Comedic Relief Essay

Overall, this farce is an excellent example of how to use the design process. The first scene I choose to examine highlights the design process of lighting. The second scene explains the importance of costume design. Even though only two examples are listed in this paper, the play as a whole has multiple examples of these two design principles, as well as multiple

There were several props used within the play which were significant for example, the toy guns which were used frequently, suggesting that there was a theme of violence and crime in Vernon God Little. This ties in with the beginning of the play, in where the character Jesus shot 17 students. Another important prop used was the black telephone used by Vernon and Taylor.

The scene is filled with bawdy references and second meanings, meanings which the audience would undoubtedly find uproarously funny. Hal, too, often speaks this language of the lower classes, especially when chiding Falstaff: "These lies are like the father that begets them--gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch--" (I Henry IV, II. iv. 224-227). The language Shakespeare uses in the tavern scenes is certainly different from the more solemn and courtly language found in the plays' more dramatic moments, as in Hal's gallantry towards Hotspur upon the latter's death:

During the play Cyrano de Bergerac there are often very deep and depressing moments and to pick the audience up Edmund Rostand used humor. This is seen in all of the acts throughout the play and is one of the main uses of humor in the play. This is not the only use of humor in this play it is also used by Cyrano to hide his insecurities. Throughout the play, Cyrano makes fun of his own nose to make it seem like he is comfortable with it and so others can not make fun of it. Humor definitely plays an important role in Cyrano de Bergerac and through this essay, I will be examining the role of Humor in the play in depth.

A comedic work of literature is often just one that was meant as pure enjoyment for the reader. Other times, comedy is meant to shed light on a serious situation or instance the public refuses or is uncomfortable talking about in a non-comedic setting. However, the greatest type of comedy is one that makes the reader think, one that provokes “thoughtful laughter” from them. “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a satirical play written during Victorian Era Britain by Oscar Wilde, is such a piece literature. By poking fun at the time period in which his characters live in during one particular scene, as well as illustrating the unsubdued hilarity of a character during that scene, Wilde is able to elicit thoughtful laughter from his audience, ultimately showing them that life is far too serious and needs to be taken more lightly.

Since the dawn of literature and drama, comedy and tragedy have always been partitioned into separate genres. Certainly most tragedies had comedic moments, and even the zaniest comedies were at times serious. However, even the development of said tragicomedies left the division more or less intact. Integrating a total comedy and a total tragedy into a holistic union that not only preserved both features, but also blended them into a new and harmonious entity remained elusive. That is, until Catch-22. Using his unique style and structure, Joseph Heller masterfully manages to interlay humor and terror, comedy and tragedy, and reveals in the process the

Laughter is a dominant emotional response because of reasons such as the brawling that Russ is provoked into. He does outrageous things such as threatening a minister and causing him to fall and hurt himself. There are also silly arguments that provoke laughter that happen throughout the play, such as one about what the capitals are of different countries. Lastly, in the second act all the characters start talking/yelling at once so that they just create useless noise, and even when at first politeness is taken to an extreme, nothing gets done in the meeting of the couples.

Humor can change the mood of any story. For example, try to guess the movie with this description: A widowed father’s only son is taken away from him, so he and mentally challenged women try to find him. This movie is Finding Nemo. When audiences think about Finding Nemo, they don’t think about it like that, even though that’s what the movie is actually about. Audiences perceive the story as a light-hearted and funny kids’ movie, when the main plot of the movie is dark. This is true of many humorous stories, as well in the comedy plays written by Shakespeare. The British poet used humor wisely in his plays. He used comedy as a diversion from the dark and somber parts of his stories. He also enabled audiences to laugh at circumstances that violate morals. Through distraction and seemingly inappropriate jokes, Merchant of Venice exhibits how Shakespeare uses humor to make his audiences laugh at the misfortunes in his comedy plays.

Theatre has been a prevalent form of entertainment for centuries. As time has progressed, the meaning behind theater has shifted to adapt with society appropriately. Different genres of theater have been emerging all throughout history and continue to emerge even today. There are so many different genres of theatre that any individual can relate to it. One can easily recall the major genres of theatre: drama, comedy, musicals. However, it is the sub-divisions within these major genres that evoke unique performances and experiences.

The story Don Quixote is a burlesque, mock epic of the romances of chivalry, in which Cervantes teaches the reader the truth by creating laughter that ridicules. Through the protagonist, he succeeds in satirizing Spain’s obsession with the noble knights as being absurdly old fashioned. The dynamics of the comedy in this story are simple, Don Quixote believes the romances he has read and strives to live them out, and it is his actions and the situations that he finds himself in during his adventures that make the reader laugh. We can define comedy as something that entertains the reader and that makes us want to laugh out loud and Cervantes succeeds in doing this through his use of

The reason we still have theatre today is purely because of Roman and Greek dramas. Even just the term “play” comes from Latin’s “ludus” meaning to play. Nowaday we still use this entertainment to distract our people from surrounding issues. Comedy is

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play that utilises comedy to convey complex ideas that are seen throughout the play, concepts like the jealousy Helena has towards Hermia, Egeus’s strong hostility towards Hermia and Lysander’s relationship and unrequited love. He uses comical tools like unconscious irony and hyperbole to turn rather difficult topics into humorous representations of them. Events like how Puck thinks Titania had fallen in love with him, not knowing he was bearing the head of an ass, are portrayed in a humorous way so the viewer understands the meaning, but sees it as a light- hearted narrative. Shakespeare carefully uses comedy that does not overpower the meaning of the play, but puts a completely different perspective on some of the themes.

In Volpone and Twelfth Night both Shakespeare and Jonson use disguise to make the audience laugh, but also to explore more serious themes. Such as gender issues within Shakespeare and Jonson with exploring greed and how it can destroy you. The playwrights make the audience laugh by using a range of different methods such as interaction with the audience throughout the plays. The writers’ purposes right at the beginning are to explore the theme of greed through humour, and explore the roles people hide behind. As Francois de La Rochefoucauld says; ‘We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves’ this suggests that mankind are so practised in disguise that the blur between reality and falsehood becomes invisible even to themselves. The audience’s expectation of the plays is to be engaged with them and for them to feel superior to the characters within the play; thus if the characters make fools of themselves they will laugh. Disguise is also something the audience wants to see. What the audience also wants is a sense of dramatic irony. This is used throughout - thus making the audience to feel as if they have the upper hand, they know more than the actual characters themselves.

Shakespeare has a difficult task entertaining the rowdy Elizabethan audience, especially during the exposition of the play, which sets up the entire plot. The audience needs to be engaged and invested in the play, otherwise many of the Elizabethan audience would throw food and furniture on stage or vandalize the theatre in response. Shakespeare employs a variety of techniques throughout the exposition of the play in order to do this, by creating tension between characters, introducing scandalous plots and unresolved issues right at the beginning of the play leaving the audience waiting for an answer. This essay will explore Shakespeare’s techniques and methods of engaging his Elizabethan audience.

There are many characteristics that make up a comedy. Characteristics such as mistaken identity, battle of the sexes, and jumping to conclusions are what set the comedic story apart from the tragedy. Within a comedy, no matter how much fault, and dismay may appear within the story, there always seems to be the classic ending of “…and they all lived happily ever after…” Comedies capture the viewer with a sense of compassion and love for the characters in the story. Each character has their own essence, to which they pertain a flaw of some sorts, which the audience can relate to. With the relation to characters there is defiantly a certain interest that is grabbed by the actors, which sucks the audience into the