A_Witty_Saying_Proves_Nothing

"a witty saying proves nothing" Voltiare “People tell me laughter is infectious, I say, so is leprosy” Laughter is arguably the single greatest felling of ecstasy a human can ever experience and I dare you to find a person that doesn’t enjoy a hearty chortle from time to time; so it is no wonder that comedy has become one of the most incessant art forms in all of human history. Webster’s defines comedy as “a ludicrous or farcical event”, however, perhaps the best description of the purpose of comedy comes from the tombstone of Stan Laurel, the smaller portion of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy “A master of comedy ... bought gladness to the world he loved” another more cynical interpretation comes from American humorist Garrison Keiller “God writes a lot of comedy...The trouble is he’s stuck with so many bad actors who don’t know how to play funny”. The western form of comedy originated in classical Greek drama merely as a way to include a brighter side in tales of tragedy, most academics speculate that the first form of comedy and the precursor to other comedic works was Homers Odyssey the tale of Odysseus’s return from the Trojan war ,full of the typical comedic themes of lust, murder and jealousy with the occasional 50 foot tall one eyed giant that we tend to not associated with modern comedy; Other great works of comedy include Dante’s Divine Comedy –originally just called Comedy by Dante until a lesser writer decided to christen it the Divina Commedia after his death-and Monty Python and the holy grail (1975). Modern comedy is usually divided into categories based on source of humour, the method of delivery and it context. One of the most widely popular forms is black comedy a category that appeals to the most paradoxal parts of the human psyche, Tragedy is funny. Black comedy is comedy that deals with disturbing subjects such as death and war-“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die” Mel brooks, Black comedy can best be seen in films such as Stanley Kubrick Dr Strangelove (1964), in the works of writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain and in television series such as M.A.S.H, the chasers war on everything and Monty pythons flying circus another popular form of comedy is observational humour often called lazy man (or women’s) comedy, observational humour intends to create mirth by making humorous remarks about everyday events, this form was popularized by typically nineties sitcoms like Seinfeld and Friends and the stand work of comics like Joan river, Joy Behar, Ellen DeGeneres ,George Lopez and Ray Romano. Observational humour intends to provoke though and poke fun at human life by inflating the importance of unimportant things. Over the course of history types of comedic style one associates with have often been seen as an indication of social class and intelligence or lack thereof, Wit and word play is often referred to as the thinking man’s comedy this form of comedy is based on clever, often subtle manipulation of language an the use of puns, that can be used to highlight irony. Wit and wordplay has been used by the likes of John Donne, Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx, Shakespeare and possibly the most ingenious creators of possibly the greatest work of friction yet seen, The Simpsons. “I have nothing to declare except my genius “Oscar Wilde upon arriving at a customs office, “Me fail English, that’s unpossible” Ralph Wigam, “When I held that gun in my hand, I felt a surge of power – like god must feel when he’s holding a gun” Homer Simpson. To define comedy or explain why we laugh is impossible, all that can be said of comedy is that is fill an important part of our lives that could be filed with something more important, perhaps the reason for comedy is best presents by Voltaire “ God is a comedian playing to an audience to afraid to laugh”.