| Term | Definition |
|---|
| high comedy | wit, grace, and sophistication; focuses on character complications or problems; intellectual humor |
| low comedy | emphasizes physical humor; pranks, bawdy jokes, and funny lines; aims to arouse explosive laughter |
| farce | a lively physical comedy with silly characters, sight gags, violent physical activity, and ridiculous events |
| Slapstick | low form of farce; depends almost entirely on physical action (hitting, tripping, etc) and on exaggerated reactions from characters, example: the 3 stooges |
| satire | designed to correct social and individual behavior; exposes and ridicules the evil, hypocrisy, pretentiousness, or stupidity of person(s) |
| Horatian | gently mocking satire |
| Juvenalian | viciously biting satire |
| Romantic Comedy | the adventures of lovers trying to overcome opposition to have a successful union; purpose is to amuse/entertain, so the they are treated gently and sympathetically |
| comedy of manners | usually high comedy; social conventions of society are examined and satirized; focus on the attitudes, manners, and morals of the upper classes; feature clever characters exchanging clever remarks |
| caricature | a distorted portrayal or view of a person or idea, exaggerating one particular feature |
| chiasmus | a pattern of repeating items, usually words, in the sequence A-B-B-A; example: "I don't eat to live, I live to eat." |
| epigram | a concise, cleverly worded remark making a pointed witty statement, example: "I can resist everything except temptation." |
| hyperbole | a figure of speech that uses exaggeration, example: "I could eat a horse." |
| Invective | abusive speech or name calling |
| ironic reversal | the expression of sentiments or language that is the opposite of what would ordinarily be expected |
| malapropism | unintended, often hilarious, misapplication of a word |
| mimicry | the imitation of someone's speech or movement, for ridicule |
| parody | the satirical imitation of a literary work, person, situation, etc., usually exaggeration |
| pun | a form of word play based on the different meanings of similar sounding words. example: "When a clock is hungry it goes back FOUR seconds" |
| sarcasm | is verbal irony that is clearly bitter and mocking |
| verbal irony | language stating the opposite of what is meant, example: "Oh, great." after something rotten happens |
| Wit | the display of cleverness and quickness in the expression of ideas; generally revealed through illusions, phrasing, comparisons,etc., rather that situations or events |
| zeugma | figure of speech where two or more parts of a sentence are joined together with a single common verb or noun, example: "He walked through her door into her heart." |
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