Be sure to read Chapters 2 & 3 for Tuesday's class, where we'll delve into more theories and ideas about comedy and what we find funny. Here are some questions to consider, one of which may return to haunt you on Tuesday:
* Bevis reminds us that "the comic cannot exist without sensousness'; the comic writer 'fastens our mind upon physical detail'" (21). Why is the body such a source of humor for audiences? Why do we need to be reminded of it--as well as the sensations relating to it--to achieve comedy?
* Why does comedy make more sense on stage than on the page? Why do we often need to 'see' it for it to make sense? Consider that Jorge Luis Borges, the famous writer, suggests that "Humour, I suspect, is an oral genre" (24).
* The word wit comes from the root "witan," which means "to know." How does this tie into the purpose of comedy as discussed in Chapter 1? Do you think this is still true today? Does comedy teach us "to know"?
* What does it mean that "all men are necessarily comic: for they are all things, or physical bodies, behaving as persons" (29).
* Also, what does it mean to say "the body is the most imaginary of all imaginary objects" (32). Isn't the body the LEAST imaginary of all objects? Or is this a joke in itself?
* Bevis writes that comedy "is frequently born from the disparity between what a person is and what he affects to be" (39). Why is this funny, and how does this relate to the concept of one's "character"?
* What is the difference between a character and a caricature?
* Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying "One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead" (43). How might this explain the appeal of comedy and of the characters in a comedy?
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