Institute for Travesty,
Comedy, and Humor Studies
WELCOME
to the Institute for Travesty, Comedy, and Humor Studies (ITCHS). ITCHS was established for the research and study of comedy as a dramatic form and of humor, the spice of comedy. ITCHS uses a variety of research methodologies from multiple disciplines, notably including literary criticism, rhetoric, and the empirical sciences. See below a list of dramatic works on this site employing these various methodologies.
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In 2014, the University of Chicago recognized its “overarching commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation among all members of the University’s community.” The report of its Committee on Freedom of Expression went on to add “the University greatly values civility,” and “all members of the University community share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect.” But “mutual respect can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however offensive or disagreeable those ideas may be to some members of the community.”
The balance between academic respect and civility on the one hand and freedom of academic discussion on the other must be precisely maintained if academe is to have any hope of pursuing that difficult thing called Truth rather than the easy thing called propaganda. We at ITCHS stand with the University of Chicago in seeking that proper and necessary balance.
New! "The Seven-Day Week"
A “first installment” on a study of the cultural background to the formative centuries for comedy and tragedy, 400 B.C. to 20 A.D.
Trending: Exploring Comedic Subgenres
Stagecoach, John Ford, and Redemption Comedy
Romantic Comedy: John Ford/John Wayne’s Hondo
Recent Shooting Stars
Humor Corner: Incongruity
Exploring Shakespearean Tragedy: Dynamis
Much Ado About Nothing: Sombre Comedy
Full-length critical works published on this site include
Comedic Tenor, Comic Vehicle: Humor in American Film Comedy
December Comedy: Studies in Senior Comedy and Other Essays
Cheshire Smile: Humor Texture and Personality in Shakespeare's Comedies
Four Seasons: Variations in American Vitalist Film Comedy
Excerpts from Comedy in Space, Time, and the Imagination.
ITCHS is the home of the Humor Quotient Newsletter and the designer and administrator of the Humor Quotient Test and the Langerian/Bergsonian Vitalist Humor Test.
We hope that students of literature, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines will find useful sources in the e-volumes we publish here.
ITCHS is at its core a collaborative effort. We are proud of thousands of volunteer associates who have made our research discoveries possible. And we are constantly looking to increase the number of scholar affiliates with whom we continue our efforts. If you are a humor scholar, a comedy scholar, a scholar in a related field like travesty, satire, or tragedy and especially if you are a graduate student looking for a dissertation topic and institute affiliation, we want to hear from you. We are experts in research design and quantitative analysis, and we are anxious to consider possibilities for collaborative research and publication.
Queries of ITCHS should be directed to Paul Grawe, Project Director, ITCHS@hbci.com.
List of Plays and Films Discussed on ITCHS
Plays
Jean Anouilh, The Waltz of the Toreadors, New Mood, Chap. 3, pp 8-14
Aristophanes, The Birds
Samuel Beckett, Endgame
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress
Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, in New Mood, Chap. 3, p 3
William Congreve, The Way of the World, in New Mood, Chap. 1, p 7, 24
Friedrich Duerrenmatt: The Visit
Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman of Chaillot, in New Mood, Chap. 1, p 32
Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman of Chaillot, in New Mood, Chap. 3, p 7
Lorraine Hansburry, Raisin in the Sun, in New Mood, Chap 1, p 31
Henrik Ibsen, Master Builder
Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt
Henrik Ibsen, Pillars of Society
Henrik Ibsen, Rosmersholm
Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck, in New Mood, Chap. 1, p 40
Eugène Ionesco, Rhinoceros, in New Mood, Chap. 2, p 31.
Ben Jonson, Volpone, New Mood, Chap. 1, p 11
Federico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding, in New Mood, Chap. 2, pp 2-5
Arthur Miller, After the Fall, in New Mood, Chap 1, p 36
Molière, L’Avare
Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules
Molière, Tartuffe
Eugene O’Neill, The Iceman Cometh
Plautus, Menaechmi, in New Mood, Chap. 1, p 19
William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life
William Shakespeare, Comedies:
As You Like It: As Modern Criticism Likes It
As You Like It: Reconsidered as Formal Comedy
As You Like It: As Enhanced by Humor
Comedy of Errors: Comedy or Farce?
Henry IV, Part 1: Comedic Structure
Henry V: Heroic Comedy and Considerations of Scale
Midsummer Night’s Dream: Comedy or Comickedy?
Much Ado About Nothing: Sombre Comedy
William Shakespeare, Tragedies:
Hamlet: Exploring Shakespearean Tragedy
Hamlet: ISST Abstract, Chap. 6
Julius Caesar: ISST Abstract
King Lear: Exploring Shakespearean Tragedy
Macbeth: Exploring Shakespearean Tragedy
Othello: Exploring Shakespearean Tragedy
Troilus and Cressida: ISST Abstract, Chap.3
John Millington Synge, Riders to the Sea, in New Mood, Chap. 2 pp 2-4
Thorton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
Films
Aladdin: Advocate Humor Personality
The Big Chill: Entropic Humor
The Blues Brothers: Bridgebuilder Humor Personality
Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Sombre Comedy, Definition, in New Mood, Chap.1, page 35
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Crusader Humor Personality
Driving Miss Daisy: Winter Vitalist Comedy
Driving Miss Daisy: Senior Comedy and Comedic Innovation
Driving Miss Daisy: Senior Vitalist Humor
Father of the Bride: Consoler Humor Personality
Fiddler on the Roof: Winter Vitalist Comedy
The Graduate: Somber Comedy, Definition, in New Mood, Chap. 1, page 35
Forrest Gump: Twelve Forms of Irony
Forrest Gump: Finding the Dominant Humor Form
Grumpy Old Men: Erich Segal and Aristophanes
Grumpy Old Men: Senior Comedy and Comedic Innovation
Hondo: John Ford/John Wayne’s Romantic Comedy
Life with Father: Fall Vitalist Comedy
A Mighty Wind: Getting the Right Genre
The Music Man: Intellectual Humor Personality
My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Reconciler Humor Personality
My Fair Lady: Summer Vitalist Comedy
My Fair Lady: Vitalist Techniques in Practice
On Golden Pond: Senior Comedy and Comedic Innovation
On Golden Pond: Senior Vitalist Humor
On Golden Pond: Summer Vitalist Comedy
Rain Man: Box Office Dark Comedy
Rain Man: The Recent Rapid Development of Comedy
Rocky: Fall Vitalist Comedy
Roman Holiday: Summer Vitalist Comedy
The Sound of Music: Spring Vitalist Comedy
Stagecoach: John Ford, and Redemption Comedy
Steel Magnolias: Humor Structure Interplay
Steel Magnolias: Vitalist Techniques in Practice
The Student Prince: Spring Vitalist Comedy
The Whales of August: Humor and Comedic Restoration of Balance