Description
Book SynopsisSteve Neale and Frank Krutnik take as their starting point the remarkable diversity of comedy''s forms and modes - feature-length narratives, sketches and shorts, sit-com and variety, slapstick and romance. Relating this diversity to the variety of comedy''s basic conventions - from happy endings to the presence of gags and the involvement of humour and laughter - they seek both to explain the nature of these forms and conventions and to relate them to their institutional contexts. They propose that all forms and modes of the comic involve deviations from aesthetic and cultural conventions and norms, and, to demonstrate this, they discuss a wide range of programmes and films, from
Blackadder to
Bringing up Baby, from
City Limits to
Blind Date, from the
Roadrunner cartoons to
Bless this House and
The Two Ronnies. Comedies looked at in particular detail include: the classic slapstick films of Keaton, Lloyd, and Chaplin; Holly
Trade Review`Few books have been written about comedy, and this one sets out to redress the balance, defining comedy and trying to understand what makes a particular comedy popular. From sitcoms to stand-up, all types of comedy come under scrutiny by Neale and Krutnik.' - Press and Journal
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Section 1 1 Definitions, genres, and forms 2 Comedy and narrative 3 Gags, jokes, wisecracks, and comic events 4 Laughter, humour, and the comic 5 Verisimilitude Section 2 6 Hollywood, comedy, and The Case of Silent Slapstick 7 The comedy of the sexes Section 3 8 Comedy, television, and variety 9 Broadcast comedy and sit-com
