Comedy
Comedy is an artistic genre that originated in ancient Greece around 487 B.C., with its name derived from the Greek word "komos," meaning revelry. It features humorous characters and situations, often employing a playful style of delivery across various mediums, including theater, literature, and film. The narratives typically involve romantic entanglements and utilize stock characters and familiar scenarios to elicit laughter. Over time, comedy has evolved into multiple forms, including farce, satire, dark comedy, and romantic comedy, each offering unique perspectives on society and human behavior.
Notable figures in the development of comedy include playwrights like Aristophanes, Molière, and Shakespeare, whose works incorporate wit and social commentary. In modern times, comedy encompasses a wide range of expressions, from stand-up performances to television sitcoms, often relying on elements such as irony, wordplay, and unexpected twists to engage audiences. Comedy can be categorized into high and low forms, with varying levels of sophistication in language and themes. Although the experience of humor is subjective, comedy remains a vital cultural phenomenon, reflecting both the absurdities and complexities of life.
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Comedy
The genre of comedy originated in Greece in approximately 487 B.C. in festivities dedicated to Dionysus. The word comedy is derived from the Greek word komos meaning revelry. Comedy includes characters who are funny or laughable, placed in situations that are likewise funny or laughable. The style of presentation, whatever the medium, is one in which a humorous delivery is featured. Characteristics of comedy include scenarios involving romance where love or aspects of sexual relationships are interwoven in the plot. Stock characters, situations, and popularized stock vocabulary or phrases often form the basis of the enactment. Comedy generally uses contemporary speech, with wordplay interweaving into the fabric of the dialogue. The use of puns and innuendos adds to the level of comedy, and vocabulary may be colloquial or elevated depending on the context or medium. Whereas tragedy is associated with an unfortunate or sad ending, comedy presupposes that all will end well.
Brief History
Comedy developed later than its counterpart tragedy, culminating in the production of five comedies presented at the Dionysian festival. The festival was celebratory in nature, dedicating its offerings to the Greek god of wine and revelry, Dionysus. Comedic performances comprised a chorus of twenty-four members who sang and danced with the purpose of creating a comic effect. Three to five actors played the primary roles, with exaggerated mannerisms to highlight the comedy. Aristophanes was the first playwright to write comedies, still existing today. These include The Acharnians, The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, The Frogs, and Lysistrata. Although Aristophanes' comedies incorporate farce, parody, and lyrical poetry, they also focus on contemporary affairs, providing a social commentary in this way.
The Commedia Dell'Arte of the Italian Renaissance era comprised a set of stock characters from which many forms of mime draw inspiration. Actors improvise scenarios within the context of a particular framework. The three types of character categories are the lovers, professional types, and servants. The servants, known as zanni, were the principal comic characters. Harlequin, Pulcinella, Brighella, and Scaramouche are some of the well-known Commedia dell'Arte servants, using all types of antics to thwart the equilibrium of the lovers or professionals. Exaggerated physical characteristics were often given to the comic actors to add to the comic effect.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), known as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, wrote plays grouped into categories of history, tragedy, and comedy. Shakespeare's comedies include a collection of stylistic features. Romantic comedies are A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night. Farce is the dominant tone of The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Dark comedies reflect a more serious side of comedy and include All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida.
Later developments in comedy include Moliere (1622-73), a comic master poking fun at the structure of society. Moliere's Tartuffe and The Misanthrope use wit to reveal societal problems. Comedy of Manners of the Restoration period play to the upscale audience through elegance, wit, and social manners. Oscar Wilde, writing at the end of the nineteenth century, is known for the verbal prowess with which his characters demonstrate the improbable and absurd. Critics have questioned whether anyone after Wilde has reached his level of literary comic dexterity.
Overview
Comedy is an art and although there may be certain set characteristics said to identify comedy, the experience of amusement is subjective. The type of comedy or comedic situation or genre that may appeal to one person may be considered insensitive or wholly unacceptable by another or plainly unfunny. In the twenty-first century, comedy runs the gamut of joke telling, comedian stand-up shows, drama, literature, song, burlesque, pantomimes, movies, and television sitcoms.
Satire is a form of comedy that holds up to ridicule the society or politics in order to criticize, mostly with the view to effect change. Parody ridicules in a comic manner the style of another through mimicry. Spoof is a lighter version of this type of imitation.
Comedy generally involves something that began as an expected event and turns into the unexpected. Irony involves a disharmonious situation in which there is a contrast between the expected or unexpected, either via speech or action. Wordplay, puns, and double entendre may be used to highlight comic effect. Timing is paramount in comedy, with the movement from expected to unexpected occurring in a comic instant. The familiar and unfamiliar are often juxtaposed, either in the realm of reality or supernatural. Comedy may be real or slapstick, subtle or exaggerated. High comedy and low comedy refer to the level of wit and language. Thus, high comedy is associated with intellect and involves sophisticated characterizations and plots, while low comedy is marked by coarse language and situations that are often farcical in nature. Oscar Wilde is on the high comedy range, and Monty Python reflects the slapstick and low comedy range. Black comedy may be called dark comedy, highlighting something very serious by sprinkling it with a lighter touch. Pain and humor are placed side by side in these portrayals.
Through silent film in the twentieth century, Charlie Chaplin became a comedic icon. The style of mime continued as an artistic medium of comedy through the century. Mr. Bean, played by Rowan Atkinson, has delighted audiences with his antics and expressive facial features. Britain's Fawlty Towers and Monty Python and John Cleese are national comedy treasures. In film, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, and others have played to comic effect the characters and situations they enacted.
Comedy featured in London in 2015 includes comedy clubs, open-mic clubs, and stage performances. Angel Club, Dawn French, and Stewart Lee are listed as some of the most popular comedians performing in November 2015. New York's TimeOut lists the top ten funniest comedy personalities as Jon Stewart, followed by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, Louise C.K., Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, Stephen Colbert, Chris Rock, Kristen Wiig, John Oliver, and Reggie Watts.
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