Comedy is defined as the use of humor in the theater. Originally, it simply referred to a play with a happy ending, in contrast to a tragedy. More recently, it has taken charge of entertainment and become a major part of our lives. A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh.

There are three main elements of comedy: comic timing, slapstick, and pregnant pause.

Comic timing is use of rhythm and tempo to enhance comedy and humor. The pacing of the delivery of a joke has a strong impact on its comic effect; the same is also true of more physical comedy such as slapstick. A beat is a pause taken for the purposes of comic timing, often to allow the audience time to recognize the joke and react, or to heighten the suspense before delivery of the expected punch line. Sometimes those outside the comedy business assume that there must be some set period of silent time "that's funny." Aside from a few comedic pauses intended only to heighten an already established tension, nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, pauses are one of the clues we use to discern subtext or even unconscious content - that is, what the speaker is really thinking about.

Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. The style is common to those genres of entertainment in which the audience is supposed to understand the very hyperbolic nature of such violence to exceed the boundaries of common sense and thus license non-cruel laughter. Its greatest modern representations thus lie in cartoons and the simple, amplified film comedies aimed at younger audiences. Though the term is often used pejoratively, the performance of slapstick comedy, based on exquisite timing and unerring calculation of execution, character reaction and audience laughter, is considered among the more difficult tasks facing a live performer.

A pregnant pause is a technique of comic timing used to accentuate a comedy element. The pregnant pause has become a staple of stand-up comedy. There are many forms of comedy including sketch comedy, improvisational comedy, television comedy, musical comedy, tragicomedy, drama-comedy, comic novel and comedy film, but the most important to the discussion at present is Stand-up Comedy.

Site Map:

• ''Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now'' DVD
• background on Ellen DeGeneres
• What is the Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now DVD?
• Comedy
• Stand-up Comedy
• Connecting people through Laughter
• Connections
• “Common ground” Connection
• Personal Connection
• Real-life Connection
• Flow Connection
• Circle Connection
• Time Connection
• Conclusion: Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now DVD: a tool of connection
• Works Consulted