From Library Journal
Berger (Blind Men and Elephants: Perspectives on Humor, Transaction, 1994) combines some worthwhile generalities with some narrow specifics in this brief book. He ambitiously claims that it "will be of use to anyone interested in humor"?a boast that holds up in his first chapter, as he identifies and analyzes 45 techniques (e.g., comparisons, mimicry, the grotesque) used in dramatic comedies. His bold assertion that there are "no fewer, no more" than 45 techniques, however, begs challenge; for example, he identifies burlesque as a generic term that includes satire (included in his list), as well as travesty and lampoon (not in his list). Berger's other chapters analyze comic techniques in four dramatic classics: Plautus's Miles Gloriosus, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Sheridan's The School for Scandal, and Ionesco's The Bald Soprano. While his interpretations can be helpful and interesting, readers also need to read the plays. More significantly, any book that addresses this topic inevitably suffers if it ignores modern comedic playwrights like Neil Simon, much less the world of television situation comedy. Mostly for academic theater collections.?Norman Oder, "Library Journal"Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In The Art of Comedy Writing, Arthur Asa Berger argues that there are a relatively limited number of techniques - forty-five in all - that humorists employ. Elaborating upon his prior, in-depth study of humor, An Anatomy of Humor, in which Berger provides a content analysis of humor in all forms - joke books, plays, comic books, novels, short stories, comic verse, and essays - The Art of Comedy Writing goes further. Berger groups each technique into four basic categories: humor involving identity such as burlesque, caricature, mimicry, and stereotype; humor involving logic such as analogy, comparison, and reversal; humor involving language such as puns, wordplay, sarcasm, and satire; and finally, chase, slapstick, and speed, or humor involving action. Berger holds that the approaches which a comic selects and the way in which they are applied define a comic's hallmark style. The techniques also allow us to conduct sociological investigations into what kinds of humor Americans, Germans, Japanese - or members of any culture or subculture - use and prefer. This book is a unique analytical offering for those interested in humor. It provides writers and critics with a sizable repertoire of techniques for use in their own future comic creations. As such, this book will be of interest to anyone inspired by humor and the creative process - professionals in the comedy field and students of creative writing, comedy, literary humor, communications, broadcast/media, and the humanities.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal