Comedy Devices

Disclaimer: These devices do not appear in comedy alone. They appear in many types of other literary works, but they are heavily employed in comedies.

Physical Comedy and Mishaps

• Falling down, running into things• No language is needed• 3 Stooges

Name-calling, mispronunciations, malpropisms

• Verbal errors or simple humor tactics• Malpropisms—misused words

Hyperbole and Understatement

• Hyperbole: an exaggeration• More than what it is• “my head is killing me”

• Understatement: less than what it is• Putting Neosporin on a broken leg

Irony

• Dramatic irony: when the audience knows what is going on but the characters do not• Horror movies

• Situational irony: when the actual outcome is opposite of the expected one• Fire station burning down

• Verbal irony: when one person says one thing but means another• “Lucky me” when you step in mud• Sarcasm: a cutting unkind remark mean to show disapproval

• “Way to go, Einstein”

Puns

• Play on words based on words with multiple meanings• “I’m feeling hoarse today. I think I have a colt.”

Parody

• Imitation of a work that has already been made• Weird Al

Satire

• Comedy of ideas• Highlights a personal, social, or political issue meant to

correct• Saturday Night Live