Comedy

The Comedy of Errors is a lesser known Shakespearian tale, of two sets of brothers in a not-so-familiar setting. Two sets of identical twins are separated at birth – Egeon, a merchant, Emilia, his wife, his two twin sons (both named Antipholus), and the two slaves (also twins, both named Dromio) to the merchant’s sons are hit by a tempest and one son and slave stays with the Duke of Ephesus while the other son and slave are with his wife. It is a story of reunion as Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse – the set of twins at Egeon’s side in Syracuse - set out to reunite with their respective siblings, Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus. Ultimately, the play itself is an excellent one, bolstered by the exceptional improvisation that I was able to witness, with similar elements of method acting that we have discussed in class. From watching the play, it is obvious that the actors are either very experienced or can relate to Shakespeare’s tale enough that they can translate that to the stage. The Stanislavskian method was used quite a lot during The Comedy of Errors with the main characters using exaggerated movements and flashy accents to immerse the audience into the…

Slapstick comedy in films started around 1915 when the famous Keystone Cops silent movies were made. The silent era saw the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton who starred in some of the more memorable films such as “The Tramp” and “The General”. Slapstick comedy is an extreme form of comedy normally involving forms of physical acts by the actors, such as being poked in the eyes or pulling one around by his ears. In the 1930s slapstick was dominated by “The Three Stooges” and Laurel and…

The Comedic Nature of Lysistrata On the year 411 BC, Aristophanes wrote the comedic play Lysistrata, the first anti-war play in the world. Comedy takes various forms, and the purpose of this essay is to analyze the comedic elements used in Lysistrata to determine whether it is a farce or a satire. Why is this important? Michael Moses, the president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics said: “The key to adjusting the relative strengths and weakness of a particular work was for the…

Chaplin’s ‘ film the ‘Modern Times’ was produced in 1936s. It included man-eating machines, where they were foraging for food, and they were consuming materialism, and about the Tramp’s interaction with machines. At the start of the first scene pace was to go inside the machine. Yet further on in the film he tramp feeds a mechanic who is stuck inside a machine during their lunchtime. All we see in the camera view is eating. These scenes are looked at as observations on the openings to Chaplin’s…

The Screwball Comedy Journey Screwball comedy movies crazy, zany, rapid fire dialogue movies. This type of comedy usually centered around a couple (male and female) in which the female dominates and humiliates the male character. A combination of slapstick comedy, battle of the sexes love story, and someone being wronged. The films usually had sexual undertone. Of screwball comedy era I will provide a brief history of screwball comedy films and compare two movies of the top ten movies of that…

Laughter and comedy are some very important aspects for any social interaction. There is a great feeling of comedy that is gained from sharing a laugh with someone, and laughter crosses the boundaries of language, age, gender, and ethnicity. Laughter is an important and powerful element of society and can be used for many different effects. With the evolution of entertainment, there has also been an evolution of comedy. Comedy has developed into unique forms because of the different types of…

Comedy has changed exponentially throughout the years. Different genres of comedy have all emerged from the one proceeding before it. For example, vaudeville emerged from black face minstrelsy. Yet, none of the various genres of comedy could have been made without refinement. Two authors that write about refinement are Robert Snyder, and Richard Zoglin. In Snyder’s piece, he makes the claim that businessman BF Keith refined the audience. While in Zoglin’s text, Zoglin argues that Robin…

Comedy has been and always will be a classic genre of books, music, movies, and staged theatrical productions. Reckless by Craig Lucas is an example of a successful attempt at dark comedy. It makes light of hired assassinations, murder, accidental killing, and human psychology. I found this play to be hilarious. It reminded me of one of my favorite mottos: if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. But what is it about this play that makes the comedy so successful? What occurs throughout the course of the…

Historical evidence tells us that Tragedy was far more prominent and performed quite frequently during competitions and festivals in Ancient Greece. Although a comedy performance was not unheard of it was somewhat of a rarity and works from before 440BC are sadly lost to us today, making it harder to pinpoint or theorize on the evolution of comedic plays and comedy in ancient Greece theatre. Early indications of comedy can be found Athenian pottery with depictions of men dressed as animals and…

Comically Crude The line drawn between comedy and vulgar references have become blurred in today's society. A comedian may make a joke which offends a great body of people all for the purpose of making a few laugh. Famous comedians make a living off of exploiting both groups, and individual peoples, with derogatory comments in order to make large masses of money. In the past, comedians would cross social lines and force society forward using both obscene language and seemingly deranged or lewd…