st Name the three funniest works of art can be books plays television shows movies stand up routines etc For each explain as well as you can exactly what it is that makes them funny ID: 565057
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Slide1
Warm Up, April 21st
Name
the three
funniest works of art (can be books, plays, television shows, movies, stand up routines, etc
.).
For each, explain as well as you can exactly what it is that makes them funny.Slide2
As Shakespeare will remind us,
Comedy is NOT always funny,
haha
!
All that is required for the category of
comedy is a story with a happy ending
.
It
is defined
as a story involving the rise in fortune of a sympathetic central character
.Slide3
The Comic Pattern
Begins with a
comic problem
(thwarted love, eccentric behavior, or corruption, for example). Moving from
exposition to complication, the problem gets worse. Complication is fueled by misunderstanding, mistakes in identity, errors in judgment, etc.
Comic climax: confusion reaches its peak
, misunderstanding is dominant, pressure is at a high point, choices must be made and solution found. Often involves revelation.
Comic Denouement: Resolves the initial problems and allows for resolution
. Lives are straightened out, people reconcile, marriages occur, order is restored.Slide4
Characters of Comedy:
The Comic Hero –
Doesn’t have to be a spotless
character.S/he must display enough charm to win the audience’s
approval
.Slide5
Characters of Comedy (con’t
):
Ordinary People
Tend to
be plain, everyday figures (lower or middle class) instead
of kings, queens, or
heads of state (as in a
tragedy).
Ordinary people’s
problems.Not necessarily humorous; it is about the satisfaction we feel when deserving people succeed.Slide6
Characters of Comedy (con’t
):
The Buffoon
A
low, jesting parasiteAn ironical man, or a type of dissembled ignoranceThe boastful man, imposter,
or braggart.
Representative of differing
social classes, but all are
one moral type.Slide7
The Comedic Ladder
High Comedy
Comedy of Ideas/SatireInconsistences of character
Verbal Wit
Plot Devices/Farce
Physical mishaps
ObscenitySlide8
Low Comedy
At the bottom of the comedy ladder,
man is almost indistinguishable from the animal
. The laughter is longest and loudest over a
dirty joke or gesture. At this depth comedy unerringly finds the lowest common denominator. Typically, this the rung for “bathroom humor,” where body functions remind us that we are certainly “a little less than angels.”
Physical mishaps, pratfalls, slapstick, and loud collisions
are the obvious elements and here too are the
deformed
: long noses, humped backs, dwarves.Slide9
Farce
This comedy most readily identified by
the devices which drive the plot:
mistaken identities, coincidences, and
mistimings
. The
characters become the
puppets of fate
. Typically the plot is
predictably improbable: devices include
twins separated at birth, unhappy marriages by tyrannical parents,
allegiances complicated by money
and births, and a
ragshop
of
happy endings. Slide10
Verbal Wit
Some quotes from
Earnest
:
“I'll bet you anything you like that half an hour after they have met, they will be calling each other sister.”“Women only do that when they have called each other a lot of other things first.”
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
“Oh! I don't think I would like to catch a sensible man. I shouldn't know what to talk to him about.”
“Indeed, no woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”
“Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable.”
Slide11
Comedy of Manners
Referred to as the
amorous intrigues of the aristocratic classes
, this comedy emphasizes the mechanism of language, and reduces drama and life to a sheen of
verbal wit. Such comedy does not hesitate to sacrifice humanity to dialogue: puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and witticisms of all types are the tools it uses often in the service of satire.Slide12
Satirical Comedy
Satire is any form of art that ridicules human vice or folly in order to bring about social reform
.
Some
satire is comedic (gentle, urbane, smiling), while some is not (biting, bitter, angry).Characters include con-artists, criminals, tricksters, and fortune seekers with gullible dupes, knaves, and cuckolds who serve as their victims.
Resembles other types of comedy, but the central character is less likely to be foolish and morally corrupt.Slide13
Comedy of Ideas
The characters
argue ideas or are
representative of people who hold
these
ideas
. The dramatic action is an
embodiment of these ideas in conflict;
not an allegory, this genre uses
characters, who essentially remain
personalities, capable of change, pitting
their wits (or lack of them) against those
who view reality differently
. Slide14
Intro Clip
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCIwj6cqko&noredirect=1Slide15
Questions about Clip
What does the background music convey about the tone of the play?
Based
on the costumes and character accents, where and when do you think the play occurs?
Why is a man playing the character of Lady Bracknell? What
does it mean to “send up” something?
Do
you agree with the statement one of the actors makes about “wit never ages---what was funny 105 years ago is funny now”?
Do
you think the clips from the play are funny? Why or why not?
How
do you think the actors prepared for their roles?Slide16
Based on everything you know,
What predictions can you make about the play that we are going to start reading tomorrow?