Embarrassing things, taboo subjects, Schadenfreude; what are the most common sources of comedy?
What are the most common sources of comedy?
This could be approached from a very academic angle. I'm sure someone could talk quite a lot about Shakespeare etc but that person isn't me. Thinking in terms of light entertainment, I would add the unexpected, the unmanageable, the eccentric or the bizarre, chaos, class differences, the pointing out of things we know but didn't fully realise we knew, and word play. Those sort of things often work for me. And pathos can add a lot as long as it doesn't slide into schmaltz. There probably needs to be identification on some level but that doesn't have to mean narrow. Most people have multiple strands.
Trousers falling down. Forgetting to wear knickers. Farting in the presence of Royalty. Drinking a urine sample instead of a foaming glass of ale. Plus combinations of those.
Quote: beaky @ 2nd May 2015, 7:34 PM BSTTrousers falling down. Forgetting to wear knickers. Farting in the presence of Royalty. Drinking a urine sample instead of a foaming glass of ale. Plus combinations of those.
That's you at the pub?
I think 'embarrassing things' covers most of that.
Right now on TV I would say the most common source of comedy is poor imitation and bad execution of tried and tested ideas.
Quote: DougWonnacott @ 2nd May 2015, 10:34 PM BSTRight now on TV I would say the most common source of comedy is poor imitation and bad execution of tried and tested ideas.
Personally, I'd say it wasn't the above, but instead endlessly more detailed observation for its own sake, presented not only as the source of humour, but the humour itself.
As in: 'Look how cleverly observed this is. Isn't it funny that people tend to do that?' (A woman singing badly in a car, for example. Hilarious. Or not.)
Personally I still think an observation needs a joke to work. You know, 'tried and tested ideas'. 
As for the initial question I'd say the source of humour per se tends to be the human condition. Humour is part of our humanity and with it we explore our human foibles.
Viewed from a certain angle, everything people do tends to have more than a whiff of the ridiculous.
Not least as we always tend to rub up against each other.
For where there's people, there are differing perspectives, there is conflict, there is humour.
Enter Don Camillo and Pepone... 
Rubbing up against each other is a source of humour, except in this sentence obviously.
Officialdom, technology, etiquette, travel, jobs, leisure. Everything really. PC is a rich source but so far, it has too many in its vice- like grip for the potential to be fully realised. Time will free us from its tyranny eventually.
Food, drink, the body, oh right, that comes under 'everything' doesn't it.
Demolishing authority.
If authority hasn't got planning permission, it should be demolished by the authorities.
Is it something to do with Poo?
Don't think anyone has mentioned pomposity, which has had/can have much mileage, the classics being Hancock and Mainwaring.
Ooh, and Margo Leadbetter, and many others I expect that peeps on this forum could come up with........... 
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 10th May 2015, 10:09 AM BSTDon't think anyone has mentioned pomposity, which has had/can have much mileage, the classics being Hancock and Mainwaring.
Ooh, and Margo Leadbetter, and many others I expect that peeps on this forum could come up with...........
Ah yes, pomposity.
It makes for some of the most glorious moments.
Margo Leadbetter of course also had a another run in the form of Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton.
Frasier also could be wonderfully pompous. One was so very learned and sophisticated. And his dad was only too delighted to bring him back down a peg or two.
Let us not forget Roderick Spode, amateur dictator in waiting.
Minister and Prime Minister Jim Hacker, whenever he fell into faux-Churchillian mode, with Sir Humphrey and Bernard standing by, waiting for it to pass.
For my writing it's generally things that annoy me, the misuse/abuse of language, and applying ruthless logic to sources that can't take it (eg song lyrics, children's stories). Half of what I wrote springs from those 3, I'd estimate.
Bellybuttons.
The news. Why has no one said that??
Stretch and twist what's already there.