Comedy

From Freepedia

Comedy is the use of humor in the performing arts. It also means a performance that relies heavily on humor. The term originally comes from theater, where it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. The humor, once an incidental device used to entertain, is now an essential aspect of a comedy.

Webster’s Dictionary says that comedy is “a drama or narrative with a happy ending or nontragic theme”. Today, comedy refers to anything funny, comic, or humorous. Any reaction from a snigger to a chuckle, a snort to a belly laugh, milk-coming-out-of-ones-nose to a goodhearted chortle is evidence of whether something is funny or not. A person’s taste often accounts for where in the gamut of aforementioned reactions that person is likely to fall (those aforementioned reactions are the only reactions a person can have if something is, in fact, funny). According to a person’s taste, they may or may not find something humorous because it is either too offensive or not offensive enough.

A recognized characteristic of comedy is that it is an intensely personal enjoyment. People frequently fail to find the same things amusing, but when they do it can help to create powerful bonds.

Contents

Origins

Comedic Theater

Comedic Theory

Comedy drama

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 happy ending (this being considered for a long time the essential difference), by quaint situations, and by lightness of dialogue and character-drawing. As compared with farce it abstains from crude and boisterous jesting, and is marked by some subtlety of dialogue and plot. It is, however, difficult to draw a hard and fast line of demarcation, there being a distinct tendency to combine the characteristics of farce with those of true comedy. This is perhaps more especially the case in the so-called "musical comedy," which became popular in Great Britain and America in the later 19th century, where true comedy is frequently subservient to broad farce and spectacular effects.

Derivation

The word "comedy" is derived from the Greek κωμοιδια, which is a compound either of κωμος (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. 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 "loquutio 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.

Related articles

Forms

Styles

Historical or theatre

  • clown (see also krumping)
  • 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

Comedy events and awards

Lists of comedy performers

by nationality

other

Lists of comedy programmes

Other lists

  • List of comedies - theatre/radio/television and from France/Russia/Canada/Australia/UK/US

See also

External links

  • Comedy Archives Site of the American Comedy Archives, dedicated to preserving primary source material from the legends of the comedic arts.
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