Description

TED-Ed discusses the almost definition defying idea of ‘comedy’.  At the heart of it, this video and comedy itself is about Truth, with a capital ‘T’, and making an understandable reality out of the chaos of the world around us – and then unmaking it.  Comedy can be understood and is most important for its social function – namely its playfulness in challenging of the order and reality we impose on the world around us.

Discussion Questions

• What do you think makes something ‘funny’?
• What is the social function of comedy?
• What would the world be like without comedy?

Keywords: comedy, definition, art, entertainment, joke, Aristotle, fiction,