Comedy Key Terms

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Incongrus
An inappropriate or unexpected action or situation
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Subversion
Turning a preconceived notion on its head
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Word Play
The witty exploitation of the ambiguity of words
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Characterisation
Distinctive quirks in the construction of a character
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Wit
The capacity for inventive thought and quick understanding
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Farce
Buffoonery, acting like a fool
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Satire
An ironic take on a concept,often with a political subtext
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Folly
Foolishness
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Caricature
A mildly insulting, exaggerated version of a person/concept
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Slapstick
Deliberately clumsy actions
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Deadpan
Something stated bluntly, without expression
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Irony
A state of affairs that are deliberately contradictory
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Surrealism
Behaviours that are illogical, nonsensical
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Sarcasm
The use of irony to mock or to convey contempt
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Context
The historical and social interaction surrounding a literary work
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Ideology
The message behind a text, affected by the context of production
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Moral Double
Protagonists and Antagonists that morally oppose each other
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Double Entente
An expression or figure of speech that has two meanings, one usually sexual
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Revenger
The main character that seeks revenge
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Farcical
A method of entertaining that uses improbable situations
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Fornication
Premarital or extramarital sex
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Pun
A play on words
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Bathos
Taking an elevated form such as tragedy and descending it into madness
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Bawd
A woman who is humorously indecent
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Avaricious
Greedy for financial gain
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Travesty
When something important or crucial is made ridiculous
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Charade
An absurd pretence
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Bawdy
Applied to language that is coarse or lewd
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Transgression
To break a law or rule, to go beyond the level of tolerance
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Malapropism
A comical confusion of words
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Revel
A lively festival involving dancing and disguise
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Repartee
The ability to make witty replies and remarks
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Rhyming couplet
Two consecutive lines that rhyme
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Iambic Pentameter
A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable in a line of 10
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Prose
Normal script
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Blank verse
Lines of 10 syllables with no rhyme
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Caesura
Punctuation in the middle of a sentence
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Volta
A change in ideas, tone, or atmosphere
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Epistrophe
Repetition of a word at the end of successive sentences
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Hypophora
When a writer raises a question and then immediately answers it
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Anaphora
Repetition of a word at the start of successive sentences
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Tricolon
The rule of three
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Antithesis
Contrasting two ideas within the same sentence
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Synedoche
A form of metaphor in which a smaller part of an object is used to represent the whole
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Lilotes
Deliberate understatement
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Consonance
Repeated consonant sounds
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Assonance
Repeated vowel sounds
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Sibilance
Repeated S sounds
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Plosives
Repeated D, B, and P sounds
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Fricatives
Repeated F and V sounds
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Apostrophe
Addressing an inanimate or un-present object or person as if it/they were in the room
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Subversion

Back

Turning a preconceived notion on its head

Card 3

Front

Word Play

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Characterisation

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Wit

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
View more cards

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