SYLLABUS

1) INTRODUCTION

a) Dissection

b) Tragedy / Comedy

2) FILM

a) Film Comedy History 1 i) Beginnings ii) Chaplin

b) Buster Keaton

c) Film Comedy History 2

i) Harold Lloyd ii) Clowns – Laurel & Hardy iii) Mae West / Carole Lombard iv) Writers

d) The Marx Brothers

e) Genres

f) “Some Like It Hot”

3) COMEDY HISTORY 1

a) Trickster

b) Jesters

4) STANDUP COMEDY

a) Standup history 1 i) Beginnings ii) Bob Hope / Lord Buckley iii) Lenny Bruce

b) Jews

c) Woody Allen

d) Standup history 2 i) TV ii) 50’s iii) Women/blacks

e) Richard Pryor

f) Standup history 3 – 60’s

g) Steve Martin

5) IMPROV, SKETCH

a) Nichols & May

b) Beyond The Fringe

6) COMEDY HISTORY 2

a) Ancient Greece/Rome/Egypt

b) Renaissance to Restoration

7) COMIC THEATER

a) “The Front Page”

b) “The Man Who Came To Dinner” “The Philadelphia Story”

c) “Harvey / “A Thousand Clowns”

d) “The Odd Couple” “Born Yesterday”

WHAT’S SO FUNNY: A Survey of American Comedy (David Misch) -2- 8) COMIC PROSE

a) Comic Prose History: Benjamin

Franklin / Mark Twain

b) Robert Benchley / S.J. Perelman

c) James Thurber

d) “Catch-22”

e) Woody Allen

9) COMEDY HISTORY 3: 19th Cent. to 20th

10) PLAGIARISM

11) TELEVISION

a) Television Comedy History 1 i) Radio to TV ii) Sitcoms: 50’s-60’s

b) “The Dick Van Dyke Show”

c) Television Comedy History 2

i) Sitcoms: 70’s ii) Norman Lear / Britcoms

d) “Mork and Mindy”

e) Personal

f) “M*A*S*H”

g) Sketch / variety

Sitcoms: 80’s-present

h) “The Office”

i) Sitcoms vs. Evolution

12) SCIENCE

a) Evolutionary theories i) Gorillas ii) Threats iii) Pattern recognition

b) Medical effects 13) “MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS” 14) THEORY

a) Rules

b) Addition by subtraction

15) COMEDY: WHAT? WHY?

a) Defining humor

b) Juxtaposition

c) Bergson vs. Freud

16) JOKES

a) Analysis

b) Categories

c) Yours

17) MORALITY

18) KOSMIK KOMEDY

a) Comedy vs. drama

b) Purpose of humor

c) Meaning of humor

19) THE KITCHEN SINK

a) Radio b) Records c) Music d) Commercials e) Internet f) Animation g) Cartoon books h) Political i) Misch

20) AMERICA THE HILARIOUS