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