comedy
Comedy has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy). This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was remarkably influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.[Henderson, J. (1993) Comic Hero versus Political Elite pp.307-19 in ]
The theatrical genre can be simply described as a dramatic performance which pits two societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye famously depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old" (The Anatomy of Criticism, 1957), but this dichotomy is seldom described as an entirely satisfactory explanation.
A later view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes; in this sense, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse to ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter (Marteinson, 2006).
Much 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. Satire is a type of comedy.
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 who are falling in love.
Etymology
The word "comedy" is derived from the Classical Greek?µ?d?a, which is a compound either of ?µ? (revel) or?µ? (village) and?d? (singing): it is possible that?µ? itself is derived from?µ?, and originally meant a village revel. The adjective "comic" (Greek?µ?), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage, generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking".[Francis MacDonald Cornford, The Origin of Attic Comedy, 1934.] Of this, the word came into modern usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time, passed through various shades of meaning.[Oxford English Dictionary]
Greeks and Romans confined the word "comedy" to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. In the middle ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Divina Commedia. As time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter.
History
In ancient Greece, comedy seems to have originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations apropos of fertility festivals or gatherings, or also in making fun at other people or stereotypes.[ 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.][Aristotle, Poetics, lines beginning at 1449a. ]
The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. They agreed 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 Thomas 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.
Forms of comedy
 Fantasy
Observational
Irony
Satire
* Parody
* Political satire
* Black comedy
Slapstick
Tragicomedy
History
Ancient Greek comedy, as practiced by Aristophanes and Menander
Ancient Roman comedy, as practiced by Plautus and Terence
Burlesque, from Music hall and Vaudeville to Performance art
Citizen comedy, as practiced by Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and Ben Jonson
Clowns such as Richard Tarlton, William Kempe, Yukko the Clown and Robert Armin
Comedy of humours, as practiced by Ben Jonson and George Chapman
Comedy of intrigue, as practiced by Niccolò Machiavelli and Lope de Vega
Comedy of manners, as practiced by Molière, William Wycherley and William Congreve
Comedy of menace, as practiced by David Campton and Harold Pinter
comédie larmoyante or 'tearful comedy', as practiced by Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée and Louis-Sébastien Mercier
Commedia dell'arte, as practiced in the twentieth-century by Dario Fo, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Jacques Copeau
Farce, from Georges Feydeau to Joe Orton and Alan Ayckbourn
Jester
Laughing comedy, as practiced by Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Restoration comedy, as practiced by George Etherege, Aphra Behn and John Vanbrugh
Sentimental comedy, as practiced by Colley Cibber and Richard Steele
Shakespearean comedy, as practiced by William Shakespeare
Dadaist and Surrealist performance, usually in cabaret form
Theatre of the Absurd, used by some critics to describe Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Jean Genet and Eugène Ionesco[This list was compiled with reference to The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (1998).]
Sketch comedy
Musical comedy plays
Musical comedy
and palace
Opera
Comic opera
Improvisational comedy
Improvisational comedy
Clowns
Bouffon comedy
Clowns
Stand-up comedy
Comedian
Musical comedy
Comedy albums
Comedy club
Stand-up comedy
*Impressionist (entertainment)
*Alternative comedy
Stand-up comedy events and awards
British Comedy Awards
Canadian Comedy Awards
Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
The Comedy Festival, in Aspen, formerly the HBO Comedy Arts Festival
Comedy Walk, monthly comedy festival in Los Angeles
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Edinburgh Comedy Festival
Halifax Comedy Festival
Just for laughs festival
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
New Zealand International Comedy Festival
New York Underground Comedy Festival
HK International Comedy Festival
Vancouver Comedy Festival
Lists of stand-up comedy performers
List of comedians
By nationality
List of Australian comedians
List of British comedians
List of Canadian comedians
List of Finnish comedians
List of German language comedians
List of Italian comedians
List of Mexican comedians
List of Puerto Rican comedians
List of Indian comedians
Jokes
One-liner joke
Blonde jokes
Shaggy-dog story
Paddy Irishman joke
Literature
Comic novel
Film
Comedy film
*Anarchic comedy film
*Gross-out film
*Parody film
*Romantic comedy film
*Screwball comedy film
*Slapstick film
Television and radio
Television comedy
* Situation comedy
Dramedy
Radio comedy
The First Couple of Comedy
This is a common nickname for comedienne Lucille Ball and her one-time husband Desi Arnaz. This nickname is based on the eight year success of their show I Love Lucy. Their co-stars Vivian Vance and William Frawley are known as the most famous second bananas in comedy and television. [DESILU: The story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, 1998]
Lists of comedy television programs
British sitcom
British comedy
Comedy Central - A television channel devoted strictly to comedy.
German television comedy
List of British TV shows remade for the American market
Paramount Comedy (Spain).
Paramount Comedy 1 and 2.
TBS (TV network)
The Comedy Channel (Australia)
The Comedy Channel (UK)
The Comedy Channel (USA) not to be confused with HA! - channels that have merged into Comedy Central.
The Comedy Network, a Canadian TV channel.
Lists
List of comedies
List of New York Improv comedians
See also
Original Comedy
Humour
Joke
Laughter
Rule of three (writing)
History of theater
References
Aristotle, Poetics.
Buckham, Philip Wentworth, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
Marteinson, Peter (2006). 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.
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
Comedy Creation Guide Comedy creation guide by famous comedian Stanley Lyndon.
A Vocabulary for Comedy
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