Comic Situations Research Articles

L’ambivalence d’un chef-d’œuvre : Une lettre perdue de I.L. Caragiale

"The Ambivalence of a Masterpiece: A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale. A Lost Letter by I.L. Caragiale, a landmark in the history of Romanian theatre, has enjoyed throughout time numerous critical interpretations, without losing its dramatic potential. We intend to study the comic mechanism through a variety of dramatic strategies: the diversity of the scenes, the circular actions, the baffling succession of situations, starting with the loss of the compromising love letter. This play features the actors of a political electoral farce overflowing with a vaudeville-like comic, that in conjunction with parody, is targeting the ideological clichés and verbal stereotypes. A logically inconceivable humour that borders the absurd. The purpose of this kind of humour, unleashed during comical situations, is not hiding the immorality, the demagogy of a socio-political reality put under the critical scope of the author. The joyful, bitter or cruel laughter are being in a continuous competition here. The humour is thus the element that subverts the values of political commitment. Keywords: I.L. Caragiale, Romanian theatre, farce, vaudeville, humour, comedy, ambivalence. "

“PRINCIPAL IMMANNITY OF CATS” AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE COMIC SITUATION OF INTERNET DISCOURSE: FROM METAPHOR TO METONYMY

The article is devoted to the analysis of the expression means of the comic situation in the scientific discourse and the discourse of Internet meme practices. The topic of cats is considered, the commonality of which allows to identify the difference between the order of discourse organization and the specifics of their spectacular means. It turns out that the difference between the tropes of metaphor and metonymy allows us to clarify the basic organizational guidelines of both discursive practices.The prospects of turning to metonymy outside the discourse of rhetoric and poetics are an open question exactly. However, the conceptualization of Internet practices is in itself quite metonymic, because it causes a trick, and, consequently, a certain emotional background. At the same time, the attempt to show the relevance of trope theory to the conceptualization of memes is metaphorical in large scale. However, the lack of a clear boundary in the humanities methodology between metaphorization and conceptualization inspires to try.

Chanchadas and intermediality

This audiovisual essay investigates the intermedial nature of Brazilian film comedies produced during the 1940s and 50s by exploring the musical numbers of Aviso aos navegantes (Calling All Sailors, Watson Macedo, 1950). Brazilian cinema of this period is a privileged arena of different media strategies. Its “mixed” style is informed by Hollywood cinema but also by the domestic influence of radio, Carnival, and by the local forms of comic staging of the teatro de revista (the Brazilian equivalent of music hall or vaudeville). Of particular interest in this regard are the chanchadas, a body of films made between the mid-1930s and the early 1960s, that presented musical performances intertwined with comic situations, slender narrative lines and strong connections with the world of Carnival. Our aim is to show how the relationships between the different forms of cultural production in 1950s Brazil can be identified in a specific chanchada, opening a dialogue between musical performances on stage, over the radio, at Carnival and on screen. The essay also examines similarities and differences between chanchadas and the Hollywood musical comedy tradition. One area explored is integration, both in the sense in which it is often used in film studies, to discuss the relationship between the numbers and the narrative, and in reflecting on whether the different elements which feed into the numbers of Aviso aos navegantes are seamlessly combined in the film. Despite the huge popular success of his films, Watson Macedo was considered by many as the most “Americanised” of the directors of that period, adhering less to the critical mechanisms of parody than was the case with his contemporaries. However, if we pay attention to Macedo’s musical numbers, it is evident that these performances are not imperfect copies of Hollywood originals, but have a logic of their own. This audiovisual essay complements Flávia Cesarino Costa’s other contribution to this issue of Alphaville, the article “Building an Integrated History of Musical Numbers in Brazilian Chanchadas”, by exploring related ideas in the context of a single film. As well as the interest of the video essay’s own exploration and argument, the pairing of essays—traditional and videographic—enables readers of this issue to pursue their thinking about chanchadas and intermediality with specific audiovisual material in front of them

