack’.
Appendix B - ‘I
Get a Sidekick Out of You’ (2006)
Berman (2010) refers to this episode as the perfect Gilmore Girls cocktail: three parts humour, one part drama. The happiness of others applies the isolation that Lorelai is feeling in her relationship with Luke after she finds out that he has a daughter of whom she was not aware. Stars Hollow hosts the wedding of Lane (Rory’s best friend) and Zac (her band mate). Kirk launches ‘Yummy Bartenders’, a bar service staffed by attractive men. The venture is similar to that of The Chippendales (1979), just without the dancing and instead, with more clothing. Kirk’s business only lasts for the duration of the wedding and in the subsequent episode, he works in the Stars Hollow video store.
Appendix C - ‘Jews and Chinese Food’ (2005).
Kirk is brought in to star as ‘Tevye’ in a production of ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ at Stars Hallow elementary school Lulu mentions that the school cannot afford another show not to go well, which prompts her decision to bring in a ‘ringer’, Kirk. In another interview with Berman (2010), Gunn mentions that he was hesitant about how to play
Kirk in a school musical, as to him, Kirk was already a cartoon character. Gunn was advised by fellow cast member, Edd Herrmann, (Richard Gilmore), to try his best This added to the comedic ridiculousness of the performance, because Gunn states that he is not a confident singer (Berman 2010).
Appendix D – ‘Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom!’ (2004).
Kirk is responsible for the town’s foul smell, as he has forgotten where he hid the eggs from last Easter. Three hundred have been hidden but only two hundred have been found. Kirk is very upset about his ‘failures’ and begs to be given further future responsibility from Taylor. Luke finds the final missing eggs and he gives Kirk the credit so that he can socially redeem himself.
Appendix E - ‘Phil Petrillo’, The Golden Girls (1985-1992)
Phil Petrillo is the brother of Dorothy Zbnornack and son of Sophia Petrillo. Dorothy and Sophia are two out of the four ‘Golden Girls’. The character is frequently mentioned throughout the series and often referred to in anecdotal jokes, i.e. every Christmas he sends Sophia a nativity scene made of cheese. The character is never seen, even when Sophia and Dorothy receive news that Phil has died (‘Mary Has a Little Lamb’ 1990), he remains absent on screen
Appendix F – ‘Bob Sacamano’ Seinfeld (1989-1997).
Bob Sacamano is an unseen character on Seinfeld He is the source of many jokes from Cosmo Kramer, Jerry Seinfeld’s eccentric neighbour.
Appendix G - ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’ (2002)
Stars Hollow hosts a ‘Bid on a Basket’ fundraiser. Typically, women in the town arrange a basket and their suitor will bid on it, resulting in a date in the town square. Reflexively, regarding contemporary gender and sexual politics, this episode’s narrative is painfully heteronormative Still, the episode is equally amusing and poignant for Kirk. In Berman’s 2010 anthology guide of Gilmore Girls, he collates cast interviews. Sean Gunn (Kirk) mentions that it was in this episode that he began to love the character. To him, it was at this point in the show that Kirk had some degree of agency as he went beyond the punchline of the joke. Instead, Kirk now had pathos that made him appear both sympathetic and surreal- a unique combination that required distinct comic timing, according to Gunn.
Appendix H - (‘Celebration’ 2018),
This is the first episode of satirical drama, Succession (HBO, 2019-2023). It is the eightieth birthday of the family patriarch, Logan Roy. Many of the family, believe that he will soon name is successor, to the Roy family media empire. He agrees to employee his estranged great-nephew Greg at one of his ‘Royco’ theme parks and later to the family business centre. At the end of the episode, Logan has a haemorrhagic stroke and Greg collapses in his clown costume that has become soiled in his vomit.
Appendix I - ‘We’ve Got Magic to Do’ (2005)
It’s the twenty-eighth annual Miss Patty’s School Grand Recital. Kirk performs an interpretive performance art piece entitled ‘The Journey of Man’. It is mentioned that he first performed the piece twenty years ago. Kirk is dressed as a mime and wears a large rosette on this lapel; although it is decorative it also looks as though it could be a stab wound. The episode calls back to elements of cringe comedy; as overzealous child perfumers sing and dance through the crowd, Kirk joins them for an encore at the end of the show.
