Comedy

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This article is about a genre of dramatic works. For other uses, see Comedy (disambiguation).
For the popular meaning of the term "comedy", see Humour.

The examples and perspective in this article may not

represent a worldwide view of the
subject. Please improve this article and discuss the iss
on the talk page. (August 2008)

Thalia, muse of comedy, holding a comic mask - detail of Muses

Sarcophagus, the nine Muses and their attributes; marble, early second
century AD, Via Ostiense - Louvre

Charlie Chaplin

The Monty Pythoncomedy group

In a modern sense, comedy (from the Greek: , kmida) refers to any discourse or
work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter, especially
in theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient
Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political
satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.[1]The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can
be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in
an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of
Youth" and a "Society of the Old".[2] A revised 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 struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social
authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very
dramatic irony which provokes laughter.[3]
Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or
corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular
genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them.
Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy, which derives its humor largely from bizarre,
surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy, which is characterized by
a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature.
Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social
conventions or taboos in comic ways. Acomedy 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.

Contents
[hide]

1Etymology

2History
o

2.1Dionysiac origins, Aristophanes and Aristotle

2.2In ancient Sanskrit drama

2.3Shakespearean and Elizabethan comedy

2.419th to early 20th century

2.520th century film and television

3Studies on the theory of the comic

4Forms

5Performing arts
o

5.1Historical forms

5.2Plays

5.3Opera

5.4Improvisational comedy

5.5Joke

5.6Stand-up comedy

6Events and awards

7List of comedians

8Mass media
o

8.1Literature

8.2Film

8.3Television and radio

8.3.1Comedy networks

9See also

10References
o

10.1Footnotes

10.2Notations
11External links

Etymology[edit]

Tragic Comic Masks ofAncient Greek Theatrerepresented in

theHadrian's Villa mosaic.
The word "comedy" is derived from the Classical Greek kmida, which is a compound
either of kmos (revel) or km (village) and id (singing); it is possible
that itself is derived from , and originally meant a village revel. The adjective "comic"
(Greek kmiks), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage,
generally confined to the sense of "laughter-provoking".[4] 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.[5]
The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the word "comedy" to descriptions of stage-plays
with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average
(where tragedy was an imitation of men better than the average). However, the characters
portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only in relation to the
Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or
deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter, is
something ugly and distorted without causing pain. [6] In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to
include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the
title of his poem, La Commedia.
As time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of
performance intended to cause laughter.[5] During the Middle Ages, the term "comedy" became
synonymous with satire, and later with humour in general.
Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was
elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers, such as Abu Bischr, and his
pupils Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. They disassociated comedy from Greek
dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poeticthemes and forms, such
as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension", and made no
reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings
associated with classical Greek comedy.
After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term "comedy" gained a more general
meaning in medieval literature.[7]
In the late 20th century, many scholars preferred to use the term laughter to refer to the
whole gamut of the comic, in order to avoid the use of ambiguous and problematically defined
genres such as the grotesque, irony, and satire.[8][9]

History[edit]
Dionysiac origins, Aristophanes and Aristotle[edit]

Roman-era mosaicdepicting a scene fromMenander's

comedySamia ("The Woman from Samos")
See also: Old Comedy, Menander and Ancient Greek comedy
Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a comic playwright and satirical author of the Ancient
Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of
comedy from the earlier satyr plays, which were often highly obscene.[10] Of the satyr plays the
only surviving examples are by Euripides which are much later examples and not representative
of the genre.[11] In ancient Greece, comedy originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations
apropos of phallic processions and fertility festivals or gatherings.[12]
Around 335 BCE, Aristotle, in his work Poetics, stated that comedy originated in Phallic
processions 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. [13] However,
comedy had its own Muse: Thalia.
Aristotle taught that comedy was generally a positive for society, since it brings forth happiness,
which for Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal in any activity. For Aristotle, a comedy did not
need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate arise of a sympathetic character.
Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres: farce, romantic comedy, and satire.
On the contrary,Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He believed that it produces
an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In The Republic, he says that the
Guardians of the state should avoid laughter, " 'for ordinarily when one abandons himself to
violent laughter, his condition provokes a violent reaction.' " Plato says comedy should be tightly
controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state.
Also in Poetics, Aristotle defined Comedy as one of the original four genres of literature. The
other three genres are tragedy, epic poetry, and lyric poetry. Literature in general is defined by
Aristotle as a mimesis, or imitation of life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being the most
divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic poetry, comedy and
lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle's definition.
Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims, and end with some
accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance
of the aims.

In ancient Sanskrit drama[edit]

After 200 BCE, in ancient Sanskrit drama, Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra defined humour
(hsyam) as one of the nine nava rasas, or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be
inspired in the audience by bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform.

Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavasportrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it
was associated with mirth (hasya).

Shakespearean and Elizabethan comedy[edit]

Title page of thefirst quarto of Shakespeare'sMidsummer Night's

Dream (1600)
"Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A
Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the
unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other
plays.[14]
The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte. The figure of
Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella.[15] The figure who later became
Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in 1662.[16] Punch and Judy are
performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy often provoking shocked laughter and are
dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch.[17] Appearing at a significant period in British
history, professor Glyn Edwards states: "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration
British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism. We soon changed Punch's name,
transformed him from a marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain - a
subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons."[16]

19th to early 20th century[edit]

In early 19th century England, pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick
comedy and featured the first mainstream clownJoseph Grimaldi, while comedy routines also
featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in the 1850s.[18] British
comedians who honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan
Laurel and Dan Leno.[19] English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred
Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel
were among the comedians who worked for him.[19] American film producer Hal Roach stated:
"Fred Karno is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in
Hollywood owe much to him."[20] American vaudeville emerged in the 1880s and remained
popular until the 1930s, and featured comedians such as W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton and
the Marx Brothers.