amusing--Laughter，humour，and the comic

l  A similar argument has been made by Terry Palmer. What can count as comic is dependent in part upon socio-cultural rules, conventions, and conditions:

l  Within our society, formal comedy is marked as potentially comic because it is produced and circulated within the institutions of ‘entertainment’ and because these institutions designate some of the utterances they circulate in this way.

l  The utterance themselves are invested with cues in the form of generic conventions: comedies tend to involve certain familiar performers and they tend to be titled in certain ways rather than others.

                                                         《Panda Chivalrous person》

                                             

l  These conventions can be marked outside the confines of the utterance itself, forming a part of the ‘narrative image’ of a film or programme.

l  In stand-up performances, comedians often use routine phrases like ‘Have you heard the one about….’ to introduce and signal their jokes.

l  The features that mark them are features of humour.

l  Both for classical and neoclassical theory, the comic is characterized in terms of “the ludicrous” and “the ridiculous”: Comedy is an imitation of baser men. These are characterized not by every kind of vice but specifically by the ridiculous, which is a subdivision of the category of deformity. What we mean by ‘the ridiculous’ is some error or ugliness that is painless and has no harmful effects.(Aristotle)

l  The site of the ludicrous and the ridiculous may either be mind (in the form of ignorance, imprudence, credulity, the making of an error or mistake) or the body ( in the form of ugliness, deformity, ill-fitting or inappropriate garments, and so on).

l  People are ludicrous or ridiculous in appearance as well as in speech or action: because of bodily or facial expression, or gesture, or motion, or physical activity, or dress.

l  The monstrous is never ridiculous.

Reference:

Yang Liu, 2010. The revelry and spoof of Chinese low-budget comedy film. Ph.D. thesis, University of Nan Jing

Non, 2006. The Beauty and Sorrow of Chinese low-budget comedy film. Chinese network television. Available at: http://tv.cntv.cn/live/cctv10  [ Accessed 3 December 2012]

Zhao Ning Yu, 2010. The opportunity  of Chinese low-budget comedy film. M.A. thesis, Bei Jing Film Academy

Fan Bei, 2012. The production and effect of Chinese low-budget comedy film. M.A. thesis, Bei Jing Film Academy

Fan Bei, 2012.The production and effect of low-budget comedy film[online].Available at: http://www.doc88.com/p-274339276957.html [Accessed 20 December 2012]

amusing-----gags

l  From discussing instances in which action and dialogue and combined, we can now turn to the field of visual, physical action, the field of the gag.

l  Comedy writer, It can in fact be used quite legitimately to refer to verbal jokes and humour.

l  I shall here restrict the meaning of the term to ‘non-linguistic comic action’, in order to give it some precision and consistency.

l  Gag comes to mean ‘a pre-prepared piece of action.’

                                                                 《old boy》

l  Coursodon discuss the feature of a gag. There is a fundamental difference between gags, on the one hand, calls’ comic effects’, on the other hand, sequence. The sequence contains three linked but separate stages: 1, a laying out of its basic components; 2 development of the situation in a particular direction; 3 reversal and ‘punchline’.

l  An example of a comic effect would be a ‘platfall’, or a double-take, slow-burn, or some other kind of comic expression. For Coursodon, these effects lack the structural complexity of the true gag. They are single one-off comic occurrences.

l  However, because the term ‘gag’ can apply equally to any kind of visual comic effect, it can legitimately be used to refer to all of these forms. Coursodon’s distinction can perhaps best to marked by calling comic effects simply ‘gags’, and sequences involving complex elaboration ‘developed’ or ‘articulated’ gags.

l  More importantly, perhaps, the term ‘gag’ is appropriate to all these forms, because they all share a property marked in its meaning as interpolation: they each constitute digressions or interruptions in the progress of a plot or a piece of purposive narrative action. They hence each tend also to involve a degree of surprise.

l  In the case of articulated gags, the interruption is sustained, and the internal structure of the gag is marked by variation, digression, and a number of instances of comic surprise.

l  Gags and comic structure

l  Gags are suited to the articulation of ineptitude and frustration because they are suited to the articulation of failure. They are suited to the articulation of failure because of the potential ingredient of interruption.(just as they suited to the articulation of sudden success because of the ingredient of surprise.)

