A Witty Saying Proves Nothing
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- Category: English: Creative Writing
- Date Submitted: 06/01/2011 11:58 PM
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"a witty saying proves nothing" Voltiare
“People tell me laughter is infectious, I say, so is leprosy”
Laughter is arguably the single greatest felling of ecstasy a human can ever experience and I dare you to find a person that doesn’t enjoy a hearty chortle from time to time; so it is no wonder that comedy has become one of the most incessant art forms in all of human history.
Webster’s defines comedy as “a ludicrous or farcical event”, however, perhaps the best description of the purpose of comedy comes from the tombstone of Stan Laurel, the smaller portion of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy “A master of comedy ... bought gladness to the world he loved” another more cynical interpretation comes from American humorist Garrison Keiller “God writes a lot of comedy...The trouble is he’s stuck with so many bad actors who don’t know how to play funny”.
The western form of comedy originated in classical Greek drama merely as a way to include a brighter side in tales of tragedy, most academics speculate that the first form of comedy and the precursor to other comedic works was Homers Odyssey the tale of Odysseus’s return from the Trojan war ,full of the typical comedic themes of lust, murder and jealousy with the occasional 50 foot tall one eyed giant that we tend to not associated with modern comedy; Other great works of comedy include Dante’s Divine Comedy –originally just called Comedy by Dante until a lesser writer decided to christen it the Divina Commedia after his death-and Monty Python and the holy grail (1975).
Modern comedy is usually divided into categories based on source of humour, the method of delivery and it context. One of the most widely popular forms is black comedy a category that appeals to the most paradoxal parts of the human psyche, Tragedy is funny. Black comedy is comedy that deals with disturbing subjects such as death and war-“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die” Mel brooks, Black comedy...
“People tell me laughter is infectious, I say, so is leprosy”
Laughter is arguably the single greatest felling of ecstasy a human can ever experience and I dare you to find a person that doesn’t enjoy a hearty chortle from time to time; so it is no wonder that comedy has become one of the most incessant art forms in all of human history.
Webster’s defines comedy as “a ludicrous or farcical event”, however, perhaps the best description of the purpose of comedy comes from the tombstone of Stan Laurel, the smaller portion of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy “A master of comedy ... bought gladness to the world he loved” another more cynical interpretation comes from American humorist Garrison Keiller “God writes a lot of comedy...The trouble is he’s stuck with so many bad actors who don’t know how to play funny”.
The western form of comedy originated in classical Greek drama merely as a way to include a brighter side in tales of tragedy, most academics speculate that the first form of comedy and the precursor to other comedic works was Homers Odyssey the tale of Odysseus’s return from the Trojan war ,full of the typical comedic themes of lust, murder and jealousy with the occasional 50 foot tall one eyed giant that we tend to not associated with modern comedy; Other great works of comedy include Dante’s Divine Comedy –originally just called Comedy by Dante until a lesser writer decided to christen it the Divina Commedia after his death-and Monty Python and the holy grail (1975).
Modern comedy is usually divided into categories based on source of humour, the method of delivery and it context. One of the most widely popular forms is black comedy a category that appeals to the most paradoxal parts of the human psyche, Tragedy is funny. Black comedy is comedy that deals with disturbing subjects such as death and war-“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die” Mel brooks, Black comedy...