Comedy

Comedy

Comedy, as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, stage play and stand-up comedy.

Types of Comedy

• Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence

• Parody is where a work deliberately mimmicks the style of another for comic effect or ridicule.

• Spoof is light parody or gentle imitation. Is it not necessarily intended to ridicule or make fun of the thing being spoofed but the comedy happens in the recognition of the piece being spoofed.

• Satire is where a section of society or politics is deliberately mimicked and mocked in order to poke fun at them and point criticism using humour.

• Irony is where the opposite of what is expected happens or where someone says the opposite of what they mean.

• sarcasm is where an insult or quick remark is fired at someone with the intention of causing injury.

• This is where comedy is achieved through exaggeration and extreme characters in preposterous circumstances that seem to spiral out of control and become ever more ludicrous.

• This is a dark comedy where a light humored touch is applied to very dark and serious subject matter in order to ease the pain or make some specific point by juxtaposing the humour and the sadness.

Elements of Comedy

• One or two actors can carry a comedic film so dominantly that that viewers forever associate them with those roles. These movies are character- and dialogue-driven. The humor comes from their interaction and their verbal volleys, or one-liners delivered from the lead character.

• Gags can be either visual or verbal. Verbal gags deliver through quick punch lines and visual gags deliver through actions.

• Some comedy films drop an ensemble cast into impossible, ludicrous situations that carry the entire movie.

• The timing of gags and lines is another important element of comedy fare.

• I guess what makes a good comedy is having all the elements of a comedy. A funny character and of course their punchlines. The gags and also the situation where the characters are in. And most of all, the timing. Timing, for me, would be the most important element that a comedy should have. Timing is where the characters fire their punchlines at the right place and at the right time. If that happens, then the comedy would be effective. As for the type of comedy, I think slapstick type of comedy would be the best. What I observed is that people are fond of seeing other people get hurt. Especially the way that person got hurt. That's what I thought about a good comedy.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy
• http://www.thinctanc.co.uk/words/comedy.html
• http://www.ehow.com/info_7960071_common-elements-comedy-films.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskO9O3hF78

Satire

Spoof

Slapstick

Dialogue / Characters

Irony

Parody

Sarcasm

Situations

Farce

Black Comedy

What makes a good Comedy?

Sources

Gags

What is Comedy?

Charlie Chaplin

Timing

Prepared by:

Jen Louie San Jose