lecture III

Question 1

types of comedy

Answer 1

• classical comedy: common people get a happy ending
• modern comedy; any text predominantly incorporating
  humour
• satire: making fun of societal actors (people, ideas,
  organisations etc)
• parody: making fun of specific texts/people using elemts of the target

Question 2

more modern comedy

Answer 2

• comedy of manners: mostly uses etiquette/social rules as the source of comedy
• situational comedy: mostly uses known/cliché characters in changing situations, often deploying dramatic irony
• romantic comedy: uses the conventions of courtship as the source of comedy
• dramady: mixes drama and comedy

Question 3

taboo

Answer 3

• use of transgressive elements for the sake of comedy; violating norms, f.e.:
• cringe: norms of coial behaviour
• scatological: norms on bodily fluids
• shocking: transgression on purpose
• irony: misdirection involving taboo

BUT: norms are not objective, change over time + need to understand norms in order to understand joke

Question 4

kinds of humour

Answer 4

three humour theories:
1. relief: release of psychological pressure
2. superiority: realisation of higher position
3. incongruity: resolution of an apparent contradiction

-> not resolved, but the evidence seems to favour incongruity

Question 5

incongruity

Answer 5

in order for incongruity to work, a few elements are necessary:

1- projection of expectations/patterns and an adjustment shift after the fact
(misfire: the old/new pattern is not
identified/misidentified)

2. suspicion of disbelief so that the information is received passively rather than actively
   (misfire: the information is perceived as confusing or threatening, and active reasoning is used instead)