Information on Comedy

The art of comedy in China has a history of at least 2,000 years, and its earliest form was derived from the miscellaneous theater of haiku.

"Haiku" was mostly performed in the court, using witty speech, acerbic and sarcastic ridicule to entertain

people with "big laughs".

In these jokes, the artists often put the ruler of the mockery and scorn.

At the end of the Qin dynasty, the haiku actor You Qian performed for the second Qin emperor Hu Hai, who knew that in order to repaint the Great Wall, the foolish Hu Hai was going to

order an increase in the people's labor and taxes, and that the ministers were all flattered, and none of them dared to advise against it.

Yuchan, through his performance, made

Hu Hai laugh out loud and then get angry.

In the Tang Dynasty, the name of the comic opera was "Lane Sang-jun", because the actors who performed this kind of comic opera were often the staff of military camps, so it was called "Lane Sang-jun".

Liao Senjun is a kind of comedy, one person wearing green clothes, holding a brief strategy, as a witty and funny senator; the other person wearing tattered

tattered clothes, pretending to be a stupid and ridiculous Cangtou, each other, laughing, scolding, playful, and even pounced on each other.

This image of comedians can

be seen on the teasing figurines unearthed from Tang tombs.

Group comedy was fashionable in the Song Dynasty.

In the twelfth year of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, the Hangzhou examination was held, and the son and two nephews of the prime minister Qin Hui were taken, and no one

dared to expose their shortcomings.

And the comic artist dressed up as a few candidates, with a humorous conversation, recounting the story of Han Xin to take the Guanzhong Sanqin land, satirizing

the three sons and nephews of Qin Hui.

During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the art of comedy was greatly developed and matured in Beijing, and it was stipulated that it should be performed in the Beijing dialect, with occasional use of the local dialect in other places.

There are a few examples of comedians who have performed in the Beijing dialect.

According to some old folk artists, there are two basic skills practicing segments in xiangsheng, one is called "Learning Four Phases", which refers to learning the movements of four kinds of people: the big

girl, the old lady, the mute, and the deaf; the other is called "Learning Four Voices", which refers to learning the movements of four kinds of people: the Shandong dialect, the Shandong dialect, the Shandong dialect, and the deaf.

The word "Xiangsheng" was synthesized from the last characters of "Learning Four Phases" and "Learning Four Voices".

Nowadays, comedy has become a kind of art form all over the country, unique style, popular among the masses

Comedy originated in Beijing, and is popular all over the country.

It is generally believed to have been formed during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods of the Qing Dynasty.

It is a form of Chinese opera that uses jokes or comical questions and answers to make the audience laugh.

It evolved from the Song Dynasty's "Like Sheng".

By the late Qing Dynasty, comedy had developed a modern character and style.

It was mainly spoken in Beijing dialect, but there were also "dialect comics" spoken in local dialects.

In the process of the formation of comedy, it drew extensively on ventriloquism, storytelling and other artistic strengths, and put the Zhuang in harmony, with satirical jokes to show the truth, goodness and beauty, to attract laughter as an artistic characteristic, and to "say, learn, tease, sing" as the main artistic means.

There are three forms of performance: monologue, counterpoint, and group.

A monologue is performed by a single actor who tells jokes;

A counterpart is performed by two actors who hold a joke and tease each other, and there are usually two types of jokes: the "head-sinking" and the "son and mother joke";

A group comedy is also known as a "group work".

The traditional repertoire is based on satirizing various ugly phenomena in the old society and reflecting various life phenomena through witty narratives. After the liberation, in addition to continuing to carry forward the satirical tradition, there are also works that glorify new people and new things.

The tools of performance are the wakizi (eye-catching), the fan, and the handkerchief.

Basic functions:

Wake-up call - the wake-up call is struck at the beginning of a monologue to remind the audience and attract attention.

Fan - fan when it is hot.

Handkerchief - to wipe away sweat.

But all three have other roles on stage.

醒子-是一个小道具，用用用并不是很大，但是听过相声《夸住宅》，就会知道，逗哏演员用醒子比作捧哏演员家的房子，捧哏演员说 "这是房子吗？ Isn't this a cricket over a cage?" So it's a need to make a living.

Fan - more useful, in the hands of the actor, the fan is a knife, gun, sword, halberd, axe, battle-axe, hooks, forks, eighteen kinds of blades all on the fan.

