In a modern sense,
comedy (from the ,
komoidía) refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be
humorous or to amuse by inducing
laughter, especially in
theatre,
television,
film and
stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in
Ancient Greece. In the
Athenian democracy, the
public opinion of voters was influenced by the
political satire performed by the
comic poets at the
theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing
agon or conflict.
Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic
irony which provokes
laughter.