Атрибутивные признаки героев и персонажей комической оперы в тематизме фортепианных сонат В.А. Моцарта

Many instrumental works by 17th and 18th century composers are generated, as it is well known, on the principle of the atricalization of the plots which demonstrates the characters and protagonists of opera works, various “migrating plotlines,” dramatic and comic situations generated in theatrical and opera works. In Mozart’s clavier sonatas it frequently becomes possible to discern the musical manifestation of typical indications of characteristic images, as well as the migrating comic opera attributes connected with them. This type of plotline organization of the piano musical text may be labeled as theatrical. The article is aimed at analyzing the signs of migrating operatic characters and protagonists, stage settings, dialogues and polylogues, and at times entire theatrical acts, consisting of several alternating scenes demonstrating the appearance of the semantic situation of “a text within a text.” Within the scope of a clavier composition this manifests itself in the form of a theatrical dialogue containing signs of verbal actions and motional plastic arts.

Ilija Čvorović - "sve je suprotno od onoga kako izgleda da jeste"

We focus here on the paranoid disorder of the protagonist of Dušan Kovačević's drama Balkan's spy. Although all literary critiques mention hero's paranoia, regularly and by default, this feature hasn't been deeply considered anywhere. Paranoia is, however, not only hero's conspicuous and central characteristic, but also a phenomenon by virtue of our revealing the deep semantic layers of Kovačević's drama. We show here how much the paranoid phenomenon contributes to tragycomedy, which was the literary concept Kovačević had in mind while he was creating the play. Beneath the series of comical situations, which Ilija causes by his behavior and interpretations, there is a tragedy of small man in totalitarian system, the man who was a victim, but who transformed into an abuser. Perceiving the psychological literature of the paranoid disorder, we are proving how extraordinary deeply Kovačević conceived his hero and by means of him, he gave a powerful critique of Tito's Yougoslavia.

КЛОУН VS РЭПЕР: (ИНВЕКТИВЫ В ОНЛАЙН И ОФЛАЙН РЭП-ПОЕДИНКАХ)

The article is devoted to identifying the reasons for the more frequent laughter among listeners, caused by invectives addressed to the opponents’ pseudonyms rather than to their real names. In this regard, much attention in the work is paid to the concept of invective associated with the art of clownery. Since the times of Ancient Greece and Rome, it was one of the most important strategies of rhetorical art; now it is a key definition of a rap battle, in which the audience witnesses not humor, but something between humor and seriousness. (The written comments of the audience can be compared with the satirical texts of folk poetry: its anonymous authors treat the depicted characters as representatives of the laugh world that do not exist in reality.) Therefore, it is no coincidence that rap duels, which are discussed in this article, are considered the heirs of the ancient НАУКА ТЕЛЕВИДЕНИЯ № 16.3, 2020 91 THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TELEVISION poetic competitions, where participants exalted themselves by humiliating their partners. The article analyzes oral and written texts of rap battles and viewers’ comments with reference to a deep, humorous interpretation. The basis here is the Kozintsev’s metasemantic approach to the phenomenon of humor, which was not previously applied to their analysis. According to this approach, humor is explained by the ability to make fun of one’s own stupidity and auto–parody of oneself as a representative of Homo sapiens. The comic nature is especially pronounced in clowns and is extremely uncommon for participants in rap battles. In the beginning of the research, it was suggested that the rules of rap duels probably prevent comic situations from occurring during rap battles. Later, however, the author came to the conclusion that in reality, these rules provoke humorous moments, since the audience begins to transform the participants’ pseudonyms into carnival nicknames, perceiving them at an unconscious level as a game signal.

