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CUA - Standup comedy terms Category: Games and Entertainment > Comedy terms Date & country: 07/03/2016, USA Words: 35

Wit
Verbal humor based on manipulation of language: puns, twisted logic, and other forms of wordplay.

Stereotype
The term originally comes from printing, where a frequently-used phrase or associated group of words were fixed in a single piece of type. In culture, stereotypes are commonly held beliefs about entire social groups. Racial and ethnic prejudices operate through negative stereotypes. There are also stereotypical ways of presenting occupations and other categories: examples would be the white coat worn by scientists in commercials or the styles worn by actors depicting nerds.

Slapstick
Physical comedy, especially that which is fast, exaggerated, and violent. Named for a hinged wooden implement used to make a sharp cracking noise.

Sentimentality
Emotion in excess of its object; the term is generally used negatively to depict exaggeration in depiction and extreme emotional reactions. See also pathos.

Short subject / Two-reeler
In film vocabulary, a film of less than feature length. During the first half century of Hollywood production, comedy films (including cartoons) were often made at a length corresponding to two reels of film--approximately 20-24 minutes. These films, which theaters typically ran with a longer feature, were called shorts or two-reelers.

Screwball comedy
Name used to describe a group of film comedies made in Hollywood in the 1930s, and applied to similar movies made since. Screwball comedy is closely related to farce. See the notes on screwball comedy for conventions of the form.

Schadenfreude
Combining the German words for 'damage' and 'joy,' Schadenfreude designates pleasure derived from the misfortune of another. Malicious comedy is based on schadenfreude.

Riffing
A term from jazz, derived from 'refrain.' A musical riff is a creative improvisation on a partiular phrase. More generally, riffing is performance characterized by rapid, energetic improvisation, whether verbal, physical, or with a prop.

Satire
A type of comedy that belittles its subject by evoking attitudes of amusement, scorn, or indignation. Satire uses laughter not as an end in itself but as a weapon: satire is justified as a corrective or means of reform. Satire is therefore didactic rather than mimetic. Problems in creating satire: (1) balancing anger and humor, or balancing comedy with a reformist message; (2) how to bring a satirical story to a conclusion while remaining in a comic mode.

Reductio ad absurdum
Literally 'reduction to absurdity.' In logic, this technique disproves a statement by extending its implications to a nonsensical consequence. Gerald Mast applies the term to the type of comedy that begins with a simple premise, then extends and exaggerates it to an absurd level.

Postmodernism
A term applied to certain developments in creative fields during the last decades of the 20th century. Basic characteristics of post-modernism include: (1) a playful approach to the medium; (2) a meta- or self-referential approach that draws attention to the conventions of genres and media; (3) anti-mimetic treatment to emphasizes that the work is constructed rather than real or natural; (4) pastiche, focus on re-using and manipulating materials of the past rather than on originality.

Picaresque
A term derived from Spanish fiction, picaresque is characterized by episodic organization and a focus on the adventures of a picaro (rogue or trickster). Picaresque presents a series of self-contained adventures (like 'beads on a string'), as opposed to a developmental narrative. The picaro is a typically a wandering liminal figure and can satirize the society by tricking or manipulating its members.

Persona
The Greek word for mask, the concept derives from the fact that actors in Greek theater wore masks (personae) that depicted the characters they were performing. In modern performance, persona designates a created character or character type that is closely associated with a particular performer; examples would be Chaplin's tramp or Marilyn Monroe's dumb blonde. (In fiction, persona is also used to identify a first-person narrator as distinguished from the author of the work.)

Parody
A type of comedy that imitates the serious materials, conventions, style, or manner of a familiar artistic form (or a particular work). Parody exaggerates or twists the form in order to render it ridiculous. Parody is often used as a technique in satire; political satire is often parodistic. Burlesque is sometimes used as a synomym for parody.

Pathos
From the Greek word for suffering (compare the adjective 'pathetic'), this term designates an appeal to the emotions of the audience. In classical rhetoric, pathos is distinguished from ethos (appeal based on the character of the speaker) and logos (appeal based on logic).

Melodrama
Originally a play with music (melos means music in Greek), this term has come to refer to works which make a strong appeal to the emotions through exaggerated characters and situations. The virginal heroine and the mustachioed villain were stock characters in Victorian melodrama. See also sentimentality.

Norms
In sociology, the norms of a society are its rules and beliefs about what is correct or appropriate. In a work of art, norms are the values or beliefs that the work presents as valid or appropriate. Each work creates its own norms, which may be consistent with those of the society (in which case the work is apologetic) or contrary to the values of the society (in which case the work is iconoclastic).

