High comedy

High comedy or pure comedy is a type of comedy characterized by witty dialogue, satire, biting humor, wordplay, or criticism of life.^[1] The term high comedy was coined in England in 1877 by George Meredith for his Essay on Comedy.

History

Comedy, according to

tragedies

.

demagoguery and the Peloponnesian War. Aristophanes admitted that his plays presupposed a certain level of intelligence not generally expected of hoi polloi. Thus Aristophanes created what could best be described as High Comedy. The Comedies of Aristophanes parodied the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and critiqued sophistry by lampooning the person of Socrates

.

Since then some of the Comedies of

Low Comedy

to satirize an important social issue and thus the play is High Comedy.

Likewise Charlie Chaplin deliberately incorporated pathos into the character of The Tramp, a largely comic figure. Chaplin also made movies like Modern Times and The Great Dictator which despite their reliance on slapstick actually satirized issues relating to capitalism and fascism respectively. Monty Python's Flying Circus would routinely parody the classics and high culture as well as philosophy and political issues whilst the Dennis Moore Sketch ridiculed Communism through a Robin Hood parody.

Today, high comedy can be seen among

The Office

.