At the same time, the fan is also a smoking gun, tobacco bag, drumstick, horn, etc., etc., the fan can play almost all the props needed on stage.

Handkerchief - used to make up, wrapped around the head, the man is a woman.

"Learning Four Provinces", wrapped in the same, used to show that the comic actor beheading sores.

It is a dress-up tool to scandalize the actors to achieve comedic effect.

The traditional repertoire includes Guan Gong and Qin Qiong, Drama and Dialect, Jia Xingjia, and Picking the Horse Coat, totaling more than two hundred.

The works reflecting real life are more influential, such as Night Journey, Buying Monkey, Yesterday and Hat Factory.

Comedy is the art of language.

In recent years, in order to change the situation of comedy creation and performance downturn, various forms of comedy reform came into being.

Guitar comedy, disco comedy, song and dance comedy, and even male and female comedy, dwarf comedy, thought a lot of ways, spent a lot of effort but only ignored the "comedy is the art of language" this fundamental proposition, and therefore must not be successful.

Neglecting the importance of language in the art of comedy is also a departure from the aesthetic character of the art of comedy.

However, the definition of "comedy is the art of language" is not precise enough. It is too broad and does not draw the line between comedy and other arts.

In the art of opera, commentary, fast book, etc. is also the art of language, singing songs is nothing more than a combination of the art of language and the art of music.

Dramatic art, cinematic art, vocal art have language art components, and even literature is a language art in written form.

If we can't draw a clear line between comic art and other arts, it is difficult to further understand the essential characteristics of comic art.

In fact, as long as we analyze it carefully, we will find that the content of social life reflected in the comedy and its artistic expression is relatively unique.

The art of singing is a general term for a variety of rap art, in which the vast majority of songs, whether it is only to say not to sing the commentary, commentary, fast book, or only sing not to say the singing song type of song, or to say there are singing drums, lyrics, their content lies in the recounting of a story, the only to the minority of songs represented by the comedy (as well as Shanghai's one-horned opera, southern Fujian and Taiwan's answer to the drums, etc.) is an exception.

As one of the comedic art forms of comedy, it is not like novels, books and other narrative art as the main narrative, description and other techniques to reflect life, but also not like the theater, film and other comprehensive art as the main actor's physical action to reflect life, but mainly through the dialogue of the discussion, talk about life.

As a dialog art, comedy has very different characteristics from various narrative arts and performing arts, which are described as follows:

First, comedy is a language art with dialog as the main form of expression, and comedy reflects the dialog of various characters in real life as the main content.

In narrative art, the dialog of characters cannot be separated from the constraints of the plot, but in comic opera, the role of the plot is far less important than in narrative art.

In comedy, the plot serves to organize the baggage, and the baggage is composed of dialogue.

It is incomprehensible, and therefore inadmissible, to tell a story in conversation apart from the object and topic of conversation.

In contrast, the plot in a comic opera can be sporadic, intermittent, or even absent.

In some comedy, there is no need for a plot at all. With the help of the charm of the dialogue, it is possible to organize the baggage, directly expose the contradictions and express the theme.

Accordingly, the audience listening to the comedy is not obsessed with the complexity of the plot, but to understand the performer's position on the issue, the event, the viewpoints, the views expressed.

These views and opinions are expressed mainly through dialog.

The character image in the comedy is not demanding fullness, but often only to depict their words, and through these words directly reflect the character's ideology, position and views, character temperament.

The characters in the comedy are the same as the plot, is the organization of the tool baggage, therefore, the characters are often called, come and go.

Characterization is also often incomplete, exaggerated, and distorted in many comic strips, and is not presented as a complete, true image.

In some comic strips there is no characterization.

The internal structure of the comic is looser.

The various parts of the comic are sometimes not closely related to each other in terms of plot, but are held together by a broader theme.

In the first part of the book, there is no close connection between the parts.

In comedy, the change of content is often reflected not in the plot, but in the change of topic.

In short, the character and plot structure that are so important in the art of narrative are not important to the art of comic opera.

The most important thing in comedy is the baggage, and the baggage is made up of dialog.

If you open a comic book, you will find a lot of dialog.

These dialogues are a perfect reflection of what people say in real life.

Of course, these dialogues are not copied from life, but have been carefully processed.

Second, the burden of the comic is mainly in the form of dialog.

