comedy

Comedy is a broad genre of narrative and performance aimed at entertaining an audience through humor. It appears in literature, theatre, film, television, stand-up, and online media. Central to much comedy is the use of incongruity, surprise, irony, and timing to provoke laughter and easing of social tensions.

Origins trace to ancient theatre with Greek and Roman works that used comedic plots and stock types; in the Middle Ages jesters and miracle plays; in the Renaissance, writers developed comedic forms such as the comedy of manners and poetic farce. In the 16th-18th centuries, playwrights like Shakespeare fused romance with comic devices. The modern era diversified into farce, satire, and observational humor, with stand-up and sketch comedy becoming prominent in the 20th century and television shaping popular formats like sitcoms.

Common forms include slapstick and physical comedy, wit and wordplay, satire that targets social institutions, and romantic or domestic comedies. Subgenres include comedy of manners, farce, screwball, romantic comedy, and spoof. Techniques include timing, misdirection, role reversal, incongruity, and parodic imitation. Some works blend genres.

Humor theories include incongruity theory (humor arises from perceptual mismatch), relief theory (humor provides release of psychic energy), and superiority theory (laughter at others' misfortune or folly). Historic philosophers associated with humor include Kant, Schopenhauer, Bergson, and Freud.

Comedy serves to entertain, critique social norms, provide a coping mechanism, and reflect cultural values. It adapts to different media and languages, maintaining a central place in entertainment and artistic expression.