Comedy.

Today, I woke up with a simple question in my head: "What is Comedy?" I know it when I see it, but if I were asked this question, for the life of me, I wouldn't know to begin. Since I am making comedy skits, I would bet it is a pretty good idea if I knew the definition of my genre.

Here are the definitions I found:

" a play, movie, etc., of light and humorous character with ahappy or cheerful ending;

a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance,

resulting in a successful or happy conclusion." -Dictionary.com

"any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse,

especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy" -Wikipedia.com

"A comedy is a story of the rise in fortune of a sympathetic central character." -Condor.depaul.edu

"A dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict." -thefreedictionary.com

Essentially, I believe comedy is the art of making people laugh, and making them happy.

I also came up with four rules on why things are funny:

1. It is expected.

2. It is unexpected

3. It is familiar

4. It is unfamiliar

If you think about it, it's these four things that make us laugh. These four things trigger and amuse the human psychology in ways we don't understand, but they make the recipe for laughter.