University at Buffalo 3 credits Theatre
This course surveys the evolution of comedy in performance over the last 100 years. Students will explore the mechanics of constructing comedy through text and performance in styles such as Vaudeville, Variety/Sketch Comedy, Situation Comedy, Stand-Up, 20th Century Farce, Improv, Post-Seinfeld Irony, and Front-Facing Camera/Social Media Comedy. Modern forms will be compared to texts from historical genres such as Old and New Comedy, Comedy of Humours, Comedy of Manners, Commedia and Humanism, Satire, and Victorian Farce. Theories of play as an essential aspect of the human experience will be considered, as well as the influence of class systems, politics and technology on the evolution of comedy.
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