COMEDY

The word '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 Greek tragedy, a genre characterised by a grave fall from grace by a protagonist having high social standing. Comedy, by 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". A more recent development is to regard this struggle as a mere pretext for disguise, a comical device centered on uncertainties regarding the meaning of social identity. The basis of comedy would then be a plot mechanism conceived to engender misunderstandings either about a hero's identity or about social being in general.
In common, present day usage the word comedy almost always refers to the creation or presentation of humor with the intention of provoking laughter. Most comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations, but there are many recognized genres of comedy. Satire and political satire use ironic comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of humor. Parody borrows the form of some popular genre, artwork, or text but uses certain ironic changes to critique that form from within (though not necessarily in a condemning way). Screwball comedy derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters. Black comedy is defined by dark humor that makes light of so called dark or evil elements in human nature. Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comedic ways. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those falling in love.

Derivation

The word "comedy" is derived from the Classical Greek ''κωμῳδία'', which is a compound either of ''κῶμος'' (revel) or ''κώμη'' (village) and ''ᾠδή'' (singing): it is possible that ''κῶμος'' itself is derived from ''κώμη'', 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.^[1]
Aristotle, in his Poetics, states 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 from its inception.^[2]
The word came into modern usage through the Latin ''comoedia ''and Italian ''commedia'' and has, over time, passed through various shades of meaning. In the middle ages it simply defined 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.
The adjective "comic" (Greek κωμικός), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage, generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking". The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it has been carefully investigated by psychologists and agreed upon 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." Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression.

★ Bouffon comedy

★ Comedy film

★
★ Anarchic comedy film

★
★ Gross-out film

★
★ Parody film

★
★ Romantic comedy film

★
★ Screwball comedy film

★
★ Slapstick film

★ Comic novel

★ Dramedy

★ Improvisational comedy

★ List of musical comedians

★ Stand-up comedy

★
★ Alternative comedy

★
★ Impressionist (entertainment)

★
★ One-liner joke

★
★ Comedy genres

★ Sketch comedy

★ Television comedy and Radio comedy

★
★ Situation comedy

★ Tragicomedy

Notes

1. Francis MacDonald Cornford, The Origin of Attic Comedy, 1934.
2. Aristotle, Poetics, lines beginning at 1449a. [1]
3. This list was compiled with reference to ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (1998).

References

★ Aristotle, Poetics.

★ Buckham, Philip Wentworth, ''Theatre of the Greeks'', 1827.

★ Marteinson, Peter, On the Problem of the Comic: A Philosophical Study on the Origins of Laughter, Legas Press, Ottawa, 2006.

★ Pickard-Cambridge, Sir Arthur Wallace

★
★ ''Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy '', 1927.

★
★ ''The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens'', 1946.

★
★ ''The Dramatic Festivals of Athens'', 1953.

★ Raskin, Victor, The Semantic Mechanisms of Humor, 1985.

★ 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.

External links

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