Talk:Comedy/Archive 1

History of Comedy
There are some major factual errors in the first paragraph, and none of it is sourced. The prevailing opinion on Aristotle's reconstruction of comic theory is completely wrong, and statements about the Odyssey as comedy directly contradicts what Aristotle said. It is not ranked in mimetic ability, and I haven't the slightest clue where the original writer got the information about the supernatural. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.249.55.19 (talk) 13:55, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Clown Image
Is there a need for a single image of a clown? 'Comedy' is such a broad term, I dont think one image of 1 clown can do it justice. Afterall, there are no images of stand up comedians, comedic fictional characters, or even someone laughing.... why a clown? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.32.154.121 (talk) 00:39, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Suggestion
The comedy articles - ALL OF THEM - could do with input from:

france, germany, spain, italy, pakistan, africa, south africa (sorry for not naming individual African states), south america, brazil, peru, russia, china, afghanistan the middle east, japan, australia, india and anywhere that isn't the UK or the US.

I typed those countries off the top of my head, hoping that using links would help gravitate people to this page, don't be offended if you are left off!

--bodnotbod 16:05, May 2, 2004 (UTC)

Funny characters
The funny characters in this comedy are those which I suppose are meant to be displayed in Greek. However, they're not displayed in Greek on my (FireFox) Browser. What has been done wrong?

The word "comedy" is derived from the Greek */cw/iCjiSia, which is a compound either of *kùi/jos (revel) and *ôoiôós (singer; *àüôeiv, áôav, to sing), or of */oójurç (village) and *óoiáós: it is possible that *kû.uos itself is derived from *kóijutj, a"

Can someone technical explain what is wrong with the page and/or fix it? Brequinda 14:16, 7 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm seeing the Greek characters as question marks in IE and Firefox. For example, I see:


 * "The word 'comedy' is derived from the Greek ????????, which is a compound either of ????? (revel) and ????? (singer), or of ???? (village) and ?????: it is possible that ????? itself is derived from ????, and originally meant a village revel"

tyrone-wright-]] 05:51, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * one 'u' removed from spanish to correct it at 14:52, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Etymology of "Comedy"
I haven't the time or inclination to post a scholarly suggestion/edit, but some attention needs to be paid to the classical (Greek) definition of comedy. I may be slightly off the mark, but I have been schooled in this parcel of discourse, and I think I have it close to the prevailing outlook of contemporary American academia. For ancient Greece, the term "comedy" did not simply refer to a "play with a happy ending," but rather subject matter that dealt with the urbane, or ordinary versus the lofty, or heroic. The basic idea here is that while tragedy elevates heroic values through the audience's identification with the hero (despite the "fatal flaw"), comedy rather deflates by focusing on that flaw, which we assume to be just the tip of a flaw-ridden iceberg. The fact that comedies traditionally had happy endings or derived humorous reactions were incidental to the essence of the form (athough those factors likely contributed to its popularity). Plato wrote extensively (and eloquently) about this, and perhaps should be consulted in forming a proper presentation of this subject. After all, his writings about these distinctions (though mainly consisting of arguments lauding the social benefits of tragedy versus the ills of comedy) form the foundation of our canon of literary criticism.

^^^This is an important point, and the reason I came to this page. In the classical sense of comedy, the novel "Solaris" can be considered comedy. Hell, so can Kafka (I think Kafka is funny but I'm perverse anyways). Also, I'm sorry if this is not the correct way to format a comment I'm new here and was eager to contribute; I'll follow up with better form next time! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.56.137.235 (talk) 03:14, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Mechanics of Humor
There needs to be a separate page detailing the scientific discourse on how humor works in people. I have a pet theory that it is the sense of relief that comes from the revelation of a pleasurable order or system. Laughter is a "oh, of course that's how the universe works," or "of course Homer would be concerned about donuts." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.56.137.235 (talk) 03:17, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism
Some weird person wrote "I WORSHIP PETER T HIS THE DEVIL" (sic) on the page; I deleted it.

Removed adolescent b*llsh*t from my original entry, which, in honesty, was silly, at any rate. Drogue 11:25, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

^^^^good you deleted it; it wasn't funny. Can't have unfunny stuff on the humor article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.56.137.235 (talk) 03:21, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

American Humor
American humor redirects here. I just don't know what to say about that. I'm starting to get fed up


 * It must be a joke. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.82.93 (talk) 00:06, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Suggested Merge with Humour
I have proposed this article be merged with Humour since they overlap extensively. In my vision, Humour would be merged into this article as Comedy is the older of the two pages. 203.199.50.16 10:03, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Humor and Comedy are two distinct things. The important distinction I think is that Humorism regards the tecniques that provoke a laugh; comedy is insted one of the possible uses of humor (to just have fun); another use being satire (to have fun to make people think and provoke social change).--BMF81 10:57, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Entirely against. The originaly form of Comedy was not at all to make people laugh; it was a certain type of story with a predictable plotline. Actually, this article should talk about humor less than it does. --Masamage 06:27, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Suggestion not to merge with humor
As contrast to what he said, not all comedies can provoke laughter.

