Comedy: it ain’t for sissies

Genre Wheelby Dr. Louise Cowan

The Three Modes of Comedy:Dr. Louise Cowan’s The Terrain of Comedy

Infernal

Purgatorial

Paradisal

INFERNAL “The community has accepted its fallen condition and cynically

attributes its corruption to the ‘way of the world’” (11).

PURGATORIAL“Its mood is pathos: in it the community hopes and waits,

powerless to save itself” (13).

PARADISAL “Man is lifted up into a realm beyond himself, one that he has

not gained by his own effort” (14).

Timing is EverythingTragic Time: The world is already set in motion, and time is locked. The tragic action is inevitable because results are not a matter of time but of cause.

Comic Time: There is room for play and possibility; delay for the deeply desired.

Movement

Tragedy: Gravity [moving toward the grave]

Comedy: Levity [ rising upward]

Tragedy gives us ultimate knowledge.Comedy gives us a way around things, through life

• Comedy is concerned with new possibilities as shown through inclusive communities (often with a feast) and marriage.

• Comedy appeals to deepest social chords.• Where tragedy goes below earth, comedy goes above

it providing a comic thrust, a hopeful vision.

Comedy makes men lesser than tragedy.

• Where tragedy operates in a philosophical (intellectual/individual) realm concerned with sight and sound, comedy operates in a physical (democratic) realm. Comedy plays with taste, touch, and smell.

• Comedy reduces things to the most rudimentary threads of humanity where everyone can be invited to join, participate, and understand.

• Stereotypes – tragic figures such as Medea break the expected stereotype, where comedy embraces stereotypes.

Trickster

• Trickster, sometimes called Poneros (“little rascal”), goes against the norms.

• He does not allow himself to be victimized, always sees a possibility where a victim cannot.

The Green World• The Green World is a

pastoral dimension – a place of exit from the city – a place of achievement/discovery and IMAGINATION

• Unlike the tragic abyss from which one cannot really return, discovery from the Green World can be brought back into the city

• Tragedy is a world of “If only . . .”

• Comedy is a world of “What if . . .”

Formulaic• Formula comedy, although

predictable, is not limited in creativity.

• It appeals to our predisposed patterns (archetypes)

• Typical plot - young man wants woman, thwarted by opposition, twist of fate, and finally satisfaction

Puppy dogs and roses

• Often in comedy, everyone ends up being loved.

• Those who are not loved are the figures that must leave the inclusive community.

The History of Comedy

Comic Ladder• Comedy of Ideas (high comedy)

• Comedy of Manners (high comedy)

• Farce (can be combination of high/low comedy)

• Low Comedy

The Comic Paradigm

• The comic problem• The comic climax• The comic catastrophe• Comic education and change• Comic characters• Comic language

Problem

Climax

Catastrophe

Education and Change

Comic Characters

Language

Monty Python determined that…

vibraphone larch

wankel rotary engine

…had humor embedded in them.

COMEDY THEORY from Richard F. Taflinger, Ph.D.

• It must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions

• It must be mechanical (unadaptable, inflexible) • It must be inherently human, with the capability

or reminding us of humanity • There must be a set of established societal norms

familiar to the audience • The situation, actions, and dialogue must be

inconsistent or unsuitable to the surroundings• It must be perceived by the observer as harmless

or painless to the participants

Appeal to the Intellect

Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enoughtime, the public, the reviewers will allow youto satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, whenyou think about it. - Lenny Bruce

Mechanical

Inherently Human

Established Societal Norms

Inconsistent or Unsuitable

Harmless or Painless

The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being EarnestDevices of Farce

Emily Levine’sTheory of Everything(@ 23 minutes)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/emily_levine_s_theory_of_everything.html