Appendix J - ‘An Affair to Remember’ (2003)
Kirk is first introduced to Lulu. Berman (2010) states that this was a pivotal moment in the series for Kirk as this example of companionship diverted his ‘loneliness arc’. At first, Kirk is in disbelief that Lulu likes him, and he keeps making up excuses to leave so that she can exit without any awkwardness. To Kirk’s surprise, Lulu stays, and the pair begin a relationship.
Appendix K – ‘Always a Godmother, Never a God’ (2005).
At the christening of Sookie and Jackson’s children, Davie and Martha, Kirk is unsure which side of the church to enter from. Kirk is flummoxed because he is worried about the possibility of offending the child of whose side he does not choose. There are no rules about sides and Kirk is merely confused. He eventually decides to enter via the ‘Davie’ side because Martha (a newborn) is “elusive”; Kirk even compares her to Greta Garbo.
Appendix L - ‘Teach Me Tonight’ (2003)
Kirk debuts his film I Love Your Daughter at the Stars Hollow movie night in the town square. This episode marks the beginning of Kirk’s artistic aspirations in the series. It is later mentioned in the Gilmore Girls rebut A Year In The Life: Winter (twelve years later) that the feature won the coveted ‘Good Try’ award at the Chappaqua Film Festival.
Appendix M- ‘The Haunted Leg’ (2003)
Lorelai complains to Rory that she has a cold. Dismayed by the ‘ordinary’ reason as to why she is feeling under the weather, she declares that she would rather have a haunted leg instead. This episode conducts an interesting mix of slapstick language with awkward and stilted performances. Kirk asks out Lorelai on a date. In the previous episode, Kirk was in a heightened state- he has been excited about cowinspired skin products. Comparatively, Kirk’s proposal to Lorelai is quiet, sincere, and measured. Kirk is never portrayed as being physically unattractive or unkind, yet Lorelai never considers him a viable partner. Kirk is rejected and left vulnerable, and he begins to question his behaviour, (e.g. asking if Lorelai likes Tuna as a meal for his idealised date), Sadly, Kirk’s anxiety marks one of the very few times he lacks self-assurance across the series.
Appendix N – ‘Scene in a Mall’ (2004)
Kirk has been dating his brother’s ex-girlfriend Lulu for the past couple of episodes. In this episode he is tasked with looking after her small dog ‘Buster’. Kirk carries Buster around town in a large pink handbag which he talks to. Kirk tries to disguise Buster in the bag in Luke’s diner although he raises suspicion when he asks for some plain bologna to eat. Kirk’s relationship with Buster is praised around town, so much so that he has started a dog walking service. Kirk creates ‘tracker’- a game devised to help the dogs develop their tracking skills. At the end of the day, Kirk is left with an extra dog of whom he was previously unaware. Subsequently, he tries to determine the dog’s name by dictating a variety of different vowel sounds.
Appendix O – ‘Those Lazy, Crazy, Days’ (2003)
This episode marks the beginning of season three of Gilmore Girls, arguably this was when the show further declared its venture into absurdist territories as it first featured dream sequences. Notably, the first scene is a dream sequence where Lorelai dreams that she is married to Luke, (spoiler alert, the couple does not officially get together until the season four finale). In her dream, Lorelai is pregnant with twins, either named Leopold and Loeb or Sid and Nancy. The heightened tone of the episode goes up in gear when Kirk visits The Independence Inn as a ‘traveling salesman’. Kirk gives away his line of cow skincare, entitled ‘Hay There’ to Lorelai. During the exchange of products that includes a complete line of creams, balms, toning lotions, and cleansing liquids. Lorelai reminds Kirk that cows eat grass to which Kirk replies ‘ Grass, there is a bad name.’
Appendix P - ‘Only the Lonely’ (1997)
Elaine Vassel is a kind hearted receptionist at The Cage and Fish Law Firm, she is occupies the role of a sad clown. She regularly seeks attention and is referred to by other characters as annoying. She is also known to lie and to make what are regarded as ridiculous inventions for the appraisals of others. Her face-bra invention becomes famous and soon adverts for the product appear on television. However, nobody believes that she is the inventor.
Appendix Q - ‘They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?’ (2004).
