UNIT I: Comedy Duck Soup Best in Show

Genre Conventions Designed to elicit laughs Light-hearted or dark Exaggerated situations, language, action, characters Focuses on weaknesses, problems, and frustrations in life Usually have happy endings (dark – pessimistic/serious)

Styles of Comedy Slapstick: Physical and visual action-based comedy, violence, sight gags Deadpan: Understatement/Straight Face Verbal: witty or crude, based on words Screwball: based on erratic behavior Dark: funny but sarcastic or satire – makes light of something serious Situation Comedy -- Based on Narrative

The Comedy Ladder Four Steps Low Comedy to High

LOW COMEDY Dirty Jokes Making fun of “The Body” Designed to show us that we are – “A Little Less Than The Angels” Sexual and Bodily Functions BOTTOM LINE We laugh because we are making fun of the lowness of human beings

FARCE PLOT-Driven Mistaken Identities Coincidences Timing is Key BOTTOM LINE We laugh because we are making fun of the PLOT—the crazy absurdities and coincidences that rule our lives taken up to 11.

COMEDY OF MANNERS Focus on making fun of the “Aristocratic” classes… COMEDY RULE: Always Joke UP Verbal Sparring—Lots of puns, witty banter, and other “Verbal” Comedy BOTTOM LINE We laugh because we are making fun of the absurdities of upper class manners

COMEDY OF IDEAS Argues about major important issues—War, Gender, Social Class, Politics, Marriage, Race Use of Satire—Irreverent, mocking the ideas or thinking behind an issue BOTTOM LINE We laugh because we are making fun of Beliefs or Ideas