Comedic Devices

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Comedic Devices
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Primary comedic devices Repetition
Wordplay Farce
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RepetitionRepeating something several times
over and over can be funny, but then again, it
can get old fast.
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FarceA farce is a comedy which aims to
entertain the audience by means of unlikely and
extravagant - yet often possible - situations,
disguise and mistaken identity.
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Farce (cont)Broad physical humor, and
deliberate absurdity or nonsense, are also
commonly employed in farce.
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Farce (cont)Also uses verbal humor of varying
degrees of sophistication, which may include puns
and sexual innuendo.
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Farce (cont)A fast-paced plot whose speed
usually increases even further towards the end of
the play, often involving elaborate chase scene
can also be part of a farce.
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More Comedic Devices
Heres just a few more comedic devices you might
find in a humorous piece, like a Shakespearian
play or modern comedy.
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Mistaken IdentityWhen one character is
mistaken for someone else.
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Slapstick Involves exaggerated physical
violence or activities.
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Stock characters Are fictional characters that
rely heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for
its personality, manner of speech, and other
characteristics.
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Spoonerism (History) A spoonerism is a play on
words in which corresponding consonants, vowels,
or morphemes are switched. Named after the
Reverend William Archibald Spooner (18441930),
Warden of New College, Oxford, who was
notoriously prone to this tendency.
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Spoonerism (About) While spoonerisms are
commonly heard as slips of the tongue (sometimes
spoonerised as tips of the slung), they are
considered a form of pun when used purposely as a
play on words.
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Spoonerism (samples) "The Lord is a shoving
leopard." "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride."
"Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I
sew you to another sheet?"
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Pun (also known as paronomasia)Is a figure of
speech which consists of a deliberate confusion
of similar words or phrases for rhetorical
effect, whether humorous or serious.
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Pun (cont)A pun can rely on the assumed
equivalency of multiple similar words (homonymy),
of different shades of meaning of one word
(polysemy), or of a literal meaning with a
metaphor. Bad puns are sometimes called "cheesy."

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Rhetoric Is the art or technique of persuasion
through the use of oral or written language.
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Irony Generally, irony is understood as an
aesthetic valuation by an audience, which
relies on a sharp discordance between the real
and the ideal, and which is variously applied to
texts, speech, events, acts, and even fashion.
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Irony (cont) All the different senses of
irony revolve around the perceived notion of an
incongruity, or a gap, between an understanding
of reality, or expectation of a reality, and what
actually happens.
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SatirePurpose of satire is not to be humorous
but critical of event, individual or group in a
clever manner
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SituationalThe situation in which a character,
or setting may be in can be humorous especially
when juxtaposed to expectations and social norms.

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ParodyImitates in order to ridicule,
ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate
fun.
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Wordplay A literary technique in which the
nature of the words used themselves become part
of the subject of the work. Puns, phonetic
mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and
meanings
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Wordplay (cont) clever rhetorical
excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling
character names are common examples of word play.

Now that youve read about a variety of comedic
devices, play this piece from a couple of masters.