Comedy and Drama

What is the difference between comedy and drama? It's so obvious to tell which one is which, but how do you objectively classify them? It's something I've been trying to work out for a while now.

To figure it out, I started with what I knew (or at least what I was pretty sure of), and that was comedy. I've studied quite a bit of comedy, but the best explanation came from an episode of Futurama: "It was just a