Ap English Literature Comedy Terms

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Low Comedy

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lacks seriousness of purpose or subtlety of manner and has little intellectual appeal - quarrelling, fighting, noisy singing, boisterous conduct in general, boasting, burlesque, trickery; buffoonery, clownishness, drunkenness, coarse jesting, wordplay, and scolding

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High Comedy

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Pure or serious comedy - appeals to the intellect and arouses thoughtful laughter by exhibiting the inconsistencies and incongruities of human nature and by displaying the follies of social manners

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Burlesque

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form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion

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Farce

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a light dramatic work in which highly improbably plot, exaggerated character, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effects

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Lampoon

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a broad satirical piece that uses ridicule to attack a person or group

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Parody

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a work that closely imitates the style of another work

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Satire

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holding up to ridicule the follies and vices of a people or time

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Slapstick

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boisterous from of comedy marked by chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes

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Travesty

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presents a serious (often religious) subject frivolously - reduces everything to its lowest level

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Caricature

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a representation in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect

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Colloquialism

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use of slang or informal language - includes regional dialect

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Deflation

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an object either assumes or is given elevated status and then is treated such a way that estimation of the object decreases

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Disparagement

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to speak of in a slighting way; belittle; reduce in rank or esteem

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Euphemism

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a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept

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Hyperbole

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an extreme exaggeration

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Incongruity

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a surprising contrast occurring through situation, image, allusion, character, diction, anachronism, etc.

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Invective

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harsh, abusive language directed against a person or cause

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Verbal Irony

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discrepancy between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant

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Situational Irony

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discrepancy between what is expected and reality

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Dramatic Irony

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discrepancy between what the reader or audience knows and what a character knows

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Knaves and Fools

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rogues-knaves- someone asking for it
suckers-fools

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Litotes

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a form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by negating its opposite

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Malapropism

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an inappropriateness of speech resulting from the use of one word for another which resembles it

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Non-sequitur

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inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premise or evidence

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Oxymoron

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a group of apparently contradictory terms suggesting a paradox

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Paradox

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a statement that seems contradictory but is actually valid or true

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Parody

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a work that closely imitates the style of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule

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Pun (zeugma)

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a play on words based on the similarity of sound between two words with different meanings

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Sarcasm

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an exaggerated form of verbal irony; bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something

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Stereotyping

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a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or language

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Understatement

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says less that what is actually meant

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Wit

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intellectual language that is meant to surprise and delight