HC - Humor/Comedy Module Overview

Humor/Comedy

Introduction

Throughout this unit, consider and reflect upon the relationship between the purpose of a text and the devices which authors use to achieve their distinctive style. First, we will read selections from three classic works of comedy. We will study the relationship between tragedy and comedy. Next, we will analyze American comedy by Mark Twain and discover effective rhetorical elements of language regarding humor. We will examine the characteristics of southern gothic and dark humor by reading Flannery O'Connor, while keeping in mind the relationship between tragedy and comedy. Next, we will introduce the genre of satire by examining an essay by Jonathan Swift. In the last lesson, we will discover the importance and effects of comedic timing by listening to essays by contemporary American humorists. The final element of the unit is the completion of a mock multiple choice AP test.

Essential Questions

  1. What makes us laugh and why?
  2. How does language serve as the vehicle for comedy?
  3. Can humor be instructional as well as entertaining?
  4. How does the author's tone signal meaning in humorous works?
  5. How can satire be a tool for political change?

Laughter

Ever seen an animal laugh? In an earlier module, we looked at language as the possible skill that made us human. Scholars consider the question of how humans are distinct. Scientists study behavioral characteristics that separate humans from animals. In their findings one may assume that rationality, conscience, and morality would stand as the distinguishing characteristics of man, but no. Laughter separates us from the animal kingdom. This is puzzling. What purpose does laughter serve?

Some may argue that laughter must be provoked by something comical and that animals lack the mental depth to distinguish such episodes, but even infants have the capacity to laugh abundantly. 

Watch the video below for an example.

 

Key Terms

  1. Classic comedy: Genre of dramatic literature that deals with the light and amusing or with the serious and profound in a light, familiar, or satirical manner.
  2. Sarcasm: mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult.
  3. Satire: The literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation.
  4. Parody: A work of literature that imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work by applying the imitation to a lowly comically inappropriate subject.
  5. Mock epic: A type of parody that imitates both the elaborate form and the ceremonious style of the epic, but applies it to narrate a commonplace or trivial subject matter.
  6. Dark/Gothic humor: Having gloomy or disturbing elements, especially one in which a character suffers an irreparable loss.

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.