“ It ain’t no good if it ain’t snappy enough. ” (Efficient Computations)
Comedy: it ain’t for sissies. Genre Wheel by Dr. Louise Cowan.
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Transcript of Comedy: it ain’t for sissies. Genre Wheel by Dr. Louise Cowan.
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Comedy: it ain’t for sissies
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Genre Wheelby Dr. Louise Cowan
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The Three Modes of Comedy:Dr. Louise Cowan’s The Terrain of Comedy
Infernal
Purgatorial
Paradisal
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INFERNAL “The community has accepted its fallen condition and cynically
attributes its corruption to the ‘way of the world’” (11).
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PURGATORIAL“Its mood is pathos: in it the community hopes and waits,
powerless to save itself” (13).
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PARADISAL “Man is lifted up into a realm beyond himself, one that he has
not gained by his own effort” (14).
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Timing is EverythingTragic Time: The world is already set in motion, and time is locked. The tragic action is inevitable because results are not a matter of time but of cause.
Comic Time: There is room for play and possibility; delay for the deeply desired.
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Movement
Tragedy: Gravity [moving toward the grave]
Comedy: Levity [ rising upward]
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Tragedy gives us ultimate knowledge.Comedy gives us a way around things, through life
• Comedy is concerned with new possibilities as shown through inclusive communities (often with a feast) and marriage.
• Comedy appeals to deepest social chords.• Where tragedy goes below earth, comedy goes above
it providing a comic thrust, a hopeful vision.
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Comedy makes men lesser than tragedy.
• Where tragedy operates in a philosophical (intellectual/individual) realm concerned with sight and sound, comedy operates in a physical (democratic) realm. Comedy plays with taste, touch, and smell.
• Comedy reduces things to the most rudimentary threads of humanity where everyone can be invited to join, participate, and understand.
• Stereotypes – tragic figures such as Medea break the expected stereotype, where comedy embraces stereotypes.
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Trickster
• Trickster, sometimes called Poneros (“little rascal”), goes against the norms.
• He does not allow himself to be victimized, always sees a possibility where a victim cannot.
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The Green World• The Green World is a
pastoral dimension – a place of exit from the city – a place of achievement/discovery and IMAGINATION
• Unlike the tragic abyss from which one cannot really return, discovery from the Green World can be brought back into the city
• Tragedy is a world of “If only . . .”
• Comedy is a world of “What if . . .”
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Formulaic• Formula comedy, although
predictable, is not limited in creativity.
• It appeals to our predisposed patterns (archetypes)
• Typical plot - young man wants woman, thwarted by opposition, twist of fate, and finally satisfaction
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Puppy dogs and roses
• Often in comedy, everyone ends up being loved.
• Those who are not loved are the figures that must leave the inclusive community.
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The History of Comedy
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Comic Ladder• Comedy of Ideas (high comedy)
• Comedy of Manners (high comedy)
• Farce (can be combination of high/low comedy)
• Low Comedy
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The Comic Paradigm
• The comic problem• The comic climax• The comic catastrophe• Comic education and change• Comic characters• Comic language
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Problem
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Climax
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Catastrophe
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Education and Change
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Comic Characters
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Language
Monty Python determined that…
vibraphone larch
wankel rotary engine
…had humor embedded in them.
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COMEDY THEORY from Richard F. Taflinger, Ph.D.
• It must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions
• It must be mechanical (unadaptable, inflexible) • It must be inherently human, with the capability
or reminding us of humanity • There must be a set of established societal norms
familiar to the audience • The situation, actions, and dialogue must be
inconsistent or unsuitable to the surroundings• It must be perceived by the observer as harmless
or painless to the participants
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Appeal to the Intellect
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enoughtime, the public, the reviewers will allow youto satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, whenyou think about it. - Lenny Bruce
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Mechanical
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Inherently Human
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Established Societal Norms
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Inconsistent or Unsuitable
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Harmless or Painless
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The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar Wilde
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The Importance of Being EarnestDevices of Farce
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Emily Levine’sTheory of Everything(@ 23 minutes)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/emily_levine_s_theory_of_everything.html