Humor and Irony

1. Difficult issues Humor and Irony

2. What do we mean by humor? Or humorous? • Do we mean “comic?” • Do we mean “funny?” • Do we mean “witty?”

3. The facts:The fact is we mean all of them at different times and in different situations. • In literary theory and criticism, no one has ever been able to provide a widely applicable and widely accepted definition of comedy or humor. • Here are some attempts at defining COMEDY • Situations in which some are amused and led to feel superior to others • The situations which elicit our delighted attention rather than profound concern • A situation with a happy ending

4. From what does humor arise and what is it? • Incongruity • The unexpected • Actions intended to be funny • Words which say the opposite of what is expected • Wit or wittiness; clever use of language • A joke played on someone As you can see, it’s hard to find an umbrella term to either include all or separate classes of humor.

5. Irony • One literary feature that is associated with and sometimes produces humor is IRONY. • An easy way to keep track of irony and identify it is to remember that it is always BI-POLAR----IT ALWAYS INVOLVES TWO 2 2= say one thing, mean another 2= expect or intend one thing, another happens22

6. Two main kinds of irony • In VERBAL IRONY, we say one thing and intend or mean another • In DRAMATIC OR SITUATIONAL IRONY, one thing is expected or intended, something else happens • And DRAMATIC IRONY is also used to describe the situation in drama when the audience knows something characters on stage do not.