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.”

University of Melbourne Researchers