Discuss the characteristics of five forms of comedy and cite specific examples of each

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Satire contains topical humor that attacks the follies or institutionalized vices of a particular society. It is a form that is marked by irony and wit, and that usually has a moral or critical point of view. Examples include the plays of Aristophanes, The Colbert Report, and the musical Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson.
• Situation comedy is concerned with eternal social problems. Often situation comedies turn on a ridiculous premise, and chance or accident leads to plot complications. The chaos is always happily resolved in a comic denouement. Examples include the plays of Menander and Plautus, and weekly television sitcoms.
• Farce uses broad slapstick humor, extreme situations, and superficial characterization. Its plots are intricate and carefully planned plots, woven out of misunderstandings and coincidences, and based on a far-fetched premise. Examples include the plays of Victorien Sardou and Georges Feydeau; Michael Frayn's Noises Off; and Ken Ludwig's Lend Me a Tenor.
• Romantic comedies center around the relationships between sympathetic young lovers whose destiny in marriage meets with obstacles to fulfillment. They inevitably end in consummation of the promised love in marriage. Examples include Shakespeare's comedies such as As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Love's Labour's Lost.
• Comedies of manners make fun of ridiculous social mores or practices and the people who engage in them, painting a pointed portrait of contemporary trendy society. Examples include plays by Molière, William Congreve, and George Wycherly; Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest; and, more recently, Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage.