Western history Dionysiac origins, Aristophanes and Aristotle depicting a scene from
Menander's comedy
Samia ("The Woman from Samos") Starting from 425 BCE,
Aristophanes, a comic play and satirical author of the
Ancient Greek theater, wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the earlier
satyr plays, which were often highly
obscene. The only surviving examples of the satyr plays are by
Euripides, which are much later examples and not representative of the genre. In ancient Greece, comedy originated in bawdy and
ribald songs or recitations apropos of
phallic processions and fertility festivals or gatherings. Around 335 BCE,
Aristotle, in his work
Poetics, stated that comedy originated in
phallic processions and the light treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that the origins of comedy are obscure because it was not treated seriously from its inception. However, comedy had its own
Muse:
Thalia.
Aristotle taught that comedy was generally positive for society, since it brings forth happiness, which for
Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal in any activity. For Aristotle, a comedy did not need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate rise of a sympathetic character. Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres:
farce,
romantic comedy, and
satire. On the other hand,
Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He believed that it produces an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In
The Republic, he says that the guardians of the state should avoid laughter, "for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes a violent reaction." Plato says comedy should be tightly controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state. Also in
Poetics, Aristotle defined comedy as one of the original four genres of
literature: verse,
drama (comedy,
tragedy, and the
satyr play),
lyric poetry, and
epic poetry. Literature, in general, is defined by Aristotle as a
mimesis, or imitation of life. Comedy is the most divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic poetry, comedy, and lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle's definition. Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims and end with some accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance of the aims.
Commedia dell'arte and Shakespearean, Elizabethan comedy of Shakespeare's ''
Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1600) "Comedy", in its
Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. The
Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian
commedia dell'arte. The figure of Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of
Pulcinella. The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in 1662. Appearing at a significant period in British history, professor Glyn Edwards states: "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of
Puritanism. We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from a marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain — a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our
political cartoons."
19th to early 20th century In early 19th century England,
pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown
Joseph Grimaldi, while comedy routines also featured heavily in British
music hall theatre which became popular in the 1850s. British
comedians who honed their skills in music hall sketches include
Charlie Chaplin,
Stan Laurel and
Dan Leno. Karno was a pioneer of
slapstick, and in his biography, Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Film producer
Hal Roach stated: "Fred Karno is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him." American
vaudeville emerged in the 1880s and remained popular until the 1930s, and featured comedians such as
W. C. Fields,
Buster Keaton and the
Marx Brothers.
20th century theatre and art Surreal humour (also known as 'absurdist humour'), or 'surreal comedy', is a form of
humour predicated on deliberate violations of
causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously
illogical. Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, incongruity,
non-sequiturs, irrational or absurd situations and expressions of
nonsense. The humour arises from a subversion of audience's expectations, so that amusement is founded on
unpredictability, separate from a logical analysis of the situation. The humour derived gets its appeal from the ridiculousness and unlikeliness of the situation. The genre has roots in
Surrealism in the arts. The goals of these movements were in some sense serious, and they were committed to undermining the solemnity and self-satisfaction of the contemporary artistic
establishment. As a result, much of their art was intentionally amusing. A famous example is
Marcel Duchamp's
Fountain (1917), an inverted urinal signed "R. Mutt". This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history, and one of the earliest examples of the
found object movement. It is also a joke, relying on the inversion of the item's function as expressed by its title as well as its incongruous presence in an art exhibition.
20th century film, records, radio, and television as "
The Tramp" (1921) and
Bill Cosby (1973) The advent of cinema in the late 19th century, and later radio and television in the 20th century broadened the access of comedians to the general public.
Charlie Chaplin, through silent film, became one of the best-known faces on Earth. The silent tradition lived on well into the late 20th century through mime artists like
Marcel Marceau, and the slapstick comedy of artists like
Rowan Atkinson (as
Mr. Bean). The tradition of the circus clown also continued, with such as
Bozo the Clown in the United States and
Oleg Popov in Russia. Radio provided new possibilities — with Britain producing the influential
surreal humour of the
Goon Show after the Second World War. The Goons' influence spread to the American radio and
recording troupe
the Firesign Theatre.
American cinema has produced a great number of globally renowned comedy artists, from
Laurel and Hardy, the
Three Stooges,
Abbott and Costello,
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis,
Bob Hope and
Phyllis Diller during the mid-20th century, to performers like
George Carlin,
Bill Cosby,
Joan Rivers,
Robin Williams, and
Eddie Murphy toward the end of the century.
Hollywood attracted many international talents like the British comics
Peter Sellers,
Dudley Moore and
Sacha Baron Cohen, Canadian comics
Dan Aykroyd,
Jim Carrey, and
Mike Myers, and the
Australian comedian Paul Hogan, famous for
Crocodile Dundee. Other centres of creative comic activity have been the
cinema of Hong Kong,
Bollywood, and French
farce. American television has also been an influential force in world comedy: with American series like
M*A*S*H,
Seinfeld and
The Simpsons achieving large followings around the world. British television comedy also remains influential, with quintessential works including
Fawlty Towers,
Monty Python, ''
Dad's Army, Blackadder, and The Office''. Australian satirist
Barry Humphries, whose comic creations include the housewife and "gigastar" Dame
Edna Everage, for his delivery of Dadaist and
absurdist humour to millions, was described by biographer Anne Pender in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time ... [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since
Charlie Chaplin".
Nonwestern history Indian classical drama sometimes contained elements of satire and parody, with well-known comedic plays including
Mṛcchakatika by
Shudraka and
Ratnavali. By 200 BC,
Bharata Muni's
Natya Shastra defined humour (
hāsyam) as one of the nine
nava rasas, or principle
rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by
bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. In this case, the
rasa of humour was associated with the
bhava of laughter/mirth (
hasya). Similarly to America,
Indian cinema would exert a large influence on the humour of South Asia. There are many traditions of
Chinese comedy.
Xiangsheng, also known as crosstalk, is usually a rapid dialogue between two people which emphasizes
word play and
allusions. Japan has a long tradition of verbal comedy, most notably
Rakugo, a form of comic storytelling in which a single seated performer narrates humorous tales using dialogue, vocal variation, and minimal props.It was developed from medieval setsuwa literature and Buddhist preaching and became a popular professional performance art during the Edo period. == Studies on comic theory ==