Abstract

This chapter considers criminal justice as comedy in a reading that juxtaposes Dogberry, the inept constable in Much Ado About Nothing, with the modern stereotype of the “dumb cob.” I argue for a connection between genre and the judgment of the audience. Just as audiences are generally willing to laugh off Dogberry’s ineptitude because, after all, it’s a comedy and everything works out in the end, modern citizens often overlook failings in police conduct when an aura of public safety is achieved. Happy endings bring audiences to relax their moral judgments of ineptitude—to laugh them off.

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