Describe the tools of comedy

What will be an ideal response?

• Surprise, contrast, and incongruity—Although the unexpected is often a central dramatic element in all kinds of plays, when the element of surprise opposes all expectations, contrasts with what we anticipate, or seems out of place or out of character, a serious situation can turn comic.
• Exaggeration—The comic lens exaggerates characters, actions, language, voices, emotions, and situations. Parody is the exaggerated imitation of individuals or artistic styles to make them appear ludicrous.
• Obsession—Often a comic situation arises when a character pursues a single desire.
• Slapstick—Includes knockabout humor—chases, pratfalls, collisions, comic beatings, or semi-acrobatic feats and practical jokes.
• Transgression—Humor that violates social taboos or moral and religious values such as scatological or bathroom humor, or sexual jokes.
• Language—humorous language includes puns—plays on words, jokes, understatement, sarcasm, witty repartee, and sometimes-nonsensical exchanges. Often comedy is found in the misuse of language, such as mistakes in pronunciation or grammar, peculiar accents, and malapropisms—the ludicrous misuse of words, often by confusing them with similar sounding ones.