1. Humor, Irony, and Satire in The Canterbury Tales
©2014 worldwide Hock

2. What makes us laugh?
Contemporary Humor Clips (see blog)

3. “The true test of comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter.” -George Meredith

4. The Comedic Ladder Low Comedy (Farce) High Comedy (Satire)
Comedy of Manners
Comedy of Ideas
Romantic Comedy
Inconsistencies of Character
Verbal Wit
Plot Device
Physical Mishap
Obscenity
Emphasis is on funny remarks and outrageous circumstances: complications develop from situation and plot rather than from character.

5. Irony
The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

6. Satire
A kind of writing that ridicules human weaknesses, vice or folly, in order to bring about social reform.

7. Fabliaux

8. Fabliaux
"A fabliau is a brief comic tale in verse, usually scurrilous and often scatological or obscene. The style is simple, vigorous, and straightforward…the characters are ordinary sorts - tradesmen, peasants, priests, students, restless wives; the plots are realistically motivated tricks and ruses.
The fabliaux thus present a lively image of everyday life among the middle and lower classes.
(The Riverside Chaucer 7)

9. Fabliaux
Genre: fabliau ("cherles tale"/l. 61 but "a legende and a lif"/l. 34) 1. Set in contemporary world, not the epic or heroic past 2. Characters lower class (peasants, clerks, laborers), not aristocratic 3. Stories involve sex, food, and money, not idealized love 4. Emphasis on cunning, duplicity, and folly, not virtue 5. Opposes and overturns authority and hierarchy

10. What’s the point?
The Miller’s Tale

11. A Character Map
Chaucer Harry Bailey The Knight The Miller John and Alison Nicolas and Absalom The Reeve

12. Canterbury Tales
In what manner does Chaucer weave elements of literary humor to create “thoughtful laughter”?