Comedy
Comedy has a classical meaning (comical
theatre) and a popular one (the use of
humor with an intent to provoke laughter in general). In the
theater, its Western origins are in ancient Greece, like
tragedy, a genre characterised by a grave fall from grace by a protagonist having high social standing. Comedy, in contrast, portrays a conflict or
agon (
Classical Greek ) between a young hero and an older authority, a confrontation described by
Northrop Frye as a struggle between a "society of youth" and a "society of the old".
Humor being subjective, one may or may not find something humorous because it is either too
offensive or not offensive enough. Comedy is judged according to a person's taste. Some enjoy
cerebral fare such as
irony or
black comedy; others may prefer
scatological humor (e.g. the "
fart joke") or
slapstick. A common
gender stereotype that plays on this convention is that men love the comedy of The
Three Stooges, while women do not.
Mel Brooks on comedy and
tragedy: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an elevator shaft and die."
Comedy is the term applied to theatrical dramas, the chief object of which are to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with
farce,
burlesque, and so on. As compared with tragedy, it is distinguished by having a (the comedies)".
The word "comedy" is derived from the
Greek κωμοιδια, which is a compound either of
κωμος (
Classical Greek ) (revel) and
ωιδος (singer), or of
κωμη (village) and
ωιδος: it is possible that
κωμος itself is derived from κωμη, and originally meant a village revel.
In ancient
Greece, comedy seems to have originated in bawdy and
ribald songs or recitations apropos of fertility festivals or gatherings, or also in poking fun at other people or stereotypes.
[Francis MacDonald Cornford, The Origin of Attic Comedy, 1934.]Aristotle, in his Poetics, tells us the same: that comedy originated in Phallic songs and the light treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that the origins of comedy are obscure because it was not treated seriously.
[Aristotle, Poetics, lines beginning at 1449a. [1]]P.W. Buckham writes that "the lighter sort of Iambic became Comic poets, the graver became Tragic instead of Heroic".
[P.W. Buckham, p. 243]The word comes into modern usage through the Latin
comoedia and Italian
commedia. It has passed through various shades of meaning. In the
middle ages it meant simply a story with a happy ending. Thus some of Chaucer's tales are called comedies, and in this sense
Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Commedia (cf. his Epistola X., in which he speaks of the comic style as "loqutio vulgaris, in qua et mulierculae communicant"; again "comoedia vero remisse et humiliter"; "differt a tragoedia per hoc, quod t. in principio est admirabilis et quieta, in fine sive exitu est foetida et horribilis"). Subsequently the term is applied to
mystery plays with a happy ending. The modern usage combines this sense with that in which
Renaissance scholars applied it to the ancient comedies.
The adjective "comic" (Greek κομικος), which strictly means that which relates to comedy, is in modern usage generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking": it is distinguished from "humorous" or "witty" inasmuch as it is applied to an incident or remark which provokes spontaneous laughter without a special mental effort. The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it, the comic, have been carefully investigated by psychologists, in contrast with other
phenomena connected with the emotions. It is very generally agreed that the predominating
characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential, if not the essential, factor: thus
Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory." Physiological explanations have been given by
Kant,
Spencer and
Darwin. Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression.
*Aristotle, Poetics.
*Buckham, Philip Wentworth,
Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
*Pickard-Cambridge, Sir Arthur Wallace
*
Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy , 1927.
*
The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, 1946.
*
The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 1953.
*Riu, Xavier,
Dionysism and Comedy, 1999. [
2]
*Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane,
Tragedy and Athenian Religion, Oxford University Press, 2003.
*Wiles, David,
The Masked Menander: Sign and Meaning in Greek and Roman Performance, 1991.
Forms
*
Stand-up comedy**
Alternative comedy - a largely British term relating to comedians in the ascendant throughout the
1980s and beyond.
**
Improvisational comedy - though not confined to stand-up, it is commonly held in high regard on the stand-up circuit.
**
Impressionists**One-Liner - a type of standup comedy where the comedian will tell many jokes that are one or two sentences long. Example:
Jay London of NBC's
Last Comic Standing.
**
Comedy genres - different forms of Stand-up comedy.
*
Sketch comedy - short comedy scenes as in contrast to
sitcom.
*
Television comedy and
Radio comedy**
Situation comedy*
Comedy film**
gross-out film**
Parody film**
Horror film**
romantic comedy film**
screwball comedy film**
slapstick film**
splatstick film (sic)
**
anarchic comedy film*
Comic novel*
Musical comedy*
Tragicomedy*
Dramedy (AKA Comedy-drama)
Elements of Comedy
*
Comic timing*
Slapstick*
Pregnant pauseStyles
*
Black comedy*
Satire*
Parody*
Adage*
IronyHistorical or theatre
*
Greek comedy*
Clown*
Commedia dell'arte - historically, a form of improvisational theatre, chiefly from the 16th to 18th centuries.
*
Farce - most often thought of as theatrical, but has been adapted for other media.
*
Jesters - clowns associated with the middle ages.
*
Vaudeville - comedy performed in theatres that declined as television ownership increased.
Definitions
*
Comedian*
Comedy clubComedy events and awards
*
British Comedy Awards*
Just for laughs festival
*
Melbourne International Comedy Festival* HBO Comedy Arts Festival
Lists of comedy performers
*
List of comedians *
List of entertainer pairs or double acts*
List of Dr Demento's radio show comediansby nationality
*
Australian comedy*
List of British Comedians*
List of Italian comedians*
List of Finnish comedians*
List of Puerto Rican comedians*
List of Mexican comedians*
List of Canadian comediansLists of comedy programs
*
British comedy - article on British comedy and a list of British comedy programmes.
*
Britcom - list of British sitcoms.
*
List of British TV shows remade for the American marketOther lists
*
List of comedies - theatre/radio/television and from France/Russia/Canada/Australia/UK/US
*
Humour *
Joke*
Laughter*
Rule of three (writing)*
Comedy Archives Site of the American Comedy Archives, dedicated to preserving primary source material from the legends of the comic arts.
*
Wikicomedy*
WikiHumor.com A wiki dedicated to humor.
