Why do people laugh?
- Incongruity or Non sequitur. Humans are rational (supposedly) and laugh at anything that breaks a pattern or does not logically follow.
- Farce or physical humor (often pratfalls, slapstick, hurting people, etc.) What doesn't kill us makes us laugh.
- Superiority vs. inferiority (we laugh at those weaker or in a worse situation than us)
- Mistaken identity
- Absurdity (if it doesn't make sense, we laugh)
- Surprise
Anecdotes: This form of comedy conveys an element of non-fiction in the narration of stories, which involve a person or an incident that is worth telling with an ultimate end that is amusing. They aren't really jokes per se but a way of revealing something substantial as part of the story that is being told.
Banter: Throwing light jokes at one other often at the expense of someone within the group. It is not a way of being insulting or rude, but playful among friends and those one is familiar with. A classic example would be sitcoms that have close friends or family members cracking jokes about each other which aren't offensive, but humorous. Think Seinfeld, Friends, and The Office.
Blue Humor/Off-Color Humor: Sexual innuendo. Using profane or sexually related material to make people laugh. Stand-up comedians often use this type of humor, and the characters on South Park or Family Guy.
Blunder: Self deprecating humor. This kind of comedy is where the writer or comedian makes a fool out of himself to give way to humorous moments. Tripping over oneself, being nonsensical, and coming off as absurd or annoying are common traits of this kind of comedy. Stupidity and oblivious-to-reality behavior comes off as quite amusing to audiences. When combined with physical jokes where people could get hurt, but remain alive we call this form of humor 'slapstick' comedy.
Burlesque: The material used for these techniques are either real life characters that a writer might wish to mock or amusingly portray, or serious literary works that are spoofed. Usually this means getting the style of the serious subject right. You'll see this form of comedy in spoof movies that are based on serious films, but with humor that is over-the-top. Desire, Desire, Desire was a type of this kind of comedy.
Black Humor/Dark Comedy: Black humor or dark comedy 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, a soul crushing marital affair, human annihilation or domestic violence are treated in a satirical manner.
Commedia dell'arte: Commedia dell'arte is an Italian style comedy of the 16th and 18th centuries improvised from standardized situations and stock characters. Commedia dell'arte includes themes like adultery, jealousy, old age, and love. Many of the basic plot elements of Commedia dell'arte can be traced back to Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence.
Caricature: Caricature involves exaggerated portrayal of a person's mental, physical, or personality traits in wisecrack form. Caricatures can be insulting, complimentary, political or can be drawn solely for entertainment too.
Farce/Travesty: A comedy characterized by broad satire and improbable situations is termed as farce or travesty. A farce is a comedy style which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, improbable and extravagant situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humor of varying degrees of sophistication. It can include sexual innuendo and word play, or a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases, culminating in an ending that often involves an elaborate chase scene. Farce is also characterized by physical humor and the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense.
Gallows Humor: Gallows humor is a type of humor which arises from traumatic or life-threatening situations such as wartime events, mass murder, hostilities or in other situations where death is impending and unavoidable. This genre is similar to black comedy but the only difference is that the comedy is created by the victim.
Irony: Irony is a trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs, and hence is a popular type of humor. Irony is portrayed through words or actions to express something completely different from the literal meaning. Sarcasm is the best known use of verbal irony, for example.
Melodrama: Melodramatic comedy is where the characters and the plot are overly done to portray a situation that drips with over-dramatic overtones. Movies and plays of the sort show themes based on highly emotional scenarios which audiences can relate to when heightened on-screen. These can be losing loved ones, illness portrayals and situations that call for the dramatic.
Nonsense: This type of humor is marked by what the name suggests, 'nonsense'. It doesn't have any real logic or sense to it, but is nonetheless humorous in its delivery.
Parody: 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. Parody is nothing but a composition that imitates or misrepresents somebody's style in a humorous way.
Practical Comedy: A practical joke or prank is a stunt or trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized, usually for humor. Since pranks or these practical jokes are designed to make people feel foolish or victimized, there is an inherent undertone of cruelty in most practical jokes.
Recovery: A combination of blunder and wit, which means that the comedian or the character usually creates humor by making an error, and then saving himself with a fast and witty comeback.
Roasting: Someone put in the spotlight by using stories that are true / untrue with remarks that are slightly insulting but taken in good humor by the one receiving them.
Satire: Jonathan Swift defined satire "as a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." Satire is a branch of comedy, which makes use of witty language to convey insults or scorn. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to reprimand by means of ridicule, burlesque, derision, irony, or other methods. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily to make us laugh, but to make us think. It is an attack on something the author strongly disapproves of.
Seriocomedy: A play or movie that has a serious element to it although with amusing bits that come and go.
Stand-up Comedy: Another type of comedy is stand-up comedy, which involves a comedian standing up in front of a crowd and amusing them with jokes and funny stories.
Sitcom: Situational comedy, commonly known as 'sitcoms' is a popular type of comedy, most often found on television or in TV writing. A humorous drama based on situations that might arise in day-to-day life.
No comments:
Post a Comment