BabyGirl Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [color=deeppink]While in AP English the other day, my teacher was introducing Shakespear's [i]The Twelfth Night[/i] to us, and brought up something her college professor once said: [quote]"Comedy is more tragic than tragedy."[/quote] She made us think about it for a while, but I want to hear what some of you have to say about it. Think hard ;)[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9mm Avenger Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [color=royalblue]*thinks hard, and head explodes*Nope, don't get it........Wait*reataches head*Sometimes, comedy can make us think, instead of giving us cheap laughs...Which is why I watch Family guy... :D[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sui Generis Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 Hm...My thoughts...Comedy is tragedy....Its a wasted art...Now its raunchy and everything...and it is wasted...Its just saying we humans need to find ways to hide ourselves....My thoughts...don't kill me!! :help: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fall Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 How the hell is Comedy that?! Comedy = funny, and Tragic = sad.:bow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9mm Avenger Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [color=royalblue]Exactly....Comedy has gone to waste*yells at comedians*GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! Some comdians have turned Comedy for the worst...*coughs*Drew Carry![/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matt Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 well, most comidies have a tragic aspect. most things that you find funny is when something bad happens to someone else. so, it's funny for you, but tragic for them.:bow: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 when i first saw "Comedy is more tragic than tragedy" my first thought was that alot of people who try to be funny just end up looking sad because theyre not.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9* Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 i think it's bcuz most peep's only look at the surface of comedy, instead of what's behind it. like in twelfth night, the smartest character is the jester who is always acting the fool, the dumbest characters are the ones that try to act like sages. also, many peep's use comedy to hurt others or belittle their own pain whoa, deep subject Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transtic Nerve Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 eh... i don't know what people's problem with comedy is all of the sudden... I may be gullable to some extents, I may to offense to certain things but if it's some joke, whats the big deal. I don't get the phrase either.... Comedy is better than tragedy... I'd much rather watch something that'll make me laugh and be happy then something that'll make me cry and be sad.... I watch Comedy Central anytime I can... i love standup comedy... I like political comedy like that on SNL, I like stupid comedy *sometimes*... and even comedy that makes you think, believe it or not, something like South Park... you may think thats stupid comedy, but in every south park episode there is a really good meaning about the US or Politicas, or racism or whatever.... the two guys that make the show are probably some of the smartest people in the world... despite the image they put forth in Baseketball. lol I have no idea what the phrase means... as a personal who supports comedy of all kinds, i can only say comedy is an achievment, not a tragedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(<AA>) Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 What ever happened to watching comedy and just laughing?:confused: anyway,this twelfth night is sooo wierd!But,I guess a synopsis is not enugh to be sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoCactuar Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 Wait, wait, wait... so she is saying comedy is really bad, tradgic infact. No way! Comedy rules! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 Wow, that made me think a lot, but i never understood it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [FONT=century gothic]I suppose I'm probably wrong....but if said quote was brought up during a discussion of Shakespeare, i don't know that it is necessarily about today's sitcoms and stand-up humor....[/FONT] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [B]hmmmm, it does bake my noodle a little bit, but as son goten said, it must be because people find things funny at another persons expense.... If anyone has seen Billy Connoly, now that man can make someone laugh...[/B] :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Break Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [SIZE=1]Some comedy is racist... But overall, comedies cool and there is nothing wrong with it... GOT IT! Just thought! Is it more tragic than tradegy because in tradegy, you cry (well maybe or feel sad) is someone dies, but if something like that happens in comedy, everyone laughs AT not with them...[/SIZE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posthumous Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 :help: Um.... I cant think of it.I'm not a good thinker.Might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyGirl Posted December 8, 2001 Author Share Posted December 8, 2001 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by NeoCactuar [/i] [B]Wait, wait, wait... so she is saying comedy is really bad, tradgic infact. No way! Comedy rules! [/B][/QUOTE] [color=deeppink]There's a reason I said 'think hard' because you have all gotten the complete wrong idea of what I am saying. Perhaps this question was a bit too advanced for y'all...except Cera, she understands where I'm coming from:[/color] [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Cera [/i] [B][FONT=century gothic]I suppose I'm probably wrong....but if said quote was brought up during a discussion of Shakespeare, i don't know that it is necessarily about today's sitcoms and stand-up humor....[/FONT] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=deeppink]I'll explain it later when I feel like typing more :)[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 [B]thats a good point babygirl, i don't think someone from 400 years ago would try to relate that sentence to todays comedy.... but what can it be meaning? Shakespeare did write a lot of tragidies in his time, maybe he's saying that he always seems to write tragidies instead of comedies or any comedies he writes turn out as tragidies.. AHHH! It really does make you think.........