Skoukor Facts | Facts Page

Jump to Fact

Today's Issue		Thursday 9th January 2025

Share: Facebook | Twitter | Whatsapp | Linkedin Visits: 96

Laughing More and Crying Less

by Debbie Lynn
December 14 2024

Modern comedy is usually humorous light-comedy with a happy conclusion. Comedies on television and in the movies, which make people laugh, are often played by people known for their comedic roles and are often comedians. Television comedies are often called “sitcoms” a shortened version of “situational comedy.”

Slapstick comedy is a “physical comedy” where characters trip, fall and have mishaps with stage props. Slapstick was used abundantly in the silent movie era of the 1920s. Charlie Chaplin was a popular slapstick comedic actor of the silent era, and later in the 1950s and 1960s Jerry Lewis was a well-known popular comedic actor. Comedic works that criticize society and living people are usually typical of satire. Plautus was a well-known comedy writer in ancient Rome often writing plays using Greek comedies. Ancient Greeks held comedic competitions at the Festival of Dionysia 400 years before Christ.

William Shakespeare was a British writer in the 1500s who wrote comedic plays such as “All’s Well That Ends Well”, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” At the time of Shakespeare comedy was not about making people laugh, but about the problems of the main characters being resolved by the end of the play as opposed to a Tragedy where the end results are usually a main character dying. Often represented by the dual comedy and tragedy masks, one smiling and one crying.