many would cite Beckett for funniests, & while I do giggle like a
maniac at, say, 'Waiting for Godot', there's still an.. I don't know,
a tragedy or a depth or a set of implications that make it difficult
(thankfully) to read it & just see a satsifying comedy. in fact, how
readily would some people call a tragicomedy funny in the first place?
KS
On 27/04/07, Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Probably The Importance of Being Earnest. For some reason no matter
> how many times you see/read it the lines are as funny the eightieth
> time as the first. That's the mark of high comedy.
>
> One of the great moments in theatre: "Prism: where is that baby?"
>
> Though I've sometimes thought that the Oedipus Rex is almost the
> funniest play ever written. This may seem like a bizarre claim, but
> think about it: the situation of a man progressively attempting to
> make his situation better, but out of ignorance instead progressively
> making it worse, is one of the archetypal comic routines. The
> disjunction between what the protagonist thinks is happening and what
> we the audience know is really happening is the salient element of
> both tragedy and comedy, and nowhere are the two more perfectly fused
> than in the Oedipus Rex: it's the most tragic of plays instead of the
> most comic only because the balance is skewed to a minuscule extent
> towards the tragic.
>
> --
> ===================================
>
> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/
>
> ===================================
>
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