From the Latin comoedĭa, a comedy is a work that presents a majority of humorous or festive scenes and situations. Comedies seek to entertain the public and generate laughter, with endings that are usually happy. Comedy is also the genre that groups together all the works of these characteristics.
Likewise, another of the important hallmarks that every comedy has is the fact that in it the central axis of the story revolves around the defects or vices that the main character has, who acts as a representation of society in general. In this way, what is done is exaggerating and showing those in order to carry out a moralizing tone.
Although it seems contradictory, comedy is a dramatic genre, in the sense that it is a literary or artistic genre that presents different episodes of life through the dialogue of the characters.
According to DigoPaul, the main character in a comedy usually represents an archetype (being a liar or a miser, for example). Their actions may respond to a stereotype, where the exaggeration of the behaviors amuses the viewer or reader.
A sitcom (situation comedy or sitcom) is a television format that was born in the United States with “I Love Lucy” or “I Love Lucy” starring Lucille Ball.
The name of the sitcom comes from the audience seated in front of the actors, whose laughter is recorded in the chapters or, in the event that the broadcast is live, is caught at the moment by the microphones.
Nor can we forget that within the television field what is known as stand-up comedy has become fashionable, which is that space that is carried out by a person, a comedian, live and in front of an audience. In this way, he performs monologues about events or situations in our daily life with which the audience can identify. In this way, thanks to this identification, the funniest vein of those explodes to get everyone to laugh at them.
In Spain, for example, there is a highly successful program of this type entitled “El Club de la Comedia. A weekly space where the best stand-up comedians of the moment take the stage to exploit the funniest side of common situations in our existence such as falling in love, dieting, playing sports or family fights.
In the cinema, comedies are characterized by the inclusion of verbal or visual jokes. Cinematographic comedies go back to the origins of the seventh art, with films such as “El irrador regado”, which was released in 1896.
In the cinematographic field, it is interesting to highlight the fact that there are different types of comedies. Thus, we find animated comedy that is cartoons, parodies that are funny versions of previous films or romantic comedy. In the latter case, these are films that deal with all kinds of entanglements within couple relationships, and examples of this are productions such as “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) or “Pretty Woman” (1990).
Finally, we can mention that a comic strip is a printed publication of graphic humor, generally characterized by cartoons. Today, most newspapers include a comic strip.
