comedic theater
Humorous live performance
Comedic theater is dramatic performance intended to amuse rather than move audiences to pity or fear.
The term covers everything from ancient Greek comedy to modern sitcom-style plays.
It emphasizes humor through situation, character, dialogue, or physical gags: She studied comedic theater at conservatory.
Distinguished from tragedy and drama by its lighter tone and typically happy endings.
- timingArt of choosing moments
- running gagRepeated joke across episodes
- punch lineJoke's culminating moment
- straight manComedy duo's serious half
- dramatic ironyAudience-character knowledge gap
A Midsummer Night's Dream · farce · The Importance of Being Earnest · comedic timing · satire · Tartuffe · parody · wordplay · puns · improvisation · slapstick · caricature · Aristophanes · pratfalls · sight gag · vaudeville · double entendre · audience interaction
comedic theatertragedy
Disastrous or sorrowful event
tragicomedy · melodrama · Greek tragedy · Shakespearean tragedy · weepies
comedic theaterfilm
Movie or coating
cinema · sitcom · radio drama · stand-up comedy · sketch comedy
comedic theatertragic drama
Solemn theatrical work, grim ending
requiem · lament · dirge · gravitas · existential drama
comedy, comedies, comedian, comedians, comedienne, comediennes, comic, comics, comical