The Semiotics of Humour: Universal Humour Techniques in Comedy Writing

Abstract

In this chapter, I deal with the basic techniques of humor found in film comedies. I make use of my work on the techniques of humor found in every kind of humorous narrative text. In my research into humor, I found four categories of humor: humor involving language, humor involving logic, humor involving identity, and what I describe as humor involving action or physical and nonverbal humor. There is also what might be described as ‘comedic style,’ namely the techniques an author tends to use to generate laughter. I list the techniques of humor in terms of their categories and alphabetic order so we can apply these techniques of scenes in comedies of interest. In many cases, we find that there are several techniques at work at the same time. My focus on the techniques of humor bears some resemblance to Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, which listed many functions found in fairytales and other narrative works. My list of techniques might be described as the morphology of the joke tale in that it offers forty-five techniques that are found in plays and comedic texts of every kind. Applying these techniques, we can see in a granular manner how a text generates mirthful laughter in comedies.