СОБЫТИЯ ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЫ В ДАГЕСТАНЕ (1918-1921 ГГ.) ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ КОМИЧЕСКОГО (ПО ВОСПОМИНАНИЯМ ОЧЕВИДЦЕВ)

Relying on personal sources - eyewitnesses’ memories, - some of which have been previously unknown, the article examines the Civil War events in Dagestan through the lenses of the comical. The study is based on the interdisciplinary approach combining practices, methodologies, conceptions and approaches used in history, ethnography, psychology. The authors conclude that the comical situations mentioned by the representatives of different social strata and political groups are associated with unique life experience and the ability to preserve humorous attitude to contemporaries and their actions. The researchers emphasize that sense of humour helps a human being to adapt to extreme conditions. The findings justify the authors’ opinion that the eyewitnesses’ memories contribute to deeper understanding of Dagestan mentality.

HUMOROUS DISCOURSE OF MODERN UKRAINIAN COMBATANT PROSE

During the last few years a significant number of texts covering a huge range of genres have been appeared within the Ukrainian literary community with a purpose to depict the recent wartime events in the east of the country. The prose, written by the combatants, is an important and interesting phenomenon of modern Ukrainian literary process. The use of comic varieties is an integral part of military prose and prose of the combatants, for mocking at the enemy and joking about (making fun of) own problems provides psychological support and helps to hold on in the fight. The ways of using comic varieties in modern Ukrainian prose of the combatants were analysed in the article. The study tested the role of comic elements in these texts. There are a lot of comic varieties in structure of prose of the combatants. Soldiers often describe the military weekdays with humour, especially the funny situations in which they or their brethren-in-arms got. The use of Ukrainian, Russian words, surzhyk and profanity in dialogues is a most popular way to depict comic situations in their prose. This method is used by Martin Brest and K. Mashovec. Combatants use satire and the grotesque too (e.g. the novel by W. Zapeka). In this case, harsh criticism of wartime realities is transmitted using a character-resonator. This reception deepens and contributes artistic diversity to text about the war, helping to avoid banality of presentation. Combatants are also using self-irony (O. Tereshchenko). This way of writing texts allows Combatants to tell about difficult things in a lightweight form. When this happens, the reader should work closely with a text to separate the «joking narrator’s» mask from the real author, whose life is easy only at first glance. Therefore, a text becomes a complex narrative structure.

Para fazer rir na TV

Este artigo se propõe a verificar como o efeito do humor é produzido a partir da observação de exemplos advindos de segmentos da ficção seriada televisiva – em Arrested Development, Friends e Studio 60. No meio audiovisual também se pode observar que as situações cômicas são fabuladas sob organização linear, na qual duas extrapolações temáticas colidem numa incongruência, tal como prevê a análise textual das piadas proposta por Salvatore Attardo com seu modelo de disjunção isotópica (isotopy disjunction model). Considerando que a linearidade pressupõe ruptura e surpresa, se faz possível aproximar a noção de disjunção com a de disparidade narrativa concebida por Edward Branigan no exame da geração do riso.

ГАСТРОНОМІЧНА ГУМОРИСТИКА У ЛІТЕРАТУРІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СЕРЕДНЬОВІЧЧЯ: ТОПОСИ ТА ІСТОРІОГРАФІЯ ПИТАННЯ

The article looks at topoi in gastronomic images of European medieval humoristic texts and seeks to examine the connection between food and comic discourses. The author shall also highlight how these images were evaluated and interpreted by scholars of a different methodological background. The attention is paid to motives in gastronomic humour and comic plots related to food, which were widely spread in Western culture. Gastronomic humour is displayed through examples that are to be found in such medieval literary genres as farce, fabliau, Schwank etc. The study aims to propose a common food comic code, explain the principles of its implementation in the text and show its typical constituent elements. The essay starts with an examination of anthropological and social factors that might have shaped and symbolically and functionally determined gastronomic humour. It is assumed that mouth has a significant role in the processes of organization of nutrition and laughter on the bodily level. Then the author overviews in detail the literary origins of gastronomic jokes tracing their formation from the antique comedy. The development and establishment of food comedy are shown through examples from medieval urban literature. Attention is also drawn to the context in which the text functions, in other words, the specifics of its implementation in time and space. It is revealed that nutrition often appears as a background for comic plots, and culinary spaces are typical locations in humoristic stories. According to their professional activity comedy characters are also closely related to food. It is noticed that the food itself becomes a subject of conflict in a comic situation. Main characters actions are concentrated around the food, drinks or dishes. Another aspect of gastronomic humour involves a situation where eating resembles defecation. A typical comic tool on its own is the analogy between having a meal and sex. The paper also describes the features of food that often appear in humoristic texts and therefore has a higher level of comic value.