Reference:

        Steve, N., and Frank, K., 1990. Popolar Film And Television Comedy. third ed. London: Routledge

BRUCE, 2008. The Visual Story. Second ed. British Library: Kathryn Liston

Wes D. Gehring., 1986. SCREWBALL COMEDY. First ed. London: Marx

Andrew, 1991. COMEDY/CINEMA/THEORY. Second ed. England: Berkeley

YUE FEI, 2006. The comic soul of Chinese low-budget comedy film. M.A. thesis, University of Chong Qing Arts and Science

amusing-- Jokes and wisecracks

l  Ben Shan’s remark about ～ Is probably best characterized as a wisecrack.

l  Definition of wisecracks in Dictionary of American Slang, as ‘A bright, smart, witting or sarcastic remark.’ It could also just be called a joke, an intentionally funny comment, line, anecdote, or story.

                                                            《Just Call Me Nobody》

l  One concerns the contrast between self-contained forms and forms, like Sandy’s first line, which are bound by their context. The other concerns a contrast between lines and remarks which the character or performer who speaks them intend to be funny, which exist therefore, in part at least, as a display of the speaker’s wit, and lines and remarks which are unintentionally funny, which result from stupidity, ignorance, or misunderstanding.

l  One of the reasons why many jokes, wisecracks, and funny lines are rarely integral to a plot is that they all require formal closure, often in the form of a punchline. Because of this degree of closure, they are structurally unsuited to narration. They can, and often do, involve narrative preconditions. But it is difficult to use them as a springboard for narrative development. They are instead much more suited to constructing or marking a pause or digression in the ongoing flow of a story.

l  Precisely for this reason, special motivation is often provided for wisecracks and jokes by having them spoken by characters particularly given to verbal wit and repartee:

l  Jokes and wisecracks in general—imply a control of language: language manipulated deliberately for the purposes of humour.

l  And insofar as language is the site of understanding, communication, logical thought, and the demonstration of an awareness of decorum and the rules of social intercourse, its intentionally witty use implies all kinds of other abilities. But linguistic humour can result from an unwitting misuse of language, or rather a comic misuse of language marked as unintentional in some way.

l  Generalized as a character trait, linguistic and cultural ignorance can form the basis of a consistent persona. A persona can be used to motivate all kind of unintentionally funny lines.

l  Misunderstanding and ignorance mark a disturbance in the communication process. Such a disturbance is very often the basis of verbal humour in films, programmes, and sketches.

l  Comedy, of course, stems not just from the use or misuse of language. It stems also from physical action. And it stems on occasion from an interaction between the two.

l  The visual pun is only one of the forms taken by the comic interplay between language and action.

l  The some kind of device can be found in a comic event and a stand-up performance.

l  In the case, verbal comments often constitute a character’s incongruous, Ingenious, or insufficient attempts to restore a control and dignity lost during the course of the action itself.(LI BO ZHOU)

Reference:

   Steve, N., and Frank, K., 1990. Popolar Film And Television Comedy. third ed. London: Routledge

BRUCE, 2008. The Visual Story. Second ed. British Library: Kathryn Liston

Wes D. Gehring., 1986. SCREWBALL COMEDY. First ed. London: Marx

Andrew, 1991. COMEDY/CINEMA/THEORY. Second ed. England: Berkeley

YUE FEI, 2006. The comic soul of Chinese low-budget comedy film. M.A. thesis, University of Chong Qing Arts and Science

Comic events

l  The fact that they are instances and examples of the comic—forms whose principal function is to be funny and thus to occasion laughter.

l  Comic events

                                                     《 Today Started on a journey》

l  We shall call loosely, ‘ the comic moment’ or ‘ comic event’. Which it can exist only within a narrative context—as a consequence of the existence of characters and a plot.

l  The scene neither takes the form of a self-contained visual gag nor builds to a one-line wisecrack or joke. The scene is only funny because of its narrative context.

