Definition Comedy

Physical comedy

Somewhat similar to slapstick, this form uses physical movement and gestures; often influenced by clowning

Low Comedy:

Subjects of the humor consists of dirty jokes, dirty gestures, sexual innuendo, and defecation. The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to understatement with a focus on the physical. Jokes such as mishaps, loud collisions, and slapstick as well as physical exaggerations such as hairy warts, long noses, and humped backs. The physical actions revolve around slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions—all part of the humor of man encountering an uncooperative universe.

Pun

Using different meaning of the same word or similar sounding words to make a "joke". Often puns utilize homonyms: words that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently, and that have different meanings. homographs (different words that share the same spelling, irrespective of their pronunciation) bow, bat, clear, invalid, park homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, irrespective of their spelling) seam/seem, mail /male, marshal/martial, mind/mined Examples: "Tomorrow you shall find me a grave man" Mercutio (as he is dying); "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." (Groucho Marx); A vulture boards a plane, carrying two dead possums. The attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."; Kings worry about a receding heir line.; I would like to go to Holland someday. Wooden shoe?

Irony

involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs and hence is a popular type of humor. Irony can be portrayed through words or actions to express something completely different from the literal meaning. Irony typically manifests itself in three ways: 1) what a speaker says and actually means (verbal irony), 2) what a character thinks or believes about a situation and what we as readers or audience know to be true (dramatic irony), or 3) what we or a character expect will happen and what actually occurs (situational irony).

Self Deprecating Humor

Humor in which the speaker targets themselves and their foibles or misfortunes for comic effect.

Wit

Keen perception and the ability to express one's perceptions in a clever way denotes a kind of verbal or written expression which is brief, deft, and intentionally contrived to produce a shock of comic surprise

Comedy of Manners (high comedy):

Presents scenes that make fun of a social class (traditionally the upper classes) represented by stereotypical or stock characters. In these comedies, society is often made up of cliques that are exclusive with certain groups as the in-crowd, other groups (the would-be-wits, desiring to be part of the witty crowd), and some (the witless) on the outside. The dialogue focuses on witty language. Clever speech, insults and 'put-downs' are traded between characters. All types of satire are used, often at the characters' expense: puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and witticisms.

Comedy of Ideas (high comedy):

Characters argue or discuss ideas like politics, religion, sex, marriage. Characters often represent certain views of the world or people who hold those views They use their wit, their clever language to mock their opponent in an argument. The characters are more a representation of personalities, capable of change, using their wit and clever language to mock their opponents who view reality differently. Usually a subtle (or possibly not so subtle) way to satirize people and institutions like political parties, governments, churches, war, marriage. The action is related to those ideas in conflict

Farce ( high/low comedy):

This level of comedy is driven by plot: mistaken identities, coincidences, and mis-timings. Characters are puppets of fate—they are twins, born to the wrong class, unable to marry, too poor, too rich, have loss of identity because of birth or fate or accident, or are (sometimes) twins separated, unaware of their double. The plot is predictably improbable.

Parody

is nothing but a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style, in a humorous way Parody is defined as a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, by means of humorous or satiric imitation..

Dark Humor

often refers to the juxtaposition of morbid and farcical elements to create a disturbing effect. Black comedy, is a sub-genre of comedy and satire where grave topics like death, rape, murder, marital affair, human annihilation or domestic violence are treated in a satirical manner There is a thin line between black humor and vulgarity since it is based on taboo subjects like body parts, bodily functions, sex, religion, death, etc.

Sarcasm

A type of verbal irony, a sneering or cutting remark or set of remarks - whose intention is to wound