The 4th-century Latin grammarian Donatus distinguished comedy from tragedy by the simplest terms: comedies begin in trouble and end in peace, while tragedies begin in calms and end in tempest.
MEET THE PARENTS" is not a distinguished comedy.
If there was ever a chance for Mr. Shearer to become one of those mascots, he's blown it with "Teddy Bears Picnicc" -- despite a distinguished comedy career going back to his days as a child actor on Jack Benny's final radio programs and in "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars".
One of the critical texts we read was an essay by the esteemed Canadian critic Northrop Frye, who, in discussing classical stage comedy, distinguished between what he called "Old Comedy," typified in the works of Aristophanes, and the "New Comedy" of Menander, whose plays were produced almost a century later.
But what distinguishes her comedy is how forcefully it turns inward, drawing attention to its form, testing its limits.
Cera et al are unlikely to be celebrating at the Oscars come February, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not distinguish between comedy and drama, and rarely garlands the former.
According to The Complete Book of Light Opera: "Here we come to a completely new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy.
The term popular theatre denotes performances in the tradition of the music hall, vaudeville, burlesque, follies, revue, circus, and musical comedy, as distinguished from legitimate, high, or artistic theatre.
Hannibal Buress A one-off London date for the Chicago standup, whose excellent laidback comedy and distinguished US TV pedigree (he's written for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock) have been eclipsed by his role as whistleblower, at a gig in Philadelphia last year, on the sexual activities of Bill Cosby.
"If you start giving up network time slots to reality shows and game stuff that you see on cable, that you see in syndication, you're starting to erode the very things that have distinguished network television: dramas and comedies.
In recent years, the romantic comedies that have distinguished themselves have attempted such different approaches that they can barely be called rom-coms at all.
