ABSTRACT
In comedy, devoted attention is willingly given to the many particulars of everyday life which a more heroic sophistication seems determined to dress up, cover up, forget, ignore, or otherwise treat as polite unmentionables. Comedy, however, introduces whole sets of characters and circumstances, attitudes and forms of behavior. Comedy persists in noticing the little problems of life that are ignored by those who would restrict themselves to major crises and important decisions. The wise, the powerful, and the beautiful also become unwilling and sometimes unwitting, comic characters. The comedian sees the so-called noble and superior person as subject to unwarranted vanity and something of a fool. And there is no fool like a great fool. Instead of banging defiantly on the bars of flesh or developing grand schemes of escape, the comedian finds special charm in all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touchings within our immediate perception.
