A Comedy Originally Just Meant a Happy Ending
Comedy is entertainment intended to amuse. In classical drama it meant something narrower: a play that ends well.
Comedy is entertainment designed to make people laugh. In classical and Renaissance drama the definition was structural, not comic: a comedy ended with the situation resolved and usually a marriage, while a tragedy ended in death. That is why Dante called his poem the Divine Comedy — it ends in paradise, not in jokes.
- Amusing entertainment. *Stand-up comedy.*
- A play with a happy ending. *A Shakespearean comedy.*
- An amusing situation. *The comedy of it.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | comedy | Light comedy. |
| Plural | comedies | Romantic comedies. |
| Adjective | comic | A comic actor. |
| Adjective | comical | A comical sight. |
| Person | comedian | A stand-up comedian. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Shakespeare's comedies end in marriage.Structural definition.
- Dante's Divine Comedy is not funny.It ends well, which was the criterion.
- Comic and comical differ.Comic means intended to amuse; comical means unintentionally funny.
Kinds of comedy
- Farce — improbable situations and physical humour
- Satire — mockery aimed at people or institutions
- Slapstick — broad physical comedy, named after a stage prop
- Comedy of manners — mocking the behaviour of a social class
- Deadpan — humour delivered without expression
From Greek *komoidia*, from *komos*, a revel, and *aoidos*, a singer. The classical structural sense preceded the modern comic one.
Comic or comical?
Comic means relating to comedy or intended to be funny. Comical means amusing, often unintentionally.
Why is Dante's poem called a comedy?
Because in classical terms it ends well. The comic sense of the word had not yet taken over.