Introduction: "Someone like me for a member": classic Hollywood comedians and buffoonish masculinity -- "Novelties and notions": Mae West meets W. C. Fields -- Con men and henpecked husbands: W. C. Fields as masculine icon -- "Whitefacing" the nebbish: Eddie Cantor's assimilation and influence -- Queered radio / Queered cinema: Jack Benny's mediated voice -- Queering the fraternity: Laurel and Hardy and heterosexual brotherhood -- Military disservice: Wheeler and Woolsey and Abbott and Costello join the army -- Conclusion: Beyond classic Hollywood /beyond buffoonish masculinity.
