INTRODUCTION TO
COMEDY AND SATIRE
AP English IV
Mrs. Oualline
What is Comedy?
What Is Comedy?
1.
Comedy is based on IRONY.
2.
Awareness of irony is INTELLECTUAL, not EMOTIONAL.
3.
Comedy lifts us out of our emotional responses.
4.
With emotional defenses down, we can see a need for
change in a comic character.
5.
Typically, the comic character is blind to his misperceptions
but repeats the rigid behavior.
6.
Good comedy allows us to feel SUPERIOR to the characters.
What Is Comedy?
7.
Despite our superior position, we see similarities between the
comic character and ourselves.
8.
We sense our own rigidity and blindness are like the comic
fool’s and note the laughter that the comic fool arouses.
9.
Comedy acts as a way to CHANGE the individual or the
society using laughter.
10. Satire, ridicule, and burlesque often work in the service of
CHANGE.
11. Comedy uses exaggeration, understatement, role reversal,
and the devices of IRONY to make us laugh (and compare).
A Few Good Terms…
Tools of Comedy
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Dark Humor
Dramatic Irony
Innuendo
Malapropism
Pun
Slapstick
The Comic Ladder
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Low Comedy
Farce
Comedy of Manners
Comedy of Ideas
Tools of the Satirist
• Biting and Harsh
• Juvenalian Satire
• Invective Language
• Sarcasm
• Middle Ground
• Hyperbole
• Understatement
• Parody
• Light and Humorous
• Wit
• Horatian Satire
• Caricature
Comedy
•A dramatic work that is light
or humorous in tone, usually
ending with a peaceful
resolution of the main conflict
Dark Humor
• Juxtaposes morbid or ghastly
elements with comical ones.
• Example:
Dramatic Irony
• When the audience has
information that characters on
stage do not
• Can be used to COMIC or TRAGIC effect (depending
on the ending)
• TRAGIC: Romeo and Juliet
• COMIC: Importance of Being Earnest
Innuendo
• An indirect, subtle, usually
derogatory insinuation
• Example:
• Everything Mercutio says in Romeo
and Juliet
• I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!
Malapropism
• The ludicrous misuse of words,
especially through confusion
caused by resemblance in sound
• Example:
Pun
• A humorous use of a word
involving two interpretations of
the meaning
• Examples:
Slapstick
• A type of physical comedy
characterized by broad humor,
absurd situations, and vigorous
(usually violent) actions
• Examples:
• America’s Funniest Home Videos
The Comic Ladder
• LOW COMEDY
• Dirty Jokes, Dirty Gestures, Sex
• Elimination (i.e., poop jokes)
• Range from EXAGGERATION to UNDERSTATEMENT
• Focus on Physical (long noses, crossed eyes, hunched
back, deformities)
• Physical Actions (slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical
mishaps, collisions)
• Man encountering an uncooperative universe
Low Comedy
The Comic Ladder
• FARCE
• Low OR High Comedy (or Combo)
• Full of Coincidences, Mistimings, Mistaken Identity
• Characters are Puppets of Fate
• Twins
• Wrong Class
• Unable to Marry
• Too Poor/Rich
• Loss of Identity (birth, fate, accident)
• Twins Separated, Unaware of Double
Farce
Low Comedy
The Comic Ladder
• COMEDY OF MANNERS
• High Comedy
• Amorous Intrigues of the Upper Class
• Witty Language
• Clever speech, insults, and “put-downs”
• Society Made Up of Cliques
• The In-Crowd
Comedy of
Manners
• The Would-Be Wits (desire to be part of the witty crowd)
• The Witless (on the outside)
Farce
Low Comedy
The Comic Ladder
• COMEDY OF IDEAS
• High Comedy
• Politics, Religion, Sex, and Marriage
• Use WIT to Mock Opponents in Argument
• Subtle Way to SATIRIZE People and Institutions
• Political Parties
• Government
Comedy of
Ideas
Comedy of
Manners
• Churches
• War
• Marriage
Farce
Low Comedy
Satire
•Ridicules conduct, doctrine, or
institutions through irony,
parody, and caricature
Juvenalian Satire
• BITING AND HARSH
• Biting, Bitter, and Angry
• Points out the corruption of human beings and
institutions with contempt, using saeva indignation
(a savage outrage)
• Based on the style of the Roman poet, Juvenal
• Perceived as enraged, sees the vices and follies in the
world as intolerable
• Uses SARCASM and IRONY (in large doses)
Invective Language
• BITING AND HARSH
• Speech or Writing that:
• Abuses
• Denounces
• Vituperates Against
• Can Be Directed Against
• A person
• A cause
• An idea
• A System
• Employs Heavy Use of Emotive Language
Sarcasm
• BITING AND HARSH
• From the Greek, “to tear flesh”
• Involves bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt
or ridicule someone or something
• May use irony as a device, but not all ironic
statements are sarcastic
• When well done:
• Witty and Insightful
• When poorly done:
• Simply Cruel
Hyperbole
• MIDDLE GROUND
• Using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement
• Sometimes has a comic effect
• Can also have a serious effect
• Often produces irony at the same time
Understatement
• MIDDLE GROUND
• The ironic minimizing of fact
• Presents something as less
significant than it is
• Effect can frequently be humorous
and emphatic
• The opposite of hyperbole
Parody
• MIDDLE GROUND
• Satiric imitation of a work or of an author
• Goal to ridicule the person, his ideas, or his work
• Exploits peculiarities of a person or author’s
mannerisms or expressions
• May also be focused on an improbable plot with too
many convenient events
Wit
• LIGHT AND HUMOROUS
• Intellectually amusing language that surprises and
delights
• Humorous, while suggesting the speaker’s verbal
power in creating ingenious and perceptive remarks
• Usually uses terse language that makes a pointed
statement
Horatian Satire
• LIGHT AND HUMOROUS
• Gentle, urbane, smiling
• Aims to correct with broadly sympathetic laughter
• Based on Roman lyrical poet, Horace
• Purpose “to hold up a mirror” so readers/audience
can see him/herself and their world honestly
• Vices and follies satirized are not destructive
• Reflect foolishness of people, the superficiality and
meaninglessness of their lives, and the bareness of
their values
Caricature
• LIGHT AND HUMOROUS
• Representation (especially pictorial or
literary) in which the subject’s distinctive
features or peculiarities are deliberately
exaggerated
• Produces comic or grotesque effect
• Sometimes so exaggerated that it becomes
a grotesque imitation or misrepresentation