The famous comedy artist Ma Ji pointed out when talking about the basic concept of comedy: "(comedy) is the art of making people laugh by organizing a series of unique 'baggage', the baggage referred to here is the baggage of the art of language, the language referred to here is the language of the art of baggage Language

" (quoted from Ma Ji "thirty years back a spit for fast" in the "QuYi" 1987, No. 2) in his list of three elements, language, laughter is some other comedy art also has, only baggage is unique to the art of comedy.

Baggage is the most important part of the art of comedy.

Therefore, analyzing the content and form of baggage is the key to study the art of comedy.

The word "baggage" is a figurative metaphor, which actually refers to the process of brewing and developing comedic contradictions in comedy.

The so-called "three flips and four shakes" is a structure often used in comic baggage.

The "three flip" refers to the repeated rendering and emphasizing of the illusion of contradiction; the "four shake" refers to the revelation of the truth of the contradiction after the "three flip".

As we know, the characteristic of comedy contradiction is "to cover up one's own essence with the illusion of another essence.

" (quoted from Marx's "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law> Introduction" in the Collected Works of Mann, vol. 1, p. 5) Therefore, in the comedy of contradiction, all kinds of falsehoods are particularly numerous.

An illusion is in fact a phenomenon characterized by its ability to draw up appearances that are contrary to (or divergent from) its essence, and yet, in its own peculiar way, the illusion reflects the essence extremely profoundly.

Thus, the real comedy of contradiction is characterized by the unexpected and the reasonable.

In duologue, the comedic contradictions - the two sides of the baggage (the phenomenon and the essence, etc.) - are played out by the two sides of the comedian, and the contradictions are gradually revealed through dialog.

Comedic art techniques (such as exaggeration, misunderstanding, coincidence, etc.) are widely used in various comedic arts, and are not unique to comedy.

However, the use of these techniques in comedy has its own characteristics.

For example, many plays and movies use visual images to create misunderstandings (the films The Great Dictator and The Black Tulip feature two people who look exactly like each other), whereas comedy relies on dialog when using misunderstandings.

For example, when Gong Yunfu, an artist, changes his profession to selling vegetables, he puts "the pick on the shoulder, and touches the shoulder, and this hurts! He remembered the call of the Empress: 'Alas, bitter wow! When the old lady heard this, she said, 'Oh! The old lady heard: 'Oh!

'"Obviously, this package uses the technique of misunderstanding, misunderstanding is caused by the dialog between the characters.

Without the two sides of the dialog, it is impossible to cause misunderstanding.

The organization of baggage through the dialogue of the characters is the most used and most important method in comedy.

This is true not only in the "sub-mother comic" type of comedy, but also in the "head sinking" type of comedy.

This is true not only in duologue, but also in monologue.

For example, in the monologue "Pearl Jade White Jade Soup", the bottom of the baggage is composed of the dialog between the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and his ministers, and this kind of baggage composed of dialogues abounds in the comic works, and the list goes on.

Dialogue is not only reflected in the organization of the baggage, but also in the use of a variety of comic art means.

"Talking, learning, teasing and singing" are the four most basic artistic means of comedy, "talking" is to tell jokes and tongue-twisters, "learning" is to imitate various hawking sounds, singing and the language of various characters, "teasing" is to imitate the language of various characters, and "teasing" is to imitate the language of various characters.

The use of these artistic means only into the scope of the dialog is in line with the artistic law of the creation of comedy.

The performance of comedy can not be learned for the sake of learning, singing for the sake of singing.

The words spoken by the comedian in dialect are still needed to achieve the purpose of the dialog; the songs and operas sung are either used as arguments in the dialog, or the content of the dialog is expressed by changing the lyrics.

At present, some "Liu dialect" (i.e., to learn songs, opera-based comedy) comedy performances actually become audience sing-along concerts, which can also achieve theater effects, but it is contrary to the essence of comedy as a dialogue art.

This tendency to sing for the sake of singing is not desirable.

Third, the comedian performs as an interlocutor.

The comedian is not mainly a narrator like the actors in the book and other operatic arts, nor is it like a theater actor who performs as a character in the play, but as an interlocutor.

The language used by comedians is not narrative, but conversational (i.e., question-and-answer).

This is more obvious in the sub-mom comic type of comedy.

