comedy

Introduction
Origins and definitions
- The human contradiction
- Comedy, satire, and romance
Theories
- Comedy as a rite
- The moral force of comedy
- Comedy and character
- The role of wit
- Baudelaire on the grotesque
- Bergson’s and Meredith’s theories
- The comic as a failure of self-knowledge
- Divine comedies in the West and East
Kinds of comedy in diverse historical periods
- Old and New Comedy in ancient Greece
- Rise of realistic comedy in 17th-century England
- Sentimental comedy of the 17th and 18th centuries
- The comic outside the theatre
- 20th-century tragicomedy
- The absurd

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Poster for "The Path of Flowers," a farce-comedy play by Valentin Katayev; stylized figure with flowers.

A male actor in a yellow jumpsuit stands in front of a small group wearing donkey ears; another actor kneels, clapping his hands. Text on screen reads, "Bottom's transformation: A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Two male actors cling to a female actor on stage. Text on screen reads, "Lovers' quarrel: A Midsummer Night's Dream"

An actor in a spritely costume sits in a cloth swing against a dark background. Text on screen reads, "A Midsummer Night's Dream: Puck's Final Monologue."

Know about the use of innuendo and double entendre in British comedy

Watch episode 31 of The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1962

At a Glance

comedy summary

Related Questions

How did Alexander Pope use satire in The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad?
How did Ben Jonson use comedy to criticize the manners of London society?
How did Greek New Comedy influence Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence?
How did Henri Bergson explain the social purpose of laughter?
How did Henry Fielding use novels to continue his comic satire after leaving the stage?
How did Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Honoré de Balzac use comic views of society in novels?
How did John Gay's The Beggar's Opera combine humor with political satire?
How did Jonathan Swift use comic incongruity in A Modest Proposal?
How did Menander shape the style of New Comedy?
How did Plautus use wordplay, music, and slapstick in his comedies?
How did Roman mime combine dialogue, songs, acrobatics, and slapstick?
How did Terence's comedies differ from the plays of Plautus?
How did William Hogarth use grotesque details to criticize society in his artworks?
How did comedy develop from festivals honoring Dionysus in ancient Greece?
How did commedia dell'arte develop in Renaissance Italy?
How did improvisation work in commedia dell'arte performances?
How did pantomime portray stories without spoken dialogue in ancient Rome?
How did sentimental comedy differ from earlier romantic comedy?
How did the Licensing Act of 1737 affect Henry Fielding's career in the theatre?
How do ruling passions lead characters into trouble in Ben Jonson's comedies?
How does Aristophanes criticize Euripides in The Frogs?
How does romantic comedy usually create a happy ending?
How does the discovery of a foundling's identity resolve conflicts in New Comedy?
How is burlesque created by treating a serious subject in a vulgar way?
How is satiric comedy different from romantic comedy?
What does Ben Jonson mean by calling comedy an imitation of life and an image of truth?
What happened during the parabasis in an Old Comedy play?
What role did the chorus play in Old Comedy?
What was fabula palliata in Roman theatre?
What were the main parts of the six-part structure of Old Comedy?
Which public figures did Aristophanes satirize in his plays?
Why did the novel become an important form of comedy and social criticism in the 19th century?
Why is the braggart soldier in Miles Gloriosus an important comic character?
Why was Naevius imprisoned for his satire?
Why was hypocrisy a major target of Restoration comedy?
What is a novel?
What is the difference between a novel and a book?
What is the difference between a novel and fiction?

Literature Plays

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External Websites

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Comedy
Humanities LibreTexts - The Production of Comedy: The Joke in the Age of Social Media
The Canadian Encyclopedia - Comedy
Georgia College and State University - Rhetoric in Comedy: How Comedians Use Persuasion and How Society Uses Comedians (PDF)
Emory University - Center for Ethics - What Is Comedy For? (PDF)

*The Path of Flowers* poster Poster for the Federal Theatre Project presentation of *The Path of Flowers*, a farce-comedy play written by Valentin Kataev (or Katayev) at the Experimental Theatre in New York City, between 1936-41.

comedy

literature and performance

Written by

Cyrus Henry Hoy

John B. Trevor Professor Emeritus of English, University of Rochester, New York. Author of The Hyacinth Room: An Investigation into the Nature of Comedy, Tragedy, and Tragicomedy.

Cyrus Henry Hoy

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

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....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 30, 2026 •History

comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and other forms of humorous amusement. The classic conception of comedy, which began with Aristotle in ancient Greece of the 4th century bce and persists through the present, holds that it is primarily concerned with humans as social beings,...

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