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
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... thing. In the great authors, this style or voice is often easily recognizable; it has to do with how authors use language, with the tone authors adopt, and with the way authors infuse their philosophy and knowledge about life into their ...
... literalness Repetition Mimicry Puns, Wordplay Reversal Parody Repartee Rigidity Scale Ridicule Theme/Variation Stereotype Sarcasm Unmasking Satire Let me point out a number of things about this Comic Techniques in Dramatic Comedies 3.
Arthur Asa Berger. Let me point out a number of things about this list: 1. I recognize that I have listed as techniques satire and parody, which many critics see as styles or genres rather than techniques and this causes problems. But I ...
... things as well, such as plot, theme and characterization. In the chart that follows, I will list these techniques in ... thing I don't understand. In the Comic Techniques in Dramatic Comedies 5.
... things like slips of the tongue, typographic errors that are amusing, people slipping on banana peels, and that kind of thing. There is a difference between accidents, which are based on chance, and errors or mistakes, which are based ...
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 |