A Tribute to Comedy

Your job is to analyze a modern comedy of your choice, either a sitcom or movie. Use it to exercise your knowledge of comedy-related terms, to identify the elements of comedy ("rhetoric of humor" or other observations) and the structure of comedy, and to decide just how much comedy has or has not changed since the Greek era (consider Aristophanes and Aristotle).


Display your ideas visually by decorating a comedy mask. In addition to images, please use verbal labels as necessary and incorporate a couple of quotes, one from the comedy and one from Aristotle or another comedy expert of your choosing. Here are few goodies:


Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.
Woody Allen
There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.
Erma Bombeck
Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.
Sid Caesar
Like I said, all comedy is based on exaggeration, big or small, whatever you can get away with.
Drew Carey
Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.
John Cleese
The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them.
Moliere
The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears.
Laurence Olivier
Now, Comedy is the fountain of sound sense; not the less perfectly sound on account of the sparkle: and Comedy lifts women to a station offering them free play for their wit, as they usually show it, when they have it, on the side of sound sense. The higher the Comedy, the more prominent the part they enjoy in it.
George Meredith
One excellent test of the civilization of a country ... I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea and Comedy; and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter.
George Meredith