In fact, in the head-sinking type of comedy, the comedian and the comic actors are equally conversational.

Although the comic actor's words do have a narrative element in their content, they are still formally expressed as a dialog with the comic actor; here, the narrative content can only be said as a reply, and cannot be separated from the specific context of the dialog to tell a story.

The comedian in the performance is always a conversationalist, not an actor (the word "actor" in English is "actor", which can also be translated as "actor"). ").

The comedian relies mainly on dialog to create a character image, rather than relying on external images and physical movements.

The external image of the comedian is "unchanging", this feature has a lot to do with the particular aesthetic of the comic.

Some researchers believe that the performance of comedy is to a large extent a kind of "I play me" color performance (see Lu Changwang, "a few thoughts on the issue of the performance of Chinese opera" in the "Chinese opera art art series" Ninth Series, page 76), and some researchers believe that it is a kind of virtual performance.

(See Xue Bao Kun, The Art of Laughing, pp. 64-65) But in any case, the physical movements of the comedian are only auxiliary means to make the dialog more vivid and imaginative, and these movements are not as important and complete as those in the drama.

In a head-sinking type of comic opera, the words of the comic actor, though not many, should serve as a finishing touch.

The importance and necessity of the comic actor can be used as "proof" of the proposition that "comedy is the art of conversation".

In several types of comedy, group comedy is further developed and evolved on the basis of counterpoint, which transforms the bilateral dialog of counterpoint into a multilateral dialog; and it has some dramatic elements.

The case of monologue is special.

The monologue developed and evolved from folk tales and jokes.

It has the artistic characteristics of both stories and jokes.

In this regard, experts have expressed insightful opinions.

Feng Buyi put forward; "in the many varieties of Chinese opera, there is a single person to tell a ridiculous story of the form of performance, known as monologue ...... (monologue) but seek advice fruit back to the sweet, but not necessarily so much as a head and a tail, its system is different from the short version of the words of the book, the story, the jokes, and different from the counterpart of the comic, is not the same as a joke, is not the same as the counterpart of the comic, is not the same as a story, is not the same as the story. different from the counterpoint comedy, is a style unique oral literature genre.

"(Quoted from "Inheriting Tradition, Enriching and Improving" in Qu Yi, 1986, No. 5).

Wang Xingzhi believes: "It may not be appropriate to incorporate the monologue directly into the short story as an art form, but since they are both narrative art forms, from the point of view of narration and characterization, not only do they share many similarities, but the monologue has a number of unique features.

"(Quoted from "The Novelist's Friend - or "Strong Enemy" in Chinese Quartet, p. 280)

Li Fengqi also pointed out that "... The monologue is characterized by storytelling, but there are also those that emphasize reasoning, the so-called 'polemical type', which is easy to be empty, boring and difficult to write, and is almost extinct in the new works.

" (quoted from "Vivid Social Customs", published in Qu Yi, No. 5, 1986)

It seems that the experts are more consistent in their view that the monologue is a kind of comedic narrative art.

Stand-up comedy is not a dialog art in terms of its form, but it has many variations compared with the traditional narrative art (commentary, storytelling, etc.).

For example, the monologue focuses on the dialog between the characters, and relies heavily on the dialog to create baggage and images.

Because the organization of the baggage in the monologue is subject to the plot and character constraints, the monologue is very difficult to create.

In recent years, the story-based monologue has been nearly extinct; the polemical monologue is not easy to overcome the contradiction between the content and the form of the monologue, and gave way to the counterpoint.

Counterpart comedy is derived from stand-up comedy, but it is "better than blue", and its artistic life continues to grow.

This has a lot to do with the harmony between its content and form.

Simply put, the main content of the counterpoint is a dialog, and the form it adopts is also a dialog, which is a kind of isomorphic, isomorphic relationship.

Fourth, the dialog is not only reflected in the process of creation and performance of comedy, but also in the appreciation process.

As a stage art (at present, basically), the performance and appreciation of comedy is unified in space and time.

As with other stage arts, there is a problem of communication with the audience.

As we all know, comedy is an art that is best at communicating with the audience, and the theater effect produced by comedy performances is often beyond the reach of other stage arts.

In addition to the reason of comedic content, the unique artistic expression of comedy - the form of dialog is also an important reason.

In narrative art, the creator is confident in his power to penetrate isolated events, to capture their "inner essence", to give them a sequence of causal connections, to form the fictional plot and history of the story, and to instill this content in the audience.

