“Harold Ramis II: The Sequel” “The Semiotics of Comedy in the Post-Modern Era: Towards a Hermeneutics of Humor”

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““Harold Ramis II: The Sequel” ‘The Semiotics of Comedy in the Post-Modern Era: Towards a Hermeneutics of Humor’.”, Echoes of Voices Past, accessed February 10, 2026, https://digitalexhibits.library.wustl.edu/s/echoes-of-voices-past/item/2902

Speaker name: Harold Ramis
Lecture Title: “Harold Ramis II: The Sequel”
“The Semiotics of Comedy in the Post-Modern Era: Towards a Hermeneutics of Humor”
Date: October 24, 1990
November 29, 2000
Lecture Sponsor: Assembly Series
Audience: “The titles of two of Harold Ramis’s Assembly Series Lectures at Washington University, “The Semiotics of Comedy in the Post-Modern Era: Towards a Hermeneutics of Humor” (2000) and “Existentialism, Post-modernism and Deconstructionism: Will This Be on the Test?” (2009) speak volumes about the man. He was funny, irreverent, and deeply sensitive to the intellectual currents and pretensions of his time. Harold was a dear friend and a great friend to the university which he graduated from in 1966 and continued to serve as a trustee. Although Animal House, Caddyshack, Vacation, Groundhog Day and other films remind us of his body of work as one of America’s great filmmakers, for hundreds of Washington University students and faculty, it was his Assembly Series talks and the intimate classes he gave to aspiring actors and directors in the Performing Arts Department, that define his legacy. Harold was living proof that fame and worldwide recognition need not come at the expense of one’s core values; through all the years I knew him, he remained steadfast in his care of others and to the university that gave him his start as an artist.”
--Henry Schvey, Professor of Drama

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Media: Harold Ramis; “Harold Ramis II: The Sequel” Audio Clip; “The Semiotics of Comedy in the Post-Modern Era: Towards a Hermeneutics of Humor” Audio Clip