Comedy Essays

It is not uncommon to sometimes hear or see what here in America is considered to be a strange or different name and decide to make fun of it or the holder of that name. This is a major obstacle that an Iranian immigrant named Firoozeh Dumas, author of “The …

In the Shakespearean comedy “The Taming of the Shrew”, William Shakespeare cleverly uses the techniques; Satire, Caricatures, Wit and Irony to create humour. “The Simpsons” & “The Big Bang Theory” are television shows that also engage the audiences with the same comedic techniques. The comedic technique satire is used in …

The 1980’s play Educating Rita by Willy Russel shows many of the main features of comedy. It involves two different societies clashing, for example. Rita, a hairdresser who comes from a working class family and is married to Denny whose aim in life is to have a baby, wants to …

A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic [bitterly cutting/burning] wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. (dictionary.com) Ian Johnston, retired instructor at Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, offers helpful information in more clearly …

“To what extent does the final scene (Act 5 . Scene 1) of Twelfth Night muddle our expectations of how a dramatic comedy should be resolved?” Twelfth Night or What You Will, is the only play of Shakespeare’s to receive a double title that could also display / suggest a …

The comedy of the Importance of Being Earnest uses spoken language to convey comical actions rather than physical actions. The Importance of Being Ernest is a drama because of its origins as a play, but also a contextual comedy as the characters follow the general format of falling in love …

‘Successful satirists achieve a balance between amusement and criticism.’ Discuss. The balance between amusement and critique is a central dynamic of successful satire, as it is through humour that the satire may censure its target, prompting the respondent to revaluate their own perspective with that of the satirist. Through his …

Who are the most influential writers of comedy on screen over the last two decades? It would be hard to argue that any genre on TV hasn’t changed, followed social trends or broken out into sub-genres in the past twenty years but comedy specifically has changed drastically since the early …

The Importance of Being Earnest is considered by many to be a comedy of manners, focusing on the love lives of aristocratic young people, and relying on the use of verbal wit, stock characters and humour over developing a deep plot and sense of character. In this scene, Gwendolen and …

The poem Acceptance Speech by Lynn Powell is about a housewife who feels undervalued by her family and by society. The title of the poem suggests that the character has received an award for achieving something brilliant, but in fact she is being sarcastic and conducting an imaginary award ceremony …