The Art of Comedy WritingRoutledge, 2017 M09 29 - 136 pages Just as a distinctive literary voice or style is marked by the ease with which it can be parodied, so too can specific aspects of humor be unique. Playwrights, television writers, novelists, cartoonists, and film scriptwriters use many special technical devices to create humor. Just as dramatic writers and novelists use specific devices to craft their work, creators of humorous materials from the ancient Greeks to today's stand-up comics have continued to use certain techniques in order to generate humor. In The Art of Comedy Writing, Arthur Asa Berger argues that there are a relatively limited number of techniques forty-five in all that humorists employ. Elaborating upon his prior, in-depth study of humor, An Anatomy of Humor, in which Berger provides a content analysis of humor in all forms joke books, plays, comic books, novels, short stories, comic verse, and essaysThe Art of Comedy Writing goes further. Berger groups each technique into four basic categories: humor involving identity such as burlesque, caricature, mimicry, and stereotype; humor involving logic such as analogy, comparison, and reversal; humor involving language such as puns, wordplay, sarcasm, and satire; and finally, chase, slapstick, and speed, or humor involving action. Berger claims that if you want to know how writers or comedians create humor study and analysis of their humorous works can be immensely insightful. This book is a unique analytical offering for those interested in humor. It provides writers and critics with a sizable repertoire of techniques for use in their own future comic creations. As such, this book will be of interest to people inspired by humor and the creative process professionals in the comedy field and students of creative writing, comedy, literary humor, communications, broadcast/media, and the humanities. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 72
... there are forty-five techniques (no fewer, no more) that comedy writers and all humorists have used, do use, and must use—to generate humor. The book will be of use to anyone interested in humor. It is meant to help playwrights ...
... There is one requirement: if you are going to use these techniques, you've got to have a sense of humor. Let me offer an analogy. I recently watched a marvelous television documentary on Flamenco dancing. The dance teacher said “...there ...
... there are yearly contests in which Hemingway parodies are awarded prizes. If authors cannot be parodied, it would suggest that there is not much that is distinctive in their writing style. But there are other styles of writing that are ...
... there are different styles one can adopt in writing, there are also a number of techniques one can use in generating humor in texts. I have developed a typology of techniques of humor, reproduced in the chartbelow (taken from my book An ...
... there is a certain amount of duplication here and there.) My chart listing the forty-five techniques of humor is shown below. Categories and Techniques of Humor LANGUAGE LOGIC IDENTITY ACTION Allusion Absurdity Before/After Chase ...
Contents
1 | |
Miles Gloriosus | 51 |
Twelfth Night | 65 |
The School for Scandal | 83 |
The Bald Soprano | 97 |
6 Beyond Devices | 111 |
Bibliography | 119 |
Name Index | 123 |
Subject Index | 125 |