Here, the flow of information is essentially unidirectional, and the viewer is essentially a passive recipient.

In narrative art, a penetrating plot forms a closed structure with a beginning, an end, and a linear progression that does not allow for interference from the outside.

In dramatic art there is the theory of the fourth wall.

It requires a hypothetical wall to stand between the actor and the audience, a wall that gives an indirect character to the communication between the actor and the audience.

The art of comedy is very different, in that the "plot" in comedy is intermittent, if at all.

Therefore, the content of the comic makes people feel uncertain.

The burdens of comedy often give the audience a false sense of reality and hide the truth.

In this way, the audience is prompted to think actively, thus enhancing the exchange of ideas between the two parties.

In contrast, the actors of the commentary (and some other arts and crafts) not only explain the cause and effect of things clearly, but also make clear the theme and ending of the story in advance through the triumphant head back, so that the audience only need to passively accept.

In comedy, the actor no longer enjoys the status of "Mr. Storyteller" as a book critic, and the actor and the actor and the audience are all in the capacity of an equal interlocutor.

They can express their different opinions on things.

Such different opinions from many sides constitute both the formal characteristics of comedy and the source of comedic contradictions in comedy.

Here, all the actor's words have to be subjected to another actor and the audience's rigorous test, his all sorts of metaphysical, self-contradictory, absurd and exaggerated, logical confusion of the words can not escape the audience's ears, and he is often due to "make a fool of himself" by the laughter, in a "difficult to get off the stage". The "embarrassing" situation of "not being able to get off the stage".

The audience, on the other hand, feel their own psychological advantage through laughter, and in the laughter of the subtle education.

The appreciation process of comedy can better realize the purpose of "education for fun", so the art of comedy is very popular among the masses.

The fourth wall does not exist in a comedy show, as it is performed directly to the audience.

Many of the actors also asked questions directly to the audience, or answered questions from the audience, and met the audience's requirements.

This greatly enhances the connection and communication between the actors and the audience.

In the appreciation process of comedy, although the audience generally can not directly with the actors to carry out dialog, but through laughter to express their own views and attitudes.

In addition, in many comedies, the words of the comic actor often represent the audience's point of view, and the comic actor often acts as a spokesman for the audience and the comic actor to carry on the conversation.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that in the process of performing and appreciating comedy, the communication between the actors and the audience is two-way and very close.

This feature is inseparable from its unique art form - the form of dialog.

This form meets the general audience's sense of participation, resulting in a unique artistic charm.

The comedy has become friends with the audience, and it draws wisdom and humor from the masses, expresses the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty and optimism, and exposes and satirizes the falsehoods and ugliness of life.

With its superb life content and unique art form, the comedy has become the flower of excellent national art.

In a word, comedy is the art of comedy in content and the art of dialog in form.

The two main features of comedy in content and form are not isolated from each other, but are mutually inclusive, interpenetrating, interdependent, and mutually transforming.

Hegel believed that "content has form in itself", content and form are the unity of opposites: "Content is not it, that is, the form of the return to the content, the form is not it, that is, the content of the return to the form.

" (see Hegel's Little Logic, pp. 286-287) From this proposition, we can call comedy "dialogical comedy art", or "comedic dialogical art". "

As in the case of comedy, it is the art of dialogic comedy.

Just as the proposition "drama: the art of action" does not exclude the dialogues of the characters in a play, the proposition "comedy: the art of dialogue" does not exclude the physical movements of the actors, the narrative elements in the dialogues, and the various artistic means.

The idea that comedy is an art of dialog is only to further clarify the nature of this particular form of artistic expression, not to sever the inextricable link between comedy and other comedic arts.

The proposition of "comedy: the art of dialog" seems simple, but in fact, it provides us with the basis for studying the art of comedy and the code for deciphering many of the riddles of comedy.

For example, we all know that comedy is a product of civil society, but we know what it is, but we don't know why. In his book A History of the City, the British scholar Mumford writes, "Dialogue is one of the highest expressions of urban life, a flower on a long, green vine.

Dialogue is made possible by the diversity of characters accommodated within the theater of the city.

"(See History of the Development of the City, p. 88.) This passage may be said to be a wonderful circumstantial reference to the origin of the art of comedy in this country.

Thus.