Meta-, meta-fiction, meta-cinema
Meta (Greek for 'beyond,' or 'of a higher type') designates self-referential treatment of a genre or type of artistic expression. For example, meta-fiction is fiction calling attention to the nature and techniques of fiction writing. A meta form foregrounds (emphasizes) the conventions or artistic qualities of its form: for example, a meta-comedy would employ techniques to remind the reader of the constructed nature of comedy and the artificiality of its conventions. Signs of meta treatment include specifically discussing in the work its own nature or techniques, or openly and deliberately violating accepted conventions so as to draw attention to the artificial, created nature of the artistic work. Parody tends toward meta status, since it makes fun of the conventions of something. Meta treatment generally works against mimesis (imitation), the tradition of realistic presentation.

Marginalization
The condition of being placed in a position of little importance and power.

Irony
Originally a term in rhetoric, irony characterized a statement where the intended meaning is the opposite of what is literally said. Over time, the term has widened to designate a situation characterized by an opposite or contradictory meaning or effect.

Liminality
From the Latin for threshold, this describes a state of being between two states or conditions. Liminal beings or situations often have strong cultural or symbolic energy. Among examples are rites of passage (rituals like graduation, marriage, funeral)' transitional times (twilight, New Year's Eve); various states of consciousness (dreams, visions); beings like angels, cyborgs, transsexuals; and locations such as borders, doors, or bridges.Some important comic figures, especially the picaro, the clown, and the fool, are defined by their liminality.

Gender
In contemporary usage, gender designates identities and roles assigned by the culture to members of different sexes. Gender is learned and socially 'constructed,' and differs from sex, which is biological. Put another way, gender is cultural whereas sex is natural.

Homosocial
A recently-devised term to designate close personal relationships among the same sex that are not overtly sexual. For example, in male bonding, men derive their primary social satisfactions in male groups. See gender.

Feature length
The main item on a movie theater program was known as the feature. Feature-length films are defined by the industry as lasting at least 40 minutes, but usually are 90 minutes or longer. Compare short subject.

Farce
A type of comedy designed to provoke simple hearty laughter. Farce employs broad humor and horseplay. Characters are usually caricatures; situations are improbable and ludicrous. In its use of exaggeration, farce is related to parody. Farce generally does not lend itself to serious themes, except indirectly. The bedroom farce, involving attempted seduction, disguises, mistaken identity, much running around, and slamming of doors, was an important form in 17th and 18th century drama, and elements of it survive in today's sex comedies.

Everyman
The term derives from a medieval English 'morality play'; it describes a character that seems to personify humanity, and whose adventures therefore seem to reflect the lives of 'every man.' Close audience identification is an important part of the function of the Everyman character.

Drag
Drag refers to clothing that confuses or contradicts the wearer's gender. Drag humor, which most often has involved men wearing women's clothing, is a form of parody or satire of gender.

Eiron
Ironic man. In Greek comedy, the eiron was a type character identified by his use of understatement to outwit the braggart (alazon). In contemporary comedy, as irony has become a dominant mode, this character type is typically a vehicle for satire, directing wit at conventional attitudes and beliefs. The personas of Bill Murray and John Stewart are contemporary versions of the eiron.

Comedy
Defined as a mode, comedy consists of materials selected and managed primarily to amuse us. Defined as a genre, comedy is characterized by plots leading to happy endings and by informal ('low') style. See the various theorists.

Didactic
From the Greek word meaning 'to teach,' didactic art is primarily intended to provide lessons or convey information. Didactic is typically contrasted with the mimetic, the primary purpose of which is to imitate reality.

Comedy of manners
Originating in the theater, the comedy of manners depicts the codes of behavior and affectations of a social class. Codes of courtship and marriage are the most frequent focus. The treatment is usually ironic or satiric and the story lines are often elaborately artificial. Comedies of manners often employ type characters and caricatures, particularly in minor roles.

Centripetal and Centrifugal forces
Centrifugal and centripetal forces are an analogy from physics borrowed by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe two forces at work in any society's expression; see carnivalization above. Centripetal forces, which include government, law, education, family, and the church, seek to draw the elements of a society more tightly together; centripetal forces promote order, conformity, and the status quo. Centrifugal forces tend to push social boundaries outward and promote individuality, diversity, and change. Comedy and carnival are both centrifugal forces.

Caricature
Creating a character by picking certain individual qualities of a person and exaggerating or distorting them for ridiculous effect. Caricature is closely related to parody: a caricature is a parody of a particular person. Political cartoons employ visual caricature. See also humourous character.

Apologetic
From the Greek for 'speaking in defense,' apologetics is the defense of a religious, moral ,or social position. Comedy that reflects and upholds the values of its society is called apologetic, as opposed to iconoclastic.

Carnivalization
Mikhail Bakhtin's concept for a particular mode of comedy and its sociological importance. Carnival, as a metaphor, designates how societies provide opportunities for their members to act out rebellious impulses in acceptable ways. Carnival is a kind of 'safety valve' for rebellious cultural energies. See Bakhtin's essay and the notes on theories for the concept and its history. See also centripetal and centrifugal forces below.