l  The particular comic event, and the comic moment within it, is so integral to its context that it gives rise to further events of relevance to the plot.

l  There are instances of comic events or comic moments less integral to the structure of a plot, either because their comic value depends upon a form of preparation itself inessential to the narrative (though the event itself may be crucial), or because, vice versa, the event is prepared for by the plot, but has no narrative consequences.

l  One particular mode of comic event is verbal.

l  It is distinguishable from jokes and wisecracks insofar as it is integral to, and dependent entirely upon, the existence of a narrative context to make it funny.

l , and inheren Where jokes and wisecracks are self-containedtly humorous, the type we are thinking of is not.

l  The different can perhaps best be illustrated by considering two different lines of dialogue uttered by the same character at different points in the same film.

l  We do not laugh because the remark is in any sense inherently funny.

Slapstick

l  Like parody and satire, slapstick is a mode of comedy, a mode that can be found in forms as diverse as the sketch, the double-act, the short, and the feature film.

l  Slapstick: Literally, a comic weapon, originally called a batte, comprised of a pair of lath paddles or long, flat pieces of wood fastened at one end and used by comics to create a great deal of noise with minimum danger when another person is struck.

l  It is obvious that the literal slapstick was translated into a term to describe physical or broad comedy.

l  As we shall see the physical--- and therefore visual -----qualities of slapstick were of crucial importance in the early comedy of the silent era in the cinema.

l  Indeed, in many ways the film is about there modes and forms, in particular, the values they each embody.

                                            《A Chinese Odyssey》is an example.

l  It is a film which in other words constructs and works out its ideological and thematic concerns in terms of comedy’s various , modes and forms.

l  Centre on characters of a lower social class.

l  ~~is a comedy. It is played mostly for laughs, and it has a happy ending. Its story and setting allow for parody, slapstick, and a degree of satire as well. Its romance plot, meanwhile, allows the film to explore the relationship between comedy and melodrama.

l  It is this obstacle which leads to what begins as one of the most melodramatic scenes in the film

Reference:

 Gao Guan Lin, 2007. The state of development. Available at:http://wenku.baidu.com/view/148ba5cc050876323112123b.html [Accessed 16 December 2012]

Gao Guan Lin, 2007. The state of development of Chinese low-budget comedy film. M.A. thesis, University of Xi Bei

Fan Bei, 2012.The production and effect of low-budget comedy film[online].Available at: http://www.doc88.com/p-274339276957.html [Accessed 20 December 2012]

Zhang Zi Xiao, 2012. The successful way of low-budget comedy film[online]. Available at: http://www.docin.com/p-432818669.html   [Accessed 28 December 2012]

Yue Fei, 2012. The comic spirit of low-budget comedy film[online] Available at:http://www.nylw.net/Art/dianshidianying/nylw_0716_9098_2.html   [Accessed 2 December 2012]

amusing--Parody and satire

l   As Linda Hutcheon has argued, parody need not always be comic. However, when it is, and when it occurs within the context of a comedy, laughter is consistently produced.

l  Parody is, in fact, only one of a variety of modes available to comedy.

l  Where parody, as we have seen, draws on- and high lights- aesthetic conventions, satire draws on-and highlights- social ones.

l  Satire works to mock and attack. It uses the norms within its province as a basis against which to measure deviations. Sometimes the deviations themselves are attacked, particularly if those who deviate are those who profess to adhere to these norms most strongly. Sometimes the norms are attacked—in the name of other, less prevalent, social values.

l  Parody can be used for satirical purposes.

                          《crazy stone》 parody《missions impossible 》 to produce  laughter.     
                       

l  Like parody and satire, slapstick is a mode of comedy, a mode that can be found in forms as diverse as the sketch, the double-act, the short, and the feature film.

                               

           

comic and comedy

l  A happy ending implies a narrative context; the generation of laughter does not.

l  The generation of laughter does not require any particular type of structural context.

l  Comedy, however, seems especially suited to hybridization, because the local forms responsible for the deliberate generation of laughter can be inserted at some point into most other generic contexts without disturbing their conventions. Like comedy thrillers, comedy detective film, comedy horror films, musical comedies.

