本主题引人发笑,然后引导人们了解到底是什么及为什么如此可笑。有时它让人放声大笑，有时它充满了讽刺(还问道,两者有什么区别?)。有时它一点也不笑,但是一些陈述在某种令人满意的程度上是肯定的，或在结构上具有某种功能 (莎士比亚的《罗密欧与朱丽叶》应该归入“喜剧”的何种范畴? 但丁为何把他看到的一个有秩序的宇宙称为一出“神圣完美的喜剧”?)。我们欣赏笑话﹑文学作品﹑传说﹑讽刺画以及电影,我们归纳了一些关于喜剧是如何起作用的理论 (它证实什么吗?它批判什么吗?它破坏什么吗?它颠覆什么吗?它释放出能量吗?它招来麻烦吗?这么多不同的感受和情感如何被称为“喜剧”?)。喜剧是一种思维方式还是一种文学类型?为什么喜剧会引发这么多问题;笑是否来自于疑惑的力量?

This subject laughs and then wonders how and why and what's so funny. Sometimes it laughs out loud. Sometimes it spills into satire (and asks, what's the difference?). Sometimes it doesn't laugh at all, but some resolution seems affirmative or structurally functional, in some satisfying way (by what categoriy is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet a "comedy"? how can Dante call his vision of an organized universe a "Comedy"?). We read jokes, literary texts, tales, satirical paintings, and films, and we address a few theories about how comedy works (does it affirm? does it critique? does it disrupt? does it tip the categories upside-down? does it release energy? does it cause trouble? how is it ithat so many different effects and emotions are called "comic"?). Is comedy a way of thinking, or a literary genre? Why is it that comedy raises so many questions; is that questioning energy where laugher comes from, anyway?