MW dictionary Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin comoedia, from Latin, drama with a happy ending, from Greek kOmOidia, from kOmos revel + aeidein to sing

Comedy is a word that has been disputed from it's original meaning. Comedy isn't a laugh trip only. If you merge Comedy and Humor then you would make it look like the story of Jesus Christ's resurrection something to laugh about (If you were a devoted christian, you would be offended).


 * Since humor and comedy are not the same thing, I am removing the merge tags. This article does need a lot more information about the classical usage of the term, however, as exemplified by the Greeks and by Shakespeare. --Masamage 17:51, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

There's that idea that: "comedy is when someone falls down an open manhole - tragedy is when it happens to me", that I feel is somehow relevant here somewhere.

Split proposal
I think is preferable to split this article in its two diverse meanings: comedy (theatre) and comedy (laughter). --BMF81 18:15, 14 August 2006 (UTC)


 * That's a great idea. I would actuall suggest leaving Comedy as the article about the theatre type, and create a new article called Comedy (humour). --Masamage 20:06, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

if you get raped by a hot chick why would you call the cops sure it may be illegal BUT ITD BE AWESOME SKY what? IMMA BANANA ur a what? IMMA BANANA! what happened to ur clothes? IMMA BANANA!! IMMA BANANA IMMA BANANA IMMA BANANA LOOK AT ME MOVE JIZZ IN MY CROTCH JIZZ IN MY PANTS JIZZ IN MY GIRLFRIENDS MOUTH JIZZ IN MEGHAN FOX'S MOUTH AND TITTIES

Wikipedia:Notability (comedy)
I've created Notability (comedy) to help editors in deciding the notability of comedy- and humor-related articles. Please help hammer it into shape. --Chris Griswold (  ☎  ☓  ) 09:01, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

outline
Any ideas on an outline for this? We currently have a big, jumbled lead and then a derivation section. The rest is a long list of related links. Related articles and their outlines Romance (genre), Tragedy. MahangaTalk 05:22, 6 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Start simple. Etymology, History (get rid of the derivation section and split it among these). Then maybe a section for literature, theatre, and screen (if there is any difference). Maybe a science section if we can find anything. If the above divisions don't work, then we can try having sections for different types of comedy, like satire, slapstick, ironic, or whatever. No matter what, though, we can easily have a history and etymology section, so we should probably start there. Wrad (talk) 17:11, 23 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The History section can be divided into: Greek, Roman, Medieval, Rennaissance. At least for starters. Eventually we'll have to get more international and more modern, but we have to start somewhere. Maybe each of us should take a section of history. Wrad (talk) 17:31, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Minor vandalism
Reverted to clean up some vandalism. 86.139.15.170 (talk) 22:12, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Re-think this, maybe?
I hesitate to enter a lengthy discussion at this late date, but it seems clear that the topic – and the metatopic encompassing humor-laughter-comedy-wit-funny – might benefit from re-conceptualizing the whole thing. If I can do it I’ll try to submit an outline for discussion, but for the time being I propose we start with some agreed-upon definitions. Here are mine: Laughter: a psycho-physical response to a number of stimuli, prominently including humor. (Laughter is also caused by fear, scorn, nervousness, and other feelings.) Funny: causing a response of sudden delight, often expressed as a smile and/or laughter. Synonym: humorous. Humor: that which is funny. Comedy: a form of humor that presents human folly, both personal and social, as well as the absurdities of existence (as in Murphy’s Laws). Wit: a form of humor that induces delight through unexpectedly apt connections or juxtapositions. (“I have Bright’s Disease and he has mine.”)

There could be more, but this is a start. I recognize that my humor/comedy/wit labels are far from general, and that humor and comedy are often used interchangeably. But if we could agree just for purposes of this article, we could easily clarify a lot of things.

Comedy and wit are typically, though not always found together (as with the Marx Brothers). In some cases wit prevails (as in Wilde) and in other cases, comedy trumps wit (as in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist). In still other cases, they are balanced (A Frenchman carries a parrot into a bar. BARTENDER: He’s beautiful; where did you get him? PARROT: In France; they got millions of ‘em.)

Humor has been presented in narrative, dramatic, and poetic fiction, as well as in anecdotal performance (standup), plus the graphic and plastic arts and music (P.D.Q. Bach). Also in such mixed media as single-panel cartoons (graphic and anecdotal) and cartoon strips (graphic and narrative).

Found humor is not presented, but identified by the person(s) responding to it (a tiny dog trying to mouth a huge bone).

This is hardly a respectable catalog, but I hope it’s enough to elicit some more discussion. To repeat: I know that my definitions, especially of comedy and humor, are far from universally accepted, but they might profitably be accepted just for the purposes of the article.Jim Stinson (talk) 02:51, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

What is this story about?
What is this story about?

