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Type	Definition	Example
Sarcasm	insulting, scornful	"How wonderful!" said of something horrible
Irony	incongruity, unexpected twist, A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance/presentation of the idea	"A man buys a gun to protect his family, but ends up shooting his son by accident because he thinks the son is a burglar about to harm the family. "
Slapstick	acts of stupidity and practical jokesComedy based on violence	like Charlie Chaplin jokes
Pun	play on words, same sound, different meaning	Did you hear about the Frenchman who jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing a parachute and landed in the river? The police didn’t arrest him because he was clearly in Seine.
Satire	Indirect criticism, humorous mimicry,The art of criticizing a subject by ridiculing it and evoking toward it an attitude of amusement, contempt or scorn	Gulliver's Travels
Cynicism	distrust of human nature	Joe became a cynic after being disappointed time after time.
Parody	making fun of another work of art by imitation, impersonation	eg, Monty Python, or "Ever since 1997, rap music has been nothing but a parody of itself."
Caricature	exaggeration of physical features or mannerisms
Farce	satire

Humour

Quotations about Humour and Laugher

Comedy teaches the world what ails it. (George Meredith, p. 13)

Comedy and laughter are two separate notions, not necessarily interdependent. Laughter is a psychological and physiological phenomenon, comedy the product of a creative act of one human's humorous capacity. (Sorell, p. 13)

Philosopher and comic poet are of a cousinship in the eye they cast on life. - (Meredith, p. 15)

To love comedy you must know the real world, and know men and women well enough not to expect too much of them, though you may still hope for good. (Meredith, p. 24)

There never will be civilization where comedy is not possible… (Meredith, p. 32)

The laughter of comedy is impersonal and of unrivaled politeness, nearer a smile-often no more than a smile. It laughs through the mind, for the mind directs it; and it might be called the humor of the mind.

We know the degree of refinement in men by the matter they will laugh at, and the ring of the laugh; but we know likewise that the larger natures are distinguished by the great breadth of their power of laughter…(Meredith, p. 50)

Comedy is the thinking person’s response to experience; tragedy records the reactions of the person with feelings. (Charles B. Hands, from internet)

Comedy is the fountain of sound sense. (Meredith, p.14)

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." -George Bernard Shaw

"Nobody ever died of laughter." -Max Beerbohm

"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable." -Anon.

"The most wasted day of all is that during which we have not laughed." -Sebastian R. N. Chamfort

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." -Mark Twain

"If you don't learn to laugh at troubles, you won't have anything to laugh at when you grow old."-Ed Howe

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." -Ben Franklin

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." -Oscar Wilde

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." -Helen Keller

© Ora Baumgarten 2008

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