Introduction
Comedy is a play that is conducted to bring a sense of humuor to the group of audience. A person who is conducting the play needs to act in a way that will make people laugh. By definition, humuor is an act or a play that induces laughter. The play involves body movement and the use of words that are arranged in a way that will entertain the audience. (Rizal, 1997). A comedy is regarded as a powerful tool in the life of human beings.
The relationship between comedy and power refers to the level at which humuor is used to solve various problems in human life. People have taken humor in a vigorous way that includes making a living out of it. (Calmus, & Caillies, 2014). Since the industry has been commercialised, individuals who need to laugh must pay for it. Various theaters in popular cities across the globe have been set aside for the purpose of the comedy shows (Orwell, 1962). The television and radio stations have incorporated comedies in their programs in order to attract their viewers and listeners respectively. Comedy establishes itself as power in various ways as discussed below.
Comedy as a remedy to stress
One of the way that comedy shows itself as a power is when it is used to relieve a person from stress. Stress is a form of emotion that causes the body and the mind to feel tired. The mental pressure can cause body dysfunction, a situation that can easily lead to death. The case occurs when people get uncomfortable with their every days jobs. Stress can also be as a result of a serious sickness or injury that makes a person deter from the daily activities.
The person under stress requires some special treatment and care (Tcheuyap, 2010). Comedy can provide a quick healing to a person. When people under stress are made to laugh, the pressure on their minds and body is released. They feel relieved and can go on with their daily routine. In this case, comedy acquires power over stress. Therefore, comedy acts as a powerful tool that is used to take the person back to their normal lives. People with stress are encouraged to watch, read and attend comedy shows so that they can get relieved and live a normal life.
Comedy and patient’s recovery
Comedy is useful in encouraging the recovery of a patient. When people are sick, they need to be encouraged so that they can get well as soon as possible. One of the popular sayings states “Laughter is the best medicine.” The people need to be exposed to a form of entertainment that will induce laughter in their face (Martin, Sadler, Barrett, & Beaven, 2008). The laughter will help them to forget about the pain they are undergoing. The comedy, in this case, posseses the power to catalyze the healing process. In fact, comedy and humor have been found to be more effective in encouraging people to recover. In many hospitals, there are some places that are set aside as a comedy platform.
The places are used to entertain the recovering patients, especially those who are coping with depression and stress. There are also television sets that are put on the walls of the patients’ beds that are meant to entertain them and encourage them to face the situation courageously. Comedy is a powerful medicine and should always be used to encourage people who are in their sickbeds. When this is done, hospitals and households will spend less in terms of efforts and money in treating the sick. There also will be an enhanced standard of living, and the people’s lifespan will be increased.
Comedy and advertisements
Comedy is also used to attract the viewers’ attention during the advertisement of products. The power that is associated with humuor is applied by various companies when carrying out a promotion of their products. The product promotion will be attractive to the audience, who are the potential consumers (Swinehart, 2012). Were it not for the humuor, people could not be following the advert. The humuor incites the people’s mind, and they become interested in the product.
Given many similar products in an ever-competitive market, the consumers will go for the goods. The power of comedy at this juncture entails the ability of humuor in influencing the consumers to choose the specific product over others (Bihn, 1985). Comedy is widely chosen over other methods that influence advertisement. The reason producers and the marketing manager choose humor is because it is attractive to all people in the society. There is no alienation in terms of gender, sex, age, class or race. Humuor applies to all the groups in the society. Therefore, the product will be widely preferred by the consumers compared to other produced similar goods.
Comedy and Student’s Memory
Comedy is a unique way that can be used to educate a particular group of people. Sometimes students need to learn in a humorous way. Some subjects may be very difficult to understand. When humuor is incorporated into the study, it helps the students to remember what they have learned. Every time they come across a question that was explained in a humorous style, they will remember and answer it correctly (Deveau, 2012).
The model of teaching, where the use of humor as a style of communication is used, indicates the power of comedy. Comedy, in this case, is used to increase the memory of the student. The capacity of students to remember something is mostly hard to analyse. There is no biological or physical explanation that entails the capacity to boost human memory. Therefore, comedy can be explained as a powerful tool that can boost human memory. When considering the capacity of comedy and the role it plays in human memory, we acknowledge that humuor is a powerful tool in our daily undertakings.
Comedy and Communication
Comedy is also used to communicate certain issues to the society. When the government or any other organization wants to sensitize the society on a certain issue, it can do so by the use of comedy (Parkin, 2015). The organization can do this by creating a play. The role of the comedy will be to inform the audience as well as create new viewers. The end product of the show will be an entertained and well-informed society.
Conclusion
Comedy has played a powerful role of communication in our daily lives. The creativity that makes people laugh has been viewed as an important tool for communication. Entertainers are reaping heavily from the art as investors pay them while advertising their commodity. The art has grown to the powerful item that is important in every aspect of life. These and more evidences give the connection between comedy and power.
References
Bihn T. Tran, 1985, The red Earth A Vietnamese Memoir of life in a Colonial Ruber Plantation, Ohio University, Ohio.
Calmus, A, & Caillies, S 2014, ‘Verbal irony processing: How do contrast and humour correlate?’, International Journal Of Psychology, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 46-50.
Deveau, DJ 2012, ‘The Aristocrats!: Comedy, grotesqueries and political inversions of the masculine code’, Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 401-415.
Martin, G, Sadler, S, Barrett, C, & Beaven, A 2008, ‘Measuring responses to humor: How the testing context affects individuals’ reaction to comedy’, Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 143-155.
Orwell, G. 1962, Burnmese Days, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, pp. 5-16.
Parkin, J 2015, ‘Sam Friedman: Comedy and Distinction; the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour’, Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 147-149.
Rizal, J 1997, El Filibusterismo :The Reign of greed, Giraffe Books, Quezon City.
Swinehart, KF 2012, ‘The Enregisterment of Colla in a Bolivian (Camba) Comedy’, Social Text, 30, 4_113, pp. 81-102, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost.
Tcheuyap, A 2010, ‘Comedy of power, power of comedy: strategic transformations in African cinemas’, Journal Of African Cultural Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 25-40.