                                                         romantic comedy film

                                                              thriller comedy film

definitions, genres, and forms

l  The Concise Oxford Dictionary: comedy, n, stage-play of light, amusing and often satirical character, chiefly representing everyday life, with happy ending.

l  From Aristotle on, comedy was for centuries the most appropriate genre for representing the lives, not of the ruling classes, of those with extensive power, but of the ‘middle’ and ‘ lower’ orders of society, those whose power was limited and local, and whose manners, behavior, and values were considered by their ‘ betters’ to be either trivial, or vulgar, or both.

l  The consistent generation of laughter through the multiple use of gags, funny lines, and funny situations, and, in these instances at least, the representation of lower-class characters and everyday life respectively.

There are many low-budget comedy films in China that describe unimportant people’s daily life：                                        《big movie 2》

《happy》

《bullfight》

《Luck Dog》

l  Various versions.

l  In various strands of romantic comedy, particularly those in which a melodramatic crisis is resolved by means of a happy ending.

l  A happy ending necessitates a preceding, narrative context.

Reference:

 Hao Jian, 2012. The beauty and sorrow of low-budget comedy film. Bugu: CCTV. Available at: http://bugu.cntv.cn/20100122/100041.shtml  [Accessed 9 December 2012]

Yang Liu, 2010. The revelry and spoof of Chinese low-budget comedy film. Available at: http://www.doc88.com/p-993392545037.html [Accessed 12 December 2012]

suspense

l  There  should be two components to the catastrophe in a comedy’s narrative structure.

l  One, as we have seen already, was a peripeteia, or reversal of fortune. The other was anagnorisis, a transition from ignorance to knowledge, in accordance with Evanthias’ original formula:‘The catastrophe is the reversal ( conversion) of affairs preparatory to the cheerful outcome, and revealed to all by means of a discovery ( cognition).

l  Dramatic interest or suspense may be of two different types: 1, suspense of anticipation; the spectator knows what is to happen, but not when or how; he follows the progress of the action and awaits with ever---increasing hope of fear the coming of the expected event;

Like 《crazy stone》：

2, suspense of uncertainty in a state of ignorance and curiosity about the later action.

Like 《one night in supermarket》：

Particular motivation

l  Bordwell here has stressed one particular kind of motivation, causal motivation, and its prevalence with a range of Hollywood genres. He goes on to point out, however, that in certain circumstances causal motivation can be abandoned for, or intermingled with, Coincidence, Luck, Fortune, Fate or the intervention of the Supernatural.

Like 《Lost On Journey》，there are many plots of fortune， luck and coincidence.

l  Motivation is an issue that affects not just ending but also the events that precede them.

l  If anything, it not only permits but encourages the abandonment of causal motivation and narrative integration for the sake of comic effect, providing a generically appropriate space for the exploration and use of non-causal forms of motivation and digressive narrative structures.

l  For these reasons, comedy is a prime site for all manner of unlikely actions---and all manner of unlikely forms of justification for their occurrence.

l  ~~posits the existence of a mermaid to justify its plot and to motivate a number of its gags.

l  Motivation is always functional to the design of a narrative.

l  Narrative design is also at issue is suspense and surprise, two types of narrative strategy fundamental to all kind of comedy.

Reference:

Zhang Zi Xiao, 2012. The successful way of low-budget comedy film[online]. Available at: http://www.docin.com/p-432818669.html   [Accessed 28 December 2012]

Yue Fei, 2012. The comic spirit of low-budget comedy film[online] Available at:http://www.nylw.net/Art/dianshidianying/nylw_0716_9098_2.html   [Accessed 2 December 2012]

Yang Liu, 2010.The revelry and spoof of Chinese low-budget comedy film. Available at:http://www.doc88.com/p-993392545037.html[Accessed 5 December 2012]

Non, 2008. The production conditions of Chinese low-budget comedy film. Available at:http://www.docin.com/p-443755259.html   [Accessed 18 December 2012]