Ancient Greek Comedy - performed to show the humorous actions of one or more characters as they attempt to solve a problem.

 


• Aspects of Greek Comedy:
  
  
  
  • required action and conflict that led to a happy ending.
    
  • included ridiculing and violent personal attacks on contemporary personalities.
    
  • involved acting out of bawdy personal and social relationships.
    
  • as opposed to ancient Greek tragedy, a change in fortune is almost always for the better.

Types of comedy from ancient to modern times:

• romantic - involves a love affair that does not run smoothly but ends happily.
  

  Example:
  

  
  
  1. Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream
     
  2. the movie, Pretty Woman

• manners - portrays upper-class society involved in witty repartee that focuses on their relationships and "affairs." A comedy of manners focuses on the behavior of men and women who violate the rules and manners of upper-class society.
  

  Example:
  

  
  

  Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

  
  
  
  
• farce - "low comedy" with lots of "belly laughs" that uses quick physical action to induce immediate laughter. The verbal humor is often crude or ridiculous. Farce is sometimes based on incongruities of character and action; a character doing something that is completely unlike what we would expect of them.
  

  Example:
  

  
  
  1. In Shakespeare uses farcical humor in his play, Twelfth Night. Malvolio, a very prude, self-important character, is convinced to wear funny clothing and act like a fool (Meyer 900).
     
  2. Most of Jim Carey's comedy is farce. His comedy is based on quick physical humor and often crude dialogue.
  
  
• satire - mean jokes (barbs) are aimed at people, ideas or things in order to improve, correct, or prevent something.
  

  Example:
  

  
  

  Again, the character Malvolio in Shakespeare's play, Twelth Night is a satirical character. He is held up for scrutiny and ridicule by other characters and the audience because of his self-important, pompous attitude. Shakespeare reveals Malvolio's faults, and shows him to be pathetic.

  
  
• absurd (black) - unusual, some would say weird or uncomfortable, comedy that portrays the world as unstable. The action includes improbable events with highly unpredictable characters. Black comedy is very different from other comedies in that this type tends to end unhappily.
  

  Example:
  

  
  
  1. True West
     
  2. The movies, Fargo, and Pulp Fiction