- The basis for all comedy can be traced back to ancient Greece and mime. Although mime and pantomime are used interchangeably today, they were originally two different kinds of arts. Mime began around 600 B.C. around Sparta and was a kind of comedic performance where the actors were involved in farcical plots that depicted the problems experienced in everyday life. Pantomime, by contrast, originated much later with and was centered in Rome. The primary impetus of pantomine was to satirize mythological heroes.
- From mime arose the earliest comedies performed on stage. These comedies were written and performed in Greece a few centuries after mime first appeared. Comedy comes from the Greek word komazien, which means "to wander around." Scholars extrapolate that the earliest comedic performers were forced to travel from village to village, probably after being forbidden to perform in each specific town.
- Satire grew from these earliest comedic performances and the ancient texts by the Greeks set the standard for good satire by being sharp-witted and biting as the comedy is used to undermine standard conventions and accepted conventional wisdom. Satire pretty much went out of style, along with much comedy, during the Dark Ages, but made a huge comeback in the Renaissance and has never really gone of out style. At the same time, the Broadway axiom for most of the twentieth century was that satire is what closes on a Saturday, meaning that it has never been a particularly commercial form of comedy.
- After the great comedies of the Greeks, the next big movement in comedy would be centered in Italy, but long after the fall of the Roman Empire. Created during the 1500s, the Commedia Dell'arte did away with scripts and set the stage for what is today called improv comedy. The artists of the Comedia Dell'arte eschewed scripts, sets and most props.
- Slapstick is a form of comedy that is based on physical activity, especially that related to pain. The central concept behind laughing at a person slipping on a banana peel, or any nearly any submission to "America's Funniest Home Videos," is the pratfall and the pratfall is the central thesis behind the popularity of slapstick. Another element, however, is the enjoyment of physical pain enacted on one participant by another; the Three Stooges and the Skipper continually hitting Gilligan over the head with his cap are examples.
- Black humor, often called dark humor, has its ancestry located in gallow's humor and most psychologists consider black humor to be a necessary part of dealing with the worst aspects of life. Gallow's humor is a comic reaction to the approaching of death: making light of a disease or a hopeless situation. From this springs modern day black humor, such as laughing in the face of the potential for nuclear annihilation by watching "Dr. Strangelove." Black humor is considered vital to survival because it because it represents a way of temporarily avoiding the emotional stress of situations beyond one's control.
- Comedy has been a very successful genre of entertainment since the time of the ancient Greeks. Although known primarily for his tragedies, many of William Shakespeare's most often performed plays have been his comedies. Comic films continue to be a reliable source for box office success yet remain woefully overlooked when it comes to handing out the Academy Awards. The reason for this seems to be that comedy is viewed as not being as serious as drama when, in fact, a comedy can often make far more dramatic points about life than drama, especially when satire is the form of comedy being made.
