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Comedy: October 12, 2022 Issue [#11603]




 This week: Comedy
  Edited by: Robert Waltz Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.
         —Sholom Aleichem

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.
         —Miguel de Cervantes

We participate in a tragedy; at a comedy we only look.
         —Aldous Huxley


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Letter from the editor

As hyper-intelligent consumers of literature, we've all seen things labeled "comedy" that aren't funny. For example, Dante's Divine Comedy.

The origin of the word "comedy," insofar as I've been able to trace it, dates back to ancient Greece. The etymology, as is so often the case, stops there, as if all concepts suddenly appeared, fully formed like Athena from Zeus's noggin, in Grecian antiquity. Originally, it could, but didn't have to, contain humorous elements; what made something a comedy (smiling face mask) rather than a tragedy (wailing face mask) was that a comedy had a happy ending.

Those face masks were, I'm convinced, the ancient world's equivalent of today's laugh tracks and somber musical scores. They told the audience what their reaction should be.

And that seems to be the sense that Dante Alighieri used. Now, I haven't read the whole thing (according to Wikipedia, it contains over 14 thousand lines), but I get the impression it was serious fanfiction. Still, I suppose the narrator surviving his tour of the mythological afterlife was a happy ending... at least for a little while. Which is why it was called a comedy at that time (late 15th century).

I'm of the considered opinion that there's no such thing as a happy ending; there are only stories that wrap up too soon.

But I digress. Anyone who was forced to skim the Cliff's Notes for Shakespeare in school knows that Billy wrote three kinds of plays: comedies, tragedies, and histories. I suspect the histories were mostly tragedies, but I'm ignoring them for our purposes today and because I never actually read them. Every time I try, I start out with "Once more into the breach, dear friends!" and end up with "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

I had a drama teacher who pointed out that the difference between a Shakespearean comedy and tragedy is that the comedy starts with a death and ends with a marriage, while the tragedy starts with a marriage and ends with a death. Or several deaths, like in Romeo and Juliet, which I am firmly convinced was meant as satire.

In any case, I'd put anything that ends in a marriage into the "Horror" genre, but I may be biased.

Humorous works of art (plays, music, poetry, etc.), of course, started long before Shakespeare; the Greeks probably claimed to have invented that, too. But I think it was Shakespeare that cemented the association between "comedy" and "humor." Oh, wait, he was British: "humour."

But even today, when you see the word "comedy," or something like it, don't always assume you're going to laugh your ass off, especially if the thing in question is classic literature. Listen for the laugh track.


Editor's Picks

Some funnies for your reading pleasure:

 Invalid Item Open in new Window. []

by A Guest Visitor


 Battling the Elements Open in new Window. [13+]
A melodrama about a man at war with winter elements.
by Eean Black Author Icon


 My Epitaph Open in new Window. [E]
Carved on my tombstone?
by Liam Author Icon


 Winner Open in new Window. [E]
What a Character
by Odessa Molinari Author Icon


 Invalid Item Open in new Window. []

by A Guest Visitor


 Invalid Item Open in new Window. []

by A Guest Visitor


The Art of Disingenuous Apologies Open in new Window. [18+]
Dramatic, funny essay based off of a conversation I had about fake apologies.
by Charlie ~ Author Icon


 Soup's On You Open in new Window. [13+]
food fight
by Pumpkin Spice Sox Author Icon

 
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Ask & Answer

Last time, in "DeathOpen in new Window., I noted that death can drive comedy.

YugiohPKMN Author Icon: …what happened to the cat? It sounds like it didn’t make it….

         As this is the Comedy newsletter and not the Tragedy newsletter, I purposely left that part out.

So that's it for me for October! See you next month. Until then,

LAUGH ON!!!



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