What is Comedy?

Comedy is one of the oldest forms of drama. Comedy highlights that human beings are in

fact ridiculous and cannot change. Comedies, therefore, often confirm our view of the world.

Medieval Comedy

The medieval period developed dramatic comedy in new ways:

• Dramas were usually Christian themed and either explored episodes from the Bible or scenes from the lives of saints with comic sequences within them.

• These were usually bawdy and contained down to earth humour.

• The language they were written in had lots of puns and double entendres, which the audience would find amusing.It seems that by the end of the medieval period, attitudes had changed and comedy was now a legitimate and important genre of writing.

Malapropism: a comical confusion of wordsBawdy: generally applied to language that is coarse or lewdPun: a play on wordsDouble entendre: an expression that has two meanings. The first meaning may be obvious, but a second meaning may be either ironic or rude

Some writers and observers felt that religious dramas should contain nothing comic or amusing within them, and that sacred texts should be treated as such. Others disagreed and felt that humour

could often be used very well to instruct.

Shakespearean Comedy• The main kind of comedies Shakespeare wrote are

often labelled romantic comedies. • These plays are quite light-hearted, but do have some

darker and more disturbing elements to them.• Like the model set in previous centuries, Shakespeare

realised that the best kind of comedy is generated by a series of mix-ups where disorder is rife and life is turned upside down.

• All of his comedies look at the foolishness of human beings.

• They often have interlinked plots

Shakespeare’s ComediesNorthrop Frye states that Shakespeare’s comedies are:

• Set in the rural world, meaning that urban and business concerns can be forgotten.

• Time is also forgotten. There are no clocks.• The older, restrictive generation can be dispensed with.• There is often gender confusion.• The mythical and real merge.• It is a temporary holiday atmosphere.• There is no social hierarchy.• There is a ‘old world’ (belonging to older people or parental figures), a

‘green world’ (a forest, wood or non-urban environment – a world of freedom but also confusion) and a ‘new world’ (a world created out of the resolution of the play – one that has learnt from its past mistakes and resolved previous problems).

Restoration ComedyPuritanism and the Civil War had put a stop to much comedy on stage in Britain in the middle of the 17th Century. However dramatic comedy flourished again in the final decades of the century.

• Dramas that looked at sexual relationships within polite society• Marriage is a central theme• Key stock characters include beaus, rakes, fobs, bawds,

scheming valets, young and older women, and country squires.• They are mainly written in prose, though with some verse

sections.• There is focus on repartee and wit.• The tone is bawdy, cynical and amoral.• There are often double or triple plot-lines.• Money, sexual commerce and social standing are key issues.

Beaus - relaxed, attractive and self-confident menRakes – men who live an irresponsible and immoral lifeFops – men who are dandy like and a little effeminate. They often pay a lot of attention to their appearance and clothesValets – personal servants who took care of a gentleman’s clothes and lifestyleSquires – gentlemen from the countryside

Modern ComedyMany of the plays written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries do not appear to fully fit the dramatic comedy genre. After WW2 the developed a new genre of comedy: Absurdist or Black comedy.One of the most popular forms of dramatic comedy in the 20th and 21st centuries is the genre of farce. In a farce you might expect to see:

• Word play and witty banter• A fast paced plot that increases to a frantic speed as the

play continues• Physical humour or slapstick• The characters are often vain, neurotic or silly• The plays often have a twist

Absurdist comedy: drama that examines life outside common sense and the usual conventionsBlack comedy: comedy that looks at dark or depressing themes in a comic way

Contemporary Dramatic Comedy

Contemporary comedies is more difficult to define than the dramatic comedy of the past. This is because contemporary plays incorporate lots of elements of other styles of drama. Contemporary comedy still uses many of the generic elements of the past, but reworks them in new and alternative ways. Very often, the traditional setting for dramatic comedy are revised, with playwrights seeking new ways of how comedy can be used to expose and discuss the human condition.

Comedy in Literature

Over time the conventions from successive historical periods have helped define what needs to happen on stage, and why writers construct comedies in certain ways.

One of the things the audience should feel when watching a comedy is that somehow the world is absurd and that all of us do foolish things.

Conventions: the accepted rules, structures and customs we expect to see in a specific genre of writing