Comedy Terms (AP Lit)

What is the comic?

The comic is the product of a perceived incongruity between a subject-matter and its treatment.

Low Comedy

A type of comedy that lacks seriousness and subtlety, often featuring boisterous conduct and loud humor.

High Comedy

Pure or serious comedy that appeals to intellect and exhibits human follies and social manners.

Burlesque

A form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion of subject matter.

Farce

A light dramatic work with improbable plots and slapstick elements for humorous effect.

Lampoon

A broad satirical piece that uses ridicule to attack a person or group.

Parody

A composition imitating or burlesquing another, usually serious, piece of work, designed to ridicule it.

Satire

The use of humor, irony, or ridicule to criticize follies and vices.

Slapstick

A boisterous form of comedy marked by chases, physical mishaps and crude practical jokes.

Travesty

The treatment of a serious subject in a frivolous manner, reducing everything to its lowest level, making a mockery (similar to burlesque and parody but those may do the reverse).

Comedy of Ideas

Where characters argue about ideas (like politics, religion, marriage) and use wit to satirize people and institutions.

Comedy of Manners (THIS IS WHAT IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST IS)

Focuses on love affairs among the upper classes, emphasizing witty language and clever speech.

Caricature

An exaggerated representation that exaggerates distinctive features for comic or grotesque effect.

Colloquialism

The use of slang or informal language, including regional dialect.

Deflation

When something that has elevated status is treated in a way that reduces its esteem.

Disparagement

To speak of in a slighting way; belittle; reduce in rank or esteem

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for an unpleasant word or concept.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis.

Incongruity

A surprising contrast occurring through situation, image, allusion, character, diction, anachronism, etc.

Invective

Harsh, abusive language directed against a person or cause. Invective is a vehicle, a tool of anger. It’s the bitterest of all satire

Verbal Irony

Discrepancy between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant

Situational Irony

Discrepancy between what is expected and reality

Dramatic Irony

Discrepancy between what the reader/audience knows and what a character knows

Knaves & Fools

In comedy, there are no villains and innocent victims; there are the rogues (knaves) and suckers (fools). The knave exploits someone “asking for it”. When these two interact, comic satire results. When knaves and fools meet, they expose each other.

Litotes

A form of understatement affirming something by stating the negative of its opposite (ex: “she’s not uninterested in boys” to mean she’s boy crazy).

Malapropism

Use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical expression.

Non-sequitur

An inference or conclusion that does not logically follow from the premises.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms, like 'jumbo shrimp'.

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but may reveal a truth upon closer inspection.

Parody

A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule

Pun (zeugma)

A play on words based on similarity of sound between two words with different meanings.

Sarcasm

An exaggerated form of verbal irony meant to ridicule or hurt.

Stereotyping

A simplified and conventional image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Understatement

When the literal sense of what is being said is less than what is meant (ex: when someone says “pretty fair” but means “splendid”).

Wit

Clever use of language intended to evoke laughter.