Funny How?: Sketch Comedy and the Art of Humor (SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema)

Uses comedy skits, from Monty Python to Key and Peele , to probe how humor works. What makes something funny? This book shows how humor can be analyzed without killing the joke. Alex Clayton argues that the brevity of a sketch or skit and its typical rejection of narrative development make it comedy-concentrate, providing a rich field for exploring how humor works. Focusing on a dozen or so skits and scenes, Clayton shows precisely how sketch comedy appeals to the funny bone and engages our philosophical imagination. He suggests that since humor is about persuading an audience to laugh, it can be understood as a form of rhetoric. Through vivid, highly readable analyses of individual sketches, Clayton illustrates that Aristotle’s three forms of appeal― logos , the appeal to reason; ethos , the appeal to communality; and pathos , the appeal to emotion―can form the basis for illuminating the inner workings of humor. Drawing on both popular and lesser-known examples from the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere― Monty Python’s Flying Circus , Key and Peele , Saturday Night Live , Airplane! , and Smack the Pony ―Clayton reveals the techniques and resonances of humor. "What makes something funny? Some take this question to be effectively unanswerable, while others turn to comic theory. Funny How? offers a new approach, showing how humor can be analyzed without killing the joke. Alex Clayon writes that the brevity of a sketch or skit and its typical rejection of narrative development make it comedy concentrate, providing a rich field for exploring how humor works. Focusing on a dozen or so skits and scenes, Clayton shows precisely how sketch comedy appeals to the funny bone and engages our philosophical imagination. He posits that since humor is about persuading an audience to laugh, it can be understood as a form of rhetoric. Through vivid, highly readable analyses of individual sketches, Clayton argues that Aristotle's three forms of appeal-logos, the appeal to reason; ethos, the appeal to communality; and pathos, the appeal to emotion-can form the basis for illuminating the inner workings of humor. He draws on both popular and lesser-known examples from the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere, across film and television, from Monty Python's Flying Circus to Key and Peele, via Saturday Night Live, Airplane!, and Smack the Pony"-- Provided by publisher Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Trouble with Comic Theory Sudden Glory/“Swimming Pool” Strained Expectation /“Monks’ Humor” Mechanical Inelasticity/“Awkward Conversation” Conceptual Incongruity/“Sir Digby Chicken Caesar” Against the Grand Reduction 2 Takeoffs “Stayin’ Alive” “Acorn Antiques” “Spiffington Manse” 3 Thought Experiments “Argument Clinic” “Gerald the Gorilla” “Toilet Party” 4 Prime Numbers “Breakfast” “Boardroom” “Hot Tub” 5 Pitched Battles “Four Yorkshiremen” “Price War” “Singing Contest” Conclusion: The Rhetoric of Humor Logos Ethos Pathos Comedy in Three Dimensions Works Cited Index __Uses comedy skits, from __Monty Python__ to __Key and Peele__, to probe how humor works.____logos____ethos____pathos____Monty Python’s Flying Circus____Key and Peele____Saturday Night Live____Airplane!____Smack the Pony__