comedy summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see comedy.

comedy, Genre of dramatic literature that deals with the light and amusing or with the serious and profound in a light, familiar, or satirical manner. Comedy can be traced to revels associated with worship in Greece in the 5th century bc. Aristophanes, Menander, Terence, and Plautus produced comedies in classical literature. It reappeared in the late Middle Ages, when the term was used to mean simply a story with a happy ending (e.g., Dante’s Divine Comedy), the same meaning it has in novels of the last three centuries (e.g., the fiction of Jane Austen). Compare tragedy.

Marx Brothers Summary

Marx Brothers, American comedy team that was popular on stage, screen, and radio for 30 years. They were celebrated for their inventive attacks on the socially respectable and upon ordered society in general. Five Marx brothers became entertainers: Chico Marx (original name Leonard Marx; b. March

John Cleese Summary

John Cleese is a British comic actor best known for his television work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. Cleese began writing and performing in comedy revues at Clifton College in Bristol, England, and was a member of the renowned Footlights Club while a law student at the

Carole Lombard Summary

Carole Lombard was an American actress who was known for her ability to combine elegance and zaniness in some of the most successful and popular film comedies of the 1930s. After studying acting and dancing as a child, she made her screen debut as a 13-year-old tomboy in A Perfect Crime (1921);

Danny Kaye Summary

Danny Kaye was an energetic, multitalented American actor and comedian who later became known for his involvement with humanitarian causes. The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Kaye began his performing career in the 1930s as a comic entertainer in hotels in the Catskill Mountains and in nightclubs