Stars Hollow hosts its annual twenty-four hour dance marathon; this year the town is raising money so that they can purchase a tarp for their bridge. The competition has a 1940s-themed dress code and is stylistically compared to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) in the episode’s dialogue It is mentioned in the script that Kirk has won several times over the past couple of years, although, in this episode, Lorelai unsuccessfully tries to defeat his reign. During the marathon, Kirk dances in a variety of styles such as the Charleston and Lindy-bop. Rory nihilistically mentions that winning the dance marathon is the only thing that Kirk must look forward to in his sad, lonely, and pathetic life
Appendix
R - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-19)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is written by comedian Rachel Bloom, who also stars as the show’s protagonist, Rebecca Bunch. Rebecca is a lawyer who experiences depressive episodes and panic attacks. In the pilot episode, she meets her first boyfriend, Josh Chan, in New York, (where she lives and works). Subsequently, she moves to West Covina, (where he lives), so that they can be together. The show uses fantastical realism to show how Rebecca dissociates from reality during difficult feelings. These dissociations take place in the style of musical theatre songs. The show illustrates Rebecca as a complex character, although she is likeable, she also hurts many of the people who care about her. The show's writing gives her meaningful agency, and her representation moves beyond past examples of manic pixie dream girls.
Appendix S - ‘A Woman of Questionable Morals’ (2005)
The episode’s title refers to a historical harlot whose role is being added to the Stars Hollow Revolutionary War reenactment. The harlot is said to have saved the town from invasion by ‘distracting’ a British general. The town hosts auditions for the role Kirk manages Lulu and even goes as far as to coach her during her audition. Lulu is successfully cast and subsequently runs outside exclaiming ‘…my girlfriend is the whore!’. Unfortunately, Lulu falls ill prior to the performance. Kirk saves the day by stepping into the role for the reenactment, although this is not revealed to the fellow townspeople until the ‘harlot’ enters the performance space.
Appendix T - ‘Face-Off’ (2003)
Kirk lands a job as a commentator at a Stars Hollow High ice hockey game. Kirk enjoys this job and fully indulges in the theatricality of narrating the game. Unfortunately, for Kirk he is told that he is stating incorrect information that is distracting the team, placing them at a disadvantage. During an episode of Scott Patterson’s podcast (the actor who played Luke Danes), I’m All In (2022), Gunn mentioned that this was his favourite scene to film across the whole series.
Appendix U - (‘Ballroom and Biscotti’ 2004)
Kirk works as a beautician in the Stars Hollow beauty store. Lorelai and Rory return from their European summer vacation trip to find out that they have misread Rory’s Yale enrolment form. Rory starts Yale in two days and not one week. Lorelai frantically buys Rory toiletries for her move-in day. In the store, she is served by Kirk. Kirk asks if Rory is prone to breakouts and if she is, he recommends a specific to compliment her peaches and cream complexion. Kirk is disappointed to learn that neither Lorelai nor Rory brought him back a present from their travels, (they bought presents for most of the town). Kirk later attempts skydiving towards the end of the episode and he is told that he is a natural at falling.
Appendix W- (‘Blame Boose and Melville’ 2005)
Many of the Gilmore Girls ensemble are faced with troubles in this episode. Emily Gilmore has sponsored a ‘live-in’ dancer from the city ballet. He is a Russian ballet dancer named ‘Mikhail’ and he is greatly offended when Lorelai ‘jokingly’ compares Emily to Joseph Stalin in her American Travel cover story. The dancer’s name is perhaps an homage to the theorist Mikhail Bakhtin whose writings on the carnival opposed Stalinism. Luke, on the other hand, is struggling to match a competing offer in his purchase of the Twickham house (a mansion in Stars Hollow). As it transpires, the competing offer is from Kirk, who is revealed to hold a bounty of a quarter of a million dollars. Kirk states that he has been working for eleven years and that he has
bad fifteen thousand jobs. Kirk’s declaration about his fortune fits the egalitarian undercurrent of the episode.
Appendix Y – Further References
Critchley, S. and Cobelens, Gertjan. (2003) Humor. Oxon [England: Routledge.
Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203986875
Public Delivery (2019) Bruce Nauman – Clown Torture, 1987. 15 September.
Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdoMei4pXjk (Accessed 5 April 2023)
Saunders, G. (2012) ‘The Freaks’ Roll Call: Live Art and the Arts Council, 196873’, Contemporary theatre review, 22(1), pp. 32–45. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2011.645229.
Tate (2022) Art in Focus | Life of an Artwork: Quadrille by Rose English | Tate.
Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikBE0Wv_3Y (Accessed 18 March 2023)