Comedy can be described as any theater work that is performed with the sole intent of promoting laughter. It has been in existence from ancient times and it has attributed to have originated from Greek theaters. It initially referred to plays that were created for entertainment and amusement. However, in recent times the term has been used to refer to a broader range of works that are written and performed for the purposes of entertainment and enlightenment. Comedy have various categories in which it is organized under depending on the characteristics of the various forms of comedy. The various forms of comedy include satire, comedy of character, farce and parody.
Satire is a form of comedy that uses wit, irony, exaggeration, humor and ridicule to criticize people, concepts and opinions in a society (Brown, 2018). It employs humor, wit, irony and ridicule to make people laugh and at the same time expose and criticize vices and lack of understanding in the society. It also challenges people to think as well as enlightening them on some issues. The vices include corruption, abuse, social injustices and inequality. A good example of satire is a show like The Late Show by Stephen Colbert where he is fondly making jokes about president Trump and his administration. He uses the show to criticize president Trump’s leadership as well as keeping the audience entertained.
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Another form of comedy is the comedy of character. It is a witty dramatic work that involves satire in depicting the behavior of people and the effects of such behaviors in a society (Brown, 2018). Apart from entertaining it evaluates whether certain characters meet certain social standard in a context of social settings and makes the audience think. Moral values are put to the test in such comedies with respect to the social standards. Scandalous matters such as love affairs are used in the plots of such comedies to depict human failures in upholding good morals. Comedy of character has been in existence for a long time and most of the works of this kind of comedy can be traced back to renowned writers such as Oscar Wilde in plays like The Importance of Being Earnest.
Farce is another form of comedy that is characterized by highly unlikely situations, stereotyped characters and exaggerations that are way out of line and a bit of violence (Brown, 2018). Farce is regarded to be inferior in terms of aesthetics and intellectually due to the characterization of people, props and situations employed in its dramatic works. However it has maintained its popularity and persisted to the present. Farce is different from other form of comedies as its sole purpose is to entertain people. The use of ridiculous settings and deliberate absurdity are just meant to entertain. Example of a play that include farce is The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.
Parody is a form of comedy that utilizes imitation of style and manner of a particular artist with the intent of adding deliberate exaggeration to bring about comic effect. Parodies are created from the frames of original works by adding comic effects through exaggeration of some areas that seem to have flaws or diminishing those areas and in some cases doing both (Brown, 2018). The purpose of parodies is to entertain by making mockery of the original works that the parodies are based on. While other forms of comedies are based on original works, parodies depend on the works of other people thus are mimicry. A good example of a parody is the movie “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” which mocks all the Robin Hood films (Triezenberg, 2008).
References
Bown, A. (2018). In the Event of Laughter: Psychoanalysis, Literature and Comedy . Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Triezenberg, K. E. (2008). Humor in literature. The Primer of Humor Research , 8 , 523-543.