Humorism and Characterization in Topan’s Mfalme Juha

This paper discusses the character of King Juha, the protagonist of the comedy Mfalme Juha by Farouk Topan, using an approach that considers the humoristic dimension of this character. The definition of humorism employed here is that given by Pirandello: the result of an aesthetic process in which the comic effect deriving from an object of laughter is tempered and contrasted by a “sentiment of the contrary” that observes and builds empathy with the inner contradictions of the object itself. After a short outline of Mfalme Juha’s critical history which shows that the humoristic dimension of King Juha has never been considered in critiques, this paper focuses on an analysis of this character, in which the core feature of egocentricity is identified. Juha’s egocentricity and its humoristic nature are analysed in the character’s relationship with his subjects as their king and in his idea of art and culture; in both cases it is shown that what is important is not the wickedness or egoism of Juha, but his lack of comprehension of the world. Juha is incapable of understanding his environment and other people, since he can not doubt his own superiority: this puts him in several comic situations, but on the other hand makes him a victim of his smart subjects, so that he arouses a feeling of sympathy in which Pirandello’s sentiment of the contrary can be traced.

Eulogistic comedy as domestic soft power: Biopolitical self-fashioning in It's My Day Off (1959)

ABSTRACTSoft power as a concept measures the ability of a nation in obtaining positive outcomes overseas through cultural means, but its core ideas of attraction and credibility are productive in analyzing eulogistic comedy's contradictory functions of propagating official policy and refashioning self-interests in socialist China. It's My Day Off (1959) satisfies official expectations of constructing positive models for viewers to emulate, but it also reveals the technology of self-fashioning as a process under surveillance by the Party and the patriarch. A series of comic situations of missed opportunities foreground the logic of instant public recognitions and deferred libidinal gratification that overdetermines socialist self-fashioning as an endless psychic-somatic mechanism of self-othering. Surprisingly, it is by demonstrating the attraction of altruism that the film may have gained its unintended critical edge in disclosing the panoptic biopolitical condition in a socialist utopia.

Quaestiones Convivales: Plutarch’s Sense of Humour as Evidence of his Platonism

AbstractGiven Plutarch’s fragmentary piece on Aristophanes and Menander (Mor. 853A–854D), a piece ofTable Talkon almost the same topic (Mor. 711A–713F) and various attacks on comic poets scattered through theLives, one might believe that Plutarch is a staid, conservative and humourless author. But several other instances in his writings reveal a playful, facetious, witty and humorous Plutarch. This paper will focus on theQuaestiones Convivales, which bear ample witness to this aspect of Plutarch’s personality and authorial technique. It will examine the ways in which he introduces and describes the various interlocutors, discuss certain comments (or arguments) with which he tries to ridicule his philosophical opponents, notably the Stoics and the Epicureans, try to distinguish the various manifestations of Plutarch’s humour (spontaneous reaction, literary device, pleasantry, witticism, irony) and finally suggest that Plutarch’s stance and attitude towards playfulness, comic situations and laughter may ultimately be affected, at least in part, by his allegiance to Plato.