This story is about a family on a cruise, and something bad happens - perhaps a storm; and the get washed onto his island which is called Lllriya (I think) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.196.116 (talk) 18:24, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Stand-Up and Improv
Why is such a major facet of comedy, stand-up, listed under improv? Standup routines are hardly improvised - they are written, edited, practiced and honed. Needs a separate listing - will work on this shortly. Mdw0 (talk) 06:18, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion: complete rewrite based on the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica entry
Modify and add to that whatever is necessary. It's in the public domain:

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Comedy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Edition

Don Quixote de la Mancha (talk) 07:29, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Picture accompanying article
The picture accompanying the article, of a smiling Nepali woman, really doesn't seem to be suitable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.249.219.139 (talk) 19:25, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
 * and... that might be why it's totally suitable Out of Phase User (talk) 03:52, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
 * and No... As much as I have sense of humor for that kind of thing, the pic really doesn't fit. It just said "finding something delightful" which is in a good chance not being comedy" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.190.118.83 (talk) 01:01, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

WorldCat Genres
Maximilianklein (talk) 23:06, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

PJHC Spin Off
Hello, I'm a student at Rice University in the Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities program. I think it might be useful to create a separate page about Women in Comedy, as the numbers and significance have been recently on the rise. Looking for any good sources or feedback! Thanks. Akweaver32 (talk) 02:06, 25 January 2017 (UTC)

I've written a couple preliminary paragraphs in my sandbox. Feel free to check them out and let me know what you think! Akweaver32 (talk) 17:43, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

Annotated Bibliography - these are a couple of the sources that I'm considering using

Explored the alternative contributions of British women to writing, agains the push to be taken 'seriously.'

Covers the last six decades of female comedian in the United States, including how they fought their way into a male-dominated field.

What is African-American female comedy and how did it form? Explores how this genre is simultaneously hidden and exposed.

Explores how the different trends of female speech (conservatism etc) carry into Latin comedy.

Biography of four figures via interview about their personal and professional lives.

Uses Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin to describe how broadly satire can affect politics.

Focuses on the work of Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen in their quest to point on prejudices again women using satire, burlesque, and parody.

Analysis of the process by which Tina Fey became so successful in comedy and how the media portrayed her success.

Documentary about female experience in comedy with numerous clips and interviews.

Study on how male and female audiences view majority female casts of comedic work, why such casts are seen as for women only.

Uses two women with very different career paths to describe how feminist studies and comedy can be married together.

How a woman's ability to identify with what she sees on the television screen affects their assessment of realism of that world.

Exploration of the similar skills and crossover between feminism and political satire.

Akweaver32 (talk) 16:47, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Article quality
I do not think that the performing arts section needs to be in prose, it looks like a good list. I'm deleting the tag. If it should be subarticled, then reply to this. --9563rj (talk) 16:59, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

Types of Comedy
The article doesn't really flesh out the types of comedy. While not a reliable source, moviebob's GTA V is not a satire (probably) does gives one an off the cuff notes that could be improved with reliable sources:


 * Absurdism - Take things to their logical conclusion...even if it makes those things look weird or ridiculous.
 * Irony - using a word or portraying something in the opposite way from what it means
 * Parody - making fun of something specific
 * Satire - making fun of something specific with a message

Dark (or black) Satire plays the comedy with a straight face and isn't designed to just make you laugh but to think. The Producers (1967 film) and Look Who's Back (film) are both example of dark satire.--174.99.238.22 (talk) 18:08, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:40, 5 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Rowan Atkinson and Manneken Pis.jpg

Nmjb
Suiiiii 185.130.138.48 (talk) 12:23, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

Forms or Styles of Delivery
The article should also list the styles of delivery; such as, the "deadpan" approach, which Steven Colbert is known for. There are many other styles, maybe even just sarcasm, which could also be on this list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.23.6.222 (talk) 21:58, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Health Benefits of Laughter
"Laughter is said to be the cure to being sick, Studies show, that people who laugh more often, get sick less."

Is this a joke?

Can we have this written in proper English, with a bit of a discussion, rather than this remedial effort.

I don't believe for a minute the contributor has read the second of their "references", which, are hardly relevant to the point being made.

I imagine that people see a row of footnote links and think "job done"; do they?!

How about something more along the lines of:

"Studies show that laughter can yield some health benefits; for example, blood flow has been shown to be increased, and consequently reducing the risk of heart problems."

(Obviously, you can expand that with as much detail as you like, but at least it's saying something remotely credible).

A couple of easy to find references:
 * http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/160305laugh.html
 * http://www.umm.edu/features/laughter.htm
 * http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4325819.stm
 * http://www.addlaughter.com/articles/The_Health_Benefits_of_Laughter.pdf

come on... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.82.93 (talk) 00:04, 26 March 2009 (UTC)