[/B] :wigout: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Dark Posted December 8, 2001 Share Posted December 8, 2001 I haven't read much of Shakespeare's comedies, because we tend to learn about the tragedies because our teachers tell us it is better.... (But I doubt that that is the point made) Personally, I haven't really read one of his comedies, but I sort of did a quick preformance of "Twelfth night" when I was 11. The point is, in even in Romeo and Juliet, there are a lot of jokes in the scenes with Mercutio, and then the teacher would say "You only laughed at one of the jokes", and we thought "There were more than one..." It's difficult to understnad the jokes, apart from the really, really raunchy ones. So what Babygirl's teacher could mean is that all the jokes are missed out, but I again doubt that... However, here's the most valid idea. I know someone who had read a comedy of his, and from what they told me, it is actually a tragedy as well, just in a really funny way. For example, a "Midsummer Nights Dream" has a lot of tragedy, for although funny (To English teachers, and the very well-informed), there is a lot of tragedy, like forbidden love. The characters end up in tragic circumstances, but not as obvious as in his tragedies, and usually the tragedy is very, very great... If those aren't right, then I'll think about it later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyGirl Posted December 8, 2001 Author Share Posted December 8, 2001 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by D. Dark [/i] [B]However, here's the most valid idea. I know someone who had read a comedy of his, and from what they told me, it is actually a tragedy as well, just in a really funny way. For example, a "Midsummer Nights Dream" has a lot of tragedy, for although funny (To English teachers, and the very well-informed), there is a lot of tragedy, like forbidden love. The characters end up in tragic circumstances, but not as obvious as in his tragedies, and usually the tragedy is very, very great... [/B][/QUOTE] [color=deeppink]Out of everyone, you have come the closest to the correct explanation ;) Do keep thinking...I still don't feel like typing out an explanation because at the present time my brain hurts :drunk: And, Dark is getting warm...perhaps he could finish out the reasoning behind the quote :excited:[/color] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Videl~ Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 I guess I kind of have two points *feeling very vague* it's late here I'm to bed soon. Firstly comedy is more tragic than tragedy because most of our humour from whatever era is based on laughing at the misfortune of others. For example, in a midsummer nights dream when bottom gets the head of an ***(a pun in itself, but I don't know if the bard intended it as such ;) ) we all find this really funny. If he had fallen and broken his leg - some might say less of a disability than losing your head - it just wouldn't be the same. On another level, some things are just so tragic, so absolutely terrible that you can't help but laugh. This is going somewhere.....honest....but I can't thinks it's so late........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transtic Nerve Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 Wasn't Othelo a comedy? That had a rather tragic ending though.... Shakespeares comedy was.... odd... for now-a-days modern society. I'm still not sure what the phrase means though.. So I'm gonna have BG explain it to me! BWAHAH! i mean... yeah... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkM Posted December 9, 2001 Share Posted December 9, 2001 [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Valkyrie [/i] [B]when i first saw "Comedy is more tragic than tragedy" my first thought was that alot of people who try to be funny just end up looking sad because theyre not.. [/B][/QUOTE] that is almost true but this is what i think it means: comedy is just 4 fun and people how are comideans make fun of something or some 1 take snl 4 example they made fun of bill Clinton 4 3 years and made people think of Bill in a bad way..... but tragedy is when people unite and fourm a bond that cannot be broken.... so they dont make fun of people take the twin tows 4 example what would it be like if the news reporters said hahahaha:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: a bunch of people died by airplanes in the twin towers:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: NO no 1 would do that cuz it is a serious matter(if any 1 did they get a kick and a punch and a pinch from baby girl,then thyed get slapped ne ways comedy is more tradic than tragdy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinnyLyn Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 [COLOR=chocolate]Lemme try to add on to what everyone else is saying: In English, for our final paper, we were asked write whether comedy existed for its own means (provided humor), or if it had a deeper meaning, in other words, attempting to inform the audience of something. Time for me to go out on a limb here: what's tragic (and IMO, this ties into the good ol' Bard's stuff) is that comedy exposes us to stuff we, in any other situation, would not dare think about. I know that I learn about half the stuff I do from comedy, and it sends me on a "why is that joke done the way it is, where is it coming from" type of aspect. And it is tragic, in a sense, that we do not know the workings of our world through other ways (sans 9-11 for us/the USAers). And of course, the tragedy of finding our amusement in other people's folly. Sheesh, I should be in English right now, this stuff is gold we are all typing! [/COLOR] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan L Posted December 10, 2001 Share Posted December 10, 2001 Hmmmmmmmmm comedy... tragedy... It depends. If you look at the comedians who write/perform comedy, many of them are sad, often very depressed, but are able to make people laugh. I have no idea how this works i dont do psychology, but ive heard about it alot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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