There are two types of comedies: high and low. High comedy has two types: comedy of ideas and comedy of manners. Farce comedy is a combination of high and low comedy. Low comedy is low comedy.
There are other variations of these. Satire, for example, may or may not be comedy, depending on tone. Horatian satire, a kind of parody, is more comical. Juvenal satire is more bitter, full of attacks. Tragicomedy, a.k.a. black comedy, is a humorous view of the dark side of human nature.
From my notes:
Comedy of Ideas (high comedy):
1. Characters argue about ideas like politics, religion, sex, marriage.
2. They use their wit, their clever language to mock their opponent in an argument.
3. This is a subtle way to satirize people and institutions like political parties, governments, churches, war, marriage.
Comedy of Manners (high comedy):
1. The plot focuses on amorous intrigues among the upper classes.
2. The dialogue focuses on witty language. Clever speech, insults and 'put-downs' are traded between characters.
3. Society is often made up of cliques that are exclusive with certain groups as the in-crowd, other groups ( the would-be-wits, desiring to be part of the witty crowd), and some( the witless) on the outside.
Farce(can be combination of high/low comedy):
1. The plot is full of coincidences, mistimings, mistaken identities.
2. Characters are puppets of fate—they are twins, born to the wrong class, unable to marry, too poor, too rich, have loss of identity because of birth or fate or accident, or are (sometimes) twins separated , unaware of their double..
Low Comedy:
1. Subjects of the humor consists of dirty jokes, dirty gestures, sex, and elmination.
2. The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to understatement with a focus on the physical like long noses, cross eyes, humped back and deformities.
3. The physical actions revolve around slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, collisions—all part of the humor of man encountering an uncooperative universe.
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