The term “comedy” is closely related to the philosophical and aesthetic category of the comic, in the understanding of which there are at least six main groups of theoretical concepts: theories of negative quality; theories of degradation; theories of contrast; theories of contradiction; theories of deviation from the norm; theories of social regulation; and also – theories of mixed type. Within each group, we can distinguish between objectivist, subjectivist, and relativist theories. Already this simple enumeration gives an idea of the richness and diversity of the nature of laughter.
It is worth mentioning the most important function of the comic (and consequently of comedy), which is an integral part of any of the theories: a heuristic, cognitive function in mastering reality. Art in general is a way of cognizing the world around; heuristic functions are inherent in any of its forms, including the theater, in each of its genres. However, the heuristic function of comedy is particularly evident: comedy allows us to look at ordinary phenomena from a new, unusual point of view; it reveals additional meanings and contexts; it activates not only the emotions of the audience, but also its thoughts.
The diversity of the nature of the comic legitimately determines the existence of a huge number of techniques and artistic means in laughter culture: exaggeration; parody; grotesque; travesty; understatement; exposure of contrast; unexpected convergence of mutually exclusive phenomena; anachronism; etc. The use of various techniques in the construction of plays and plays determines the great variety of genre varieties of comedy: farce, pamphlet, lyrical comedy, vaudeville, grotesque comedy, satire, adventurous comedy, etc. (including such complex intermediate genre formations as “serious comedy” and tragicomedy).
There are many generally accepted principles of intra-genre classification of comedy, built on the basis of those or other structural components of the theatrical work.
Thus, based on the social significance, comedy is commonly divided into “low” (based on farcical situations) and “high” (devoted to serious social and moral problems). Medieval French farces Lohan and Lawyer Patlin, as well as, for example, vaudevilles by F. Kony belong to the works of “low” comedy. Classical examples of “high” comedy are the works of Aristophanes (Acharnian, Wasps, etc.) or Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit.
Based on the subject matter and social orientation, comedy is divided into lyrical (built on mild humor and filled with sympathy for its characters) and satirical (aimed at derogatory ridicule of social vices and shortcomings). Based on this principle of classification, a lyrical comedy could include, say, Lope de Vega’s Dog in the Hay or Eduardo de Filippo’s Filumena Morturano.
Putting at the head of the classification architectonics and composition, distinguish the comedy of provisions (where the comic effect arises mainly from the unexpected turns of the plot) and the comedy of characters (in which the source of comedic action becomes the clash of mutually repulsive personality types). Thus, among Shakespeare’s works one can find both situation comedies (The Comedy of Errors) and character comedies (The Taming of the Shrew).
Also widespread classification of comedies based on typology of plot: everyday comedy (for instance, Georges Danden by J.B.Moliere, Marriage by N.V.Gogol); romantic comedy (Myself in custody by P. The romantic comedy (Calderon, Old Fashioned Comedy by A. Arbuzov); the heroic comedy (Cyrano de Bergerac by E. Rostand, Til Gr. Gorin); the fairy-symbolic comedy (Twelfth Night by W. Shakespeare, The Shadow by E. Schwartz), etc.
However any of the above classifications is rather relative and schematic. With few exceptions, virtually all of the comedies mentioned above are undoubtedly much broader than such systematic frameworks. Thus, each of these classifications rather serves as a kind of beacon, a reference point, allowing one to structure the truly infinite variety of varieties of comedy, the most flexible, dynamic, constantly evolving genre.