The Cambridge Introduction to Comedy: Comedy and society

Comedy's associates Having trained our sights primarily upon the process of reading comedy in dramatic texts, we shall now alter our focus to take in the act of comic production within its social and cultural contexts. All artistic works try to do things to their audiences, e.g., teach, entertain, convince, affect, provoke, soothe, criticize, etc. Yet, no matter how self-aware the artist, the work also remains embedded in a snarl of agencies, vectors of influence operating under the skin of a society at any historical moment. A work's intentions, stated or presumed, cannot reasonably be held to account for the whole of its potential influence. There is also the matter of subsequent performances for a dramatic text, and we observed in the preceding chapter the extent to which meanings bend and vary in the actuality of theatre production for a specific audience in time and place. As I have emphasized all along, it is one of comedy's defining impulses to capitalize upon the daily experiences and dispositions of the target reader. I have also noted that comedy draws upon structures and conventions that carry built-in directives about how we should and should not conduct our lives. In going about its business, comedy has become associated with some general textual designs worth contemplating, among other reasons, for the ways they engage a reader/spectator within society.