Remember from last Friday: The story of romantic comedy is the story of the release from a psychological threat.
This true in the main event of what we just saw: the flipping of B & B:
There's a two-part prelude: 1) Benedict's soliloquy on marriage. and 2) The song, "Sigh no more ladies."--Here's Benedick's soliloquy:
22May I be so converted [to being a lover rather than a soldier] and see with these eyes? 23I cannot tell; I think not: I will not be sworn, but 24love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take 25my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, 26he shall never make me such a fool. One woman 27is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am 28well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all 29graces be in one woman, one woman shall not 30come in my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; 31wise, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen 32her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come
33not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good 34discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall 35be of what color it please God.
Can You Relate?
And then there's the women's point of view, embodied in that song, the words of which were put white on black at the very beginning of the movie. Here are those words:
62Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, 63Men were deceivers ever, 64One foot in sea and one on shore, 65To one thing constant never: 66Then sigh not so, but let them go, 67And be you blithe and bonny, 68Converting all your sounds of woe 69Into Hey nonny, nonny. 70Sing no more ditties, sing no more
71Of dumps so dull and heavy; 72The fraud of men was ever so, 73Since summer first was leafy: 74Then sigh not so, etc.
Can You Relate?
Both men and women think they know all that is necessary to know about the opposite sex, and how to defend themselves against love. This is the set up for -- guess what -- both Beatrice and Benedick totally contradicting themselves and falling crazy in love.
Which leads me to a big point about comedy, which is:
"It frees up your mind": Notice what is happening to the prejudices of 35 years ago.
And we see this changing of the mind happen in Much Ado About Nothing: Benedick spouts all the bro clichés about being tough and never falling for any woman until the moment when he hears that Beatrice is pining for him, and then -- in an instant he has changed his mind and he's all like "I will be most horribly in love," and, after all, "the world must be peopled."
Comedy frees up your mind via Humor, Satire, or a combination of the two.
Comedy is . . .
"A dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict."—The Free Dictionary by FARLEX.
"humorous or satirical"
This is not a case of two words meaning the same thing.
"humor"
"The quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness"
"satire"
"A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
An Experiment: Which is which?:
Daylight Saving Movie Trailer:
Distraction Course competition:
--The daylight savings time trailer says, "It's not me that's stupid, it's daylight savings time."
--The Distraction Course video says, "It's perfectly ok to be like that lovable dog; you don't have be always running the rat race. Just chill."
Reviewing the difference between Satire and Humor:
SATIRE
HUMOR
"That's stupid. If you do that you will fall on your face and everyone will laugh at you."
"That's stupid. When you do that you will fall on your face and everyone will laugh with you."
Much Ado About Nothing has some satire, but it's more humorous than satirical, so I want to talk about humor some more.
The Humorous World is Ruled by certain kind of God:
Not the one these people worship:
That god has a punishment for everything: For wearing the wrong clothes, eating the wrong food, praying on the wrong day, having the wrong parents, loving the wrong person.
The Humorous World is Ruled by the Metaphorical God of Good Humor:
The God of Good Humor cuts you breaks via
The twistiness factor.
In a book by a prominent literary theorist, Northrop Frye, he says this about the comic plot:
"What normally happens is that a young man wants a young woman, that his desire is resisted by some opposition, usually paternal, and that near the end of the play some twist in the plot enables the hero to have his will."
Northrop Frye, The Anatomy of Criticism (1957): Theory of Myths: The Mythos of Spring: Comedy (p.163)
Q: What's twistiness? A: Something absurd, off the wall, unexpected. (The kind of thing that does not happen in tragic plots.)
In Much Ado About Nothing the twistiness is brought to us by
the emperor of nonsense: Dogberry.
-- Like Coach in the clip I showed before, Dogberry solves all of the problems of the play even though he has NO idea of what he is doing. He represents the opposite of fate: good luck.
The God of Good Humor also grants the gift of self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge is manifested by the ability to laugh at yourself, and if you have it, it's delightful; if not, you can be seen as a jerk. To illustrate I'm going to show you a short clip from the Al Smith dinner for fall of 2016, which presidential candidates are more or less required to attend:
[Operator note: begin at 8:18 ("Oh, this one is going to get me in trouble") -- end at 11:46 ("I don't know who they are angry at Hillary, you or I")]
Here's an example of Beatrice's self-knowledge, which is one of my favorite parts of the part of the movie that we just saw. Perhaps you remember it; it's just after Claudio and Hero are engaged.
Beatrice jokes at her own expense:
BEATRICE 318Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to 319the world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a 320corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband!
Don Pedro, who likes her quite a lot, and is proud of his accomplishment in getting Hero and Claudio together, says,
Beatrice teases, jokes, and does a little light-hearted flirting:
BEATRICE 322I would rather have one of your father's getting. 323Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your 324father got excellent husbands, if a maid could 325come by them.
But suddenly things get a little more serious than Beatrice expected:
Beatrice recovers by making fun of herself. -- She' so flighty that she doesn't really deserve a husband as wonderful as Don Pedro, and besides, she does nothing but make jokes, so she shouldn't be taken seriously.
BEATRICE 327No, my lord, unless I might have another for 328working-days: your grace is too costly to wear 329every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me: 330I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
Don Pedro takes it well, and tells her he likes her like she is:
DON PEDRO 331Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best 332becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in 333a merry hour.
Beatrice responds with a gentle joke, and an affirmation. No, it wasn't a merry hour for Beatrice's mother, because she was giving birth and that is painful. But yes, she was born under a happy star and so Don Pedro is right about her character.
BEATRICE 334No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there 335was a star danced, and under that was I born. 336Cousins, God give you joy!
The benefit of humorous self-knowledge:
When we realize what we're not always:
And when we realize that a lot of the time we're more like this: Then, like Benedick and Beatrice, we're on the road to happiness.
On Friday, however, we will see how that road can get very rocky for those who do not have Benedick and Beatrice's gift for not taking themselves too seriously.
