Comedy | Definition, Drama, History, & Facts

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<main> <div class="md-page-wrapper"> <div id="content" class="md-content"> <div class="md-article-container template-desktop infinite-pagination"> <div class="infinite-scroll-container article last"> <article class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded" data-topic-id="127459"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy">comedy</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/comedy">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref51082"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy#ref51082">Origins and definitions</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51083"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy#ref51083">The human contradiction</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51084"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-satire-and-romance">Comedy, satire, and romance</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref51085"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-satire-and-romance#ref51085">Theories</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51086"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-satire-and-romance#ref51086">Comedy as a rite</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51087"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-satire-and-romance#ref51087">The moral force of comedy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51088"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-and-character">Comedy and character</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51089"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-and-character#ref51089">The role of wit</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51090"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-and-character#ref51090">Baudelaire on the grotesque</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51091"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Comedy-and-character#ref51091">Bergson’s and Meredith’s theories</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51092"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/The-comic-as-a-failure-of-self-knowledge">The comic as a failure of self-knowledge</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51093"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/The-comic-as-a-failure-of-self-knowledge#ref51093">Divine comedies in the West and East</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref51094"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Kinds-of-comedy-in-diverse-historical-periods">Kinds of comedy in diverse historical periods</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51095"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Kinds-of-comedy-in-diverse-historical-periods#ref51095">Old and New Comedy in ancient Greece</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51096"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Kinds-of-comedy-in-diverse-historical-periods#ref51096">Rise of realistic comedy in 17th-century England</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51097"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Sentimental-comedy-of-the-17th-and-18th-centuries">Sentimental comedy of the 17th and 18th centuries</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51098"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/Sentimental-comedy-of-the-17th-and-18th-centuries#ref51098">The comic outside the theatre</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51099"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/20th-century-tragicomedy">20th-century tragicomedy</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref51100"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/comedy/20th-century-tragicomedy#ref51100">The absurd</a></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/comedy">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy/images-videos">Videos</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="/video/use-innuendo-double-entendre-comedy-British/207370" data-href="/media/1/127459/207370" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" 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Trevor Professor Emeritus of English, University of Rochester, New York. Author of <i>The Hyacinth Room: An Investigation into the Nature of Comedy, Tragedy, and Tragicomedy.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Cyrus Henry Hoy</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 qa-editor-popup font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-25T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 25, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/William-Shakespeare" topicid="537853">William Shakespeare</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Maya-Rudolph" topicid="2143250">Maya Rudolph</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/John-Belushi" topicid="1305469">John Belushi</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Danny-Thomas" topicid="941450">Danny Thomas</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Ben-Turpin" topicid="942371">Ben Turpin</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/satire" topicid="524958">satire</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/stand-up-comedy" topicid="693256">stand-up comedy</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/comedy-of-manners" topicid="362554">comedy of manners</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/farce" topicid="201791">farce</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/slapstick-comedy" topicid="548077">slapstick</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/comedy"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref504524"></span>comedy</strong>, type of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/theatre-art" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tragedy</a> and on the other with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/farce" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">farce</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/burlesque-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">burlesque</a>, and other forms of humorous amusement.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The classic <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conception" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conception" data-type="MW">conception</a> of comedy, which began with <span id="ref504525"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristotle</a> in ancient <span id="ref504528"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Ancient-Greek-literature" class="md-crosslink ">Greece</a> of the 4th century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span> and persists through the present, holds that it is primarily concerned with humans as social beings, rather than as private persons, and that its function is frankly corrective. The comic artist’s purpose is to hold a mirror up to society to reflect its follies and vices, in the hope that they will, as a result, be mended. The 20th-century French philosopher <span id="ref504526"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Bergson" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henri Bergson</a> shared this view of the corrective purpose of <span id="ref504527"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/laughter" class="md-crosslink ">laughter</a>; specifically, he felt, laughter is intended to bring the comic character back into <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="conformity" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/conformity" data-type="EB">conformity</a> with his society, whose logic and conventions he abandons when “he slackens in the attention that is due to life.”</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Here comedy is considered primarily as a literary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/genre-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">genre</a>. The wellsprings of comedy are dealt with in the article <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/humor" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">humour</a>. The comic impulse in the visual arts is discussed in the articles <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/caricature-and-cartoon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">caricature and cartoon</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/comic-strip" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">comic strip</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref51082"> <h2 class="h1">Origins and definitions</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The word <em>comedy</em> seems to be connected by derivation with the <span id="ref504529"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Greek</a> verb meaning “to revel,” and comedy arose out of the revels associated with the <span id="ref504532"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ritual" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rites</a> of <span id="ref504530"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dionysus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dionysus</a>, a god of <span id="ref504531"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/vegetation-flora" class="md-crosslink ">vegetation</a>. The origins of comedy are thus bound up with vegetation ritual. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristotle</a>, in his <em><span id="ref504533"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Poetics" class="md-crosslink ">Poetics</a></em>, states that comedy originated in <span id="ref504534"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/phallic-symbol" class="md-crosslink ">phallic</a> songs and that, like <span id="ref504535"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tragedy</a>, it began in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/improvisation-theater" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">improvisation</a>. Though tragedy evolved by stages that can be traced, the progress of comedy passed unnoticed because it was not taken seriously. When tragedy and comedy arose, poets wrote one or the other, according to their natural bent. Those of the graver sort, who might previously have been <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="inclined" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/inclined" data-type="EB">inclined</a> to celebrate the actions of the great in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/epic" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">epic</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/poetry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">poetry</a>, turned to tragedy; poets of a lower type, who had set forth the doings of the ignoble in invectives, turned to comedy. The distinction is basic to the <span id="ref504536"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aristotelianism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristotelian</a> differentiation between tragedy and comedy: tragedy imitates men who are better than the average and comedy men who are worse.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">For centuries, efforts at defining comedy were to be along the lines set down by Aristotle: the view that tragedy deals with personages of high estate, and comedy deals with lowly types; that tragedy treats of matters of great public import, while comedy is concerned with the private affairs of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="mundane" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mundane" data-type="MW">mundane</a> life; and that the characters and events of tragedy are historic and so, in some sense, true, while the humbler materials of comedy are but feigned. <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Implicit" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Implicit" data-type="MW">Implicit</a>, too, in Aristotle is the distinction in styles deemed appropriate to the treatment of tragic and comic story. As long as there was at least a theoretical separation of comic and tragic styles, either <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="genre" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genre" data-type="MW">genre</a> could, on occasion, appropriate the stylistic manner of the other to a striking effect, which was never possible after the crossing of stylistic lines became commonplace.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The ancient Roman poet <span id="ref504537"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Horace-Roman-poet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Horace</a>, who wrote on such stylistic differences, noted the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/special-effects" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">special effects</a> that can be achieved when comedy lifts its voice in pseudotragic rant and when tragedy adopts the prosaic but affecting language of comedy. Consciously combined, the mixture of styles produces the <span id="ref504538"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/burlesque-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">burlesque</a>, in which the grand manner (epic or tragic) is applied to a trivial subject, or the serious subject is subjected to a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vulgar" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vulgar" data-type="EB">vulgar</a> treatment, to ludicrous effect.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The English novelist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Fielding" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Henry Fielding</a>, in the preface to <em><span id="ref504539"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Joseph-Andrews" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Joseph Andrews</a></em> (1742), was careful to distinguish between the comic and the burlesque; the latter centres on the monstrous and unnatural and gives pleasure through the surprising absurdity it exhibits in appropriating the manners of the highest to the lowest, or vice versa. Comedy, on the other hand, confines itself to the imitation of nature, and, according to Fielding, the comic artist is not to be excused for deviating from it. His subject is the ridiculous, not the monstrous, as with the writer of burlesque; and the nature he is to imitate is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-nature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">human nature</a>, as viewed in the ordinary scenes of civilized society.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=august-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <section data-level="2" id="ref51083"> <h2 class="h2">The human contradiction</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In dealing with humans as social beings, all great comic artists have known that they are in the presence of a contradiction: that behind the social being lurks an animal being, whose behaviour often accords very ill with the canons dictated by society. Comedy, from its ritual beginnings, has celebrated creative energy. The primitive revels out of which comedy arose frankly acknowledged man’s animal nature; the animal masquerades and the phallic processions are the obvious witnesses to it. Comedy testifies to physical vitality, delight in life, and the will to go on living. Comedy is at its merriest, its most festive, when this rhythm of life can be affirmed within the civilized <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> of human society. In the absence of this sort of harmony between creatural instincts and the dictates of civilization, sundry strains and discontents arise, all bearing witness to the contradictory nature of humanity, which in the comic view is a radical dualism; efforts to follow the way of rational sobriety are forever being interrupted by the infirmities of the flesh. The duality that tragedy views as a fatal contradiction in the nature of things, comedy views as one more instance of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="incongruous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incongruous" data-type="MW">incongruous</a> reality that everyone must live with as best they can.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">“Wherever there is life, there is contradiction,” says <span id="ref504540"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Soren-Kierkegaard" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Søren Kierkegaard</a>, the 19th-century Danish existentialist, in the <em><span id="ref504541"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Concluding-Unscientific-Postscript-to-the-Philosophical-Fragments-A-Mimic-Pathetic-Dialectic-Composition-an-Existential-Contribution" class="md-crosslink ">Concluding Unscientific Postscript</a></em> (1846), “and wherever there is contradiction, the comical is present.” He went on to say that the tragic and the comic are both based on contradiction but “the tragic is the suffering contradiction, comical, painless contradiction.” Comedy makes the contradiction <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifest" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifest" data-type="MW">manifest</a> along with a way out, which is why the contradiction is painless. Tragedy, on the other hand, despairs of a way out of the contradiction.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The incongruous is “the essence of the laughable,” said the English essayist <span id="ref504542"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Hazlitt" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Hazlitt</a>, who also declared, in his essay “On Wit and Humour” in <em><span id="ref504543"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-Comic-Writers" class="md-crosslink ">English Comic Writers</a></em> (1819), “Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.”</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> </section> </section><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":7,"pageId":127459,"pageLength":1089,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-131/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.131.7"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-131/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.131.7' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"C","adLeg":"C","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Comedy | Definition, Drama, History, & Facts | Britannica