«Комическое» как особое положение героя в ранней прозе Ф. М. Достоевского

By the example of F. M. Dostoevsky’s early works the theme of the comic as the special situation for the hero, both spiritual and actual physical, is considered. Special attention is paid to the motif of the heart as the key to changing comic situation of the hero. Based on the analysis of personal correspondence of Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail it is argued that knowledge of the world and, as a consequence, the possibility of overcoming the comic situation on the potentials of the heart are among the key themes of F. M. Dostoevsky. Explication of these concepts is carried out on the basis of works “Polzunkov” and “Little hero.” It is shown that special reflexion and resolution they achieve in the novel “Little hero.” The article includes examples of other early works by F. M. Dostoevsky to confirm the research theory and to demonstrate the breadth of the topic. The novelty of the presented work lies in the method, according to which the concept of the comic is seen not as a general literary category, but as a concept introduced by author and used to refer to the special situation for the hero. The relevance of this work is that the proposed method opens a way to the author’s understanding the idea of the comic and gives a chance to trace the development of the author’s conception of the comic.

Rozważania wokół platońskiej koncepcji śmiechu

The purpose of this article is a critical reconstruction of the Platonic conception of laughter, which is presented primarily in Republic andPhilebus. A comic quality calls, in his opinion, to lower emotions, it throws human mind out of balance and undermines the prevailing order of values. The philosopher associates a laughter with the feeling of envy (phtonos), which comes down to the joy of humiliating of someone weaker. The comic envy - as opposed to passive jealousy - almost automatically leads to the activity, to the enhancement of humiliation. Laughter is caused according to Plato by a defect resulting from the ignorance about himself. The key feature of the comic situation is the asymmetry between the victim's weakness and the strength of a laughing person. Plato's concept of laughter turns out to be one-sided, when we compare it with "laughter of Democritus" which serves as a therapeutic and catharctic means. Laughter is here a clear signal that initiates the critical reflection on himself and gives impetus to a change of attitude towards the world. In his writings Plato did not include such educational and cognitive aspects of laughter because in his philosophy it becomes a specific antagonist of true knowledge. The negative attitude towards laughter does not go hand in hand with Plato’s recognition of Socrates, who used irony as a key element in his method of inquiry leading to truth.

HUMOR AND LAUGHTER IN THE PEDAGOGICAL COMMUNICATIONS

This article analyzes the possibilities of humour and laughter in educational activity. Using techniques based on the knowledge of methodological potential of laughter is a substantial reserve for increasing the effectiveness of training, education and personal development. From a pedagogical point of view, means of creating a comic situation is a way of indirect pedagogical interaction with the audience. Laughter helps to observe generally accepted social norms of behaviour, avoid conflicts, defuse the situation, remove emotional tension and enhance the intellectual activity of students.

Humour and enjoyment reducers in cinema and theatre comedy

In this research, I am trying to define a new concept which I shall call Enjoyment Reducer, referring to verbal or visual content, incorporated into comic situations, which may offend or disturb the viewer’s enjoyment. There are comic situations that are only partially enjoyable and, at times, even cause embarrassment to the point of adversely affecting our enjoyment. These types of comic situations include what I term Enjoyment Reducers since they operate contrary to the function for which the comic situations were intended, which is to cause the viewer enjoyment. It should be noted that practically every comic situation includes Enjoyment Reducers because they are based on incongruities which disrupt our normal order or values. The fact that we laugh at humorous situations means that their enjoyable effect is stronger than the Enjoyment Reducers’ effect. Additionally, Enjoyment Reducers are both culture-dependent and contingent upon the viewer’s personality traits. Therefore, what one person perceives as an Enjoyment Reducer might be understood differently by another. The research findings reveal various types of Enjoyment Reducers that relate to human values, prohibitions and taboos. In addition, I will refer to another concept that is quite known, Enjoyment Enhancers, which might shed light on the main focus of the present research, which is Enjoyment Reducers. This research focuses mainly on comedy film, although the results are also relevant to theatre and all types of comic shows.

Why do we laugh at misfortunes? An electrophysiological exploration of comic situation processing

The goal of the present study was to shed some light on a particular kind of humour, called slapstick, by measuring brain bioelectrical activity during the perception of funny vs. non-funny pictures involving misfortunate circumstances. According to our hypothesis, the element mostly providing a comic feature in a misfortunate situation is the facial expression of the victims: the observer׳s reaction will usually be laughing only if the victims will show a funny bewilderment face and not a painful or anger expression.Several coloured photographs depicting people involved in misfortunate situations were presented to 30 Italian healthy volunteers, while their EEG was recorded. Three different situations were considered: people showing a painful or an angry expression (Affective); people showing a bewilderment expression and, so, a comic look (Comic); people engaged in similar misfortunate situations but with no face visible (No Face). Results showed that the mean amplitude of both the posterior N170 and anterior N220 components was much larger in amplitude to comic pictures, than the other stimuli. This early response could be considered the first identification of a comic element and evidence of the compelling and automatic response that usually characterizes people amused reaction during a misfortune. In addition, we observed a larger P300 amplitude in response to comic than affective pictures, probably reflecting a more conscious processing of the comic element. Finally, no face pictures elicited an anteriorly distributed N400, which might reflect the effort to comprehend the nature of the situation displayed without any affective facial information, and a late positivity, possibly indexing a re-analysis processing of the unintelligible misfortunate situation (comic or unhappy) depicted in the No Face stimuli.These data support the hypothesis that the facial expression of the victims acts as a specific trigger for the amused feeling that observers usually experience when someone falls down. Overall, the data indicate the existence of a neural circuit that is capable of recognize and appreciate the comic element of a misfortunate situation in a group of young adults.

Beggars on Horseback: the Irish cousins in Wales

In 1893, the writers known as Somerville and Ross (Edith Œnone Somerville and Violet Martin) were struggling to finish a novel, and to subsidise their project they agreed to describe a tour of north Wales. Central to the work is the tension between the authors' assigned task to divert readers with comical situations, and their aversion to the burgeoning travel industry (and embarrassment at their own participation in it). They disapprove of the marketing of Wales as a tourist destination. For them, this land (like the remoter parts of Ireland) still lies blessedly outside the modern metropolitan sphere in which each place becomes essentially the same as every other, save for touches of “local colour”. They consistently resist the role of tourist forced upon them, and in the end write a kind of anti-travel book, intended less for the prospective traveller than for the reader who, like them, would prefer to stay at home.

<필로우 톡> (1959)과 <다운 위드 러브> (2003): 로맨틱 코미디 영화의 화면 분할

이 연구는 사랑과 성을 다루는 로맨틱 코미디 영화에서 화면 분할 기법이 작품의 서사 목표와 전략에 맞게 어떻게 활용되는지를 검토한다. 로맨틱 코미디의 플롯은 남녀의 결합을 지향하지만 코믹한 상황과 에피소드를 통해 그 결합을 최대한 지연시키는 구조로 되어 있다. 이러한 지연 구조에서, 로맨틱 코미디 영화의 화면 분할은 대개 구성점2 이전에 배치되어, 영화의 초점을 두 남녀 주인공에게로 집중시키면서 코미디를 창출하는 특징을 보인다. 화면 분할이 웃음을 유발하는 방식은 두 주인공 인물 간의 정보 격차에 따르는 긴장감, 대사의 중의법, 그리고 분할된 이미지의 결합을 활용하는 것이며, 웃음의 소재는 사랑과 성에 관련한 것들이다. 연구의 검토 대상이 된 로맨틱 코미디 영화는 마이클 고든 Michael Gordon의 <필로우 톡 Pillow Talk>(1959)과 피톤 리드 Peyton Reed의 <다운 위드 러브 Down with Love>(2003)이다. This paper examines how split-screen technique works to meet the goals and strategies of the narrative in the romantic comedy films which deal with love and sex. The plot of romantic comedy films aims to the union and marriage of the couple, but is structured to delay the union as much as possible through comical situations and episodes. Usually split-screen scenes are placed before plot point 2 and serve to make a laugh and humor. Besides, it helps focusing on two main characters. Comedy related to love and sex comes from information gap between two main characters which can cause a tension, double meaning of spoken words and combination of split-screen images. Michael Gordon's Pillow Talk(1959) and Peyton Reed's Down with Love(2003) are reviewed in this study.