Book Chapter
Theory: Deadpan and Comedy Theory
Sarah Balkin
A Cultural History of Comedy in the Age of Empire | Bloomsbury Academic | Published : 2020
Abstract
This chapter considers deadpan’s historical emergence in light of comedy theory, giving particular attention to theories that bracket the nineteenth century: the “incongruity theory” that arose during the eighteenth century, in which “some thing or event we perceive or think about violates our standard mental patterns and normal expectations.”