Prowriter)) Comedy in Television and Theater There Essay

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Prowriter))

Comedy in Television and Theater

There are many forms of comedy, but two of the largest distinctions are high comedy and low comedy. "High comedy[…]evokes "intellectual laughter" -- thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the action" (Abrams, Harpham 51). A television show which incorporates high comedy is Monty Python's Flying Circus. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" is one such example of satire and witty banter which requires the audience, or spectators, to not only have a sizeable vocabulary (as John Cleese and Michael Palin exchange a myriad of terms for describing the parrot's state) but must be aware of the satirical value of some of Cleese's lines. "If you want to get anything done in this country, you've got to complain until you're blue in the mouth," Cleese says after being exasperated in his efforts to prove that the parrot he purchased is, in fact, dead. Later in the sketch he comments, "That's intercity rail for you," implying in that scene that the underground train system is deficient (even though he has, in fact, arrived at his destination).

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Low comedy, on the other hand, "has little or no intellectual appeal, but undertakes to arouse laughter by jokes, or "gags," and by slapstick humor and boisterous or clownish physical activity; it is, therefore, one of the common components of farce" (Abrams, Harpham 51). Along with most sitcoms, Seinfeld makes use of low comedy. Consider the character Kramer, whose own brand of physical comedy, while not requiring much thought, was a constant source for laughter on the show. Other plot devices, such as mistaken identity (common in low comedy), can be seen in episodes like "The Opera" wherein Jerry and Elaine's miscommunication about the identification of "Joey" leaves them both frightened of "Crazy Joe Divola."

In Jane Martin's play Tattoo, there are five very distinctive characters, each granted their own dialogue style that helps to set them apart. Link speaks with a sense….....

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