What is comedy? What determines what is funny to a particular society? Comedy is hard to define and differs from culture to culture. Through out time societies have developed many different forms of comedy ranging from theater and poetry to cartoons and sitcoms. This paper will compare and contrast classical Greek comedy to that of medieval times particularly Aristophanes’s The Clouds and Ysengrimus respectively. These two comedies were composed in completely different time periods (about 500
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In the article "The Argument of Comedy‚” Northrop Frye identifies two forms of ancient Greek comedy: Old Comedy‚ as in the plays of Aristophanes‚ and New Comedy‚ known primarily from the plays of Menander. Old Comedy‚ as Frye points out‚ is so out of date that when we speak of comedy today‚ we are referring to New Comedy. Fry argues that Shakespeare’s comedies are neither Old nor New Comedy‚ but have elements of both. Frye opines that New Comedy mainly comes from what he describes as a comic Oedipus
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believed that tragedy served a higher purpose than comedy because of its cathartic effect. Therefore‚ comedy is delegitimized. But comedy does serve a social purpose that can be considered cathartic. It can be an outlet for social angst. At the time Lysistrata was written‚ Athens‚ a superpower of their time‚ had just lost a battle with Sparta. This probably shattered the conceptions of Athenians. And as a result‚ Aristophanes used a ribald comedy about the less-than-citizen women of Sparta and Athens
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humor. Some may find it offensive because the joke makes fun of their culture or their personality. We experience comedy in our everyday lives‚ or when we sit down to watch a funny movie. In modern day most comedy targets a certain group of people or race. Humor is the quality or being amusing‚ however it is funny only to some extent otherwise it may become a form of bulling‚ and comedy is in our nature so people should laugh to stay happy. Humor is something amusing that makes you and other people
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What is Comedy? The definition of comedy in the contemporary meaning of the term‚ is any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter‚ especially in theatre‚ television‚ film and stand-up comedy‚ (Source: www.Wikipeadia.com). So more basically‚ an artistic creation that is humorous - provkes laughter - in a number of ways including literture‚ TV and threatre. Furthermore‚ the word comedy seems to have steamed from the Greek verb meaning ‘to revel’. This
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Characteristics of Comedy There are many characteristics that make up a comedy. Characteristics such as mistaken identity‚ battle of the sexes‚ and jumping to conclusions are what set the comedic story apart from the tragedy. Within a comedy‚ no matter how much fault‚ and dismay may appear within the story‚ there always seems to be the classic ending of " and they all lived happily ever after " Comedies capture the viewer with a sense of compassion and love for the characters in the story
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Lear and Comedy.... Lear and Comedy. Strangely enough‚ it is G. Wilson Knight‚ a critic famous (not to say notorious) for a vehemently Christian interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays‚ who notes in The Wheel of Fire some of the comedic aspects of King Lear[1]. Whether or not the harsh moral ecology of King Lear fits comfortably with the Christian ethos of forgiveness‚ structural elements of comedy are plainly present in King Lear‚ quite apart from the sardonic humour of the Fool. Indeed‚ a ‘happy
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The History of Comedy. From Old Greek to the Present Day What does Comedy mean? In old Greek times comedy was a village festival where people came together and sang‚ there were jesters to entertain the audiences. The Greeks created theatre; comedy soon followed which to the present day is known as ‘old comedy’. Old comedy is seen as very political‚ meaning that the performance
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Theater 208 Comedy: Techniques behind the Laughter Comedy is the genre of film that makes even the saddest times bearable and gained a lot of popularity in a time when people needed a boost. Comedy is a unique form of film in its wide range of methods‚ and in all of these methods there is at least some of a select group of approaches. The true magic that comedy has arises from these select few techniques‚ that‚ when used properly‚ will never fail to generate a laugh. Comedy comes in a wide
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Roman stages (Plautus‚ Titus M‚ Aulularia). Plautus was in the great Roman army; there he was exposed to the Greek New Comedy and the plays of Menander (Plautus‚ Wikipedia). It wasn’t until around the age of 45 where he began writing plays while working his hand-mill‚ grinding corn for the households (Plautus‚ Wikipedia). Plautus’ work was simply Latin adaptations of this genre of comedy. The people of Rome found everyday life very entertaining (Titus Maccius Plautus‚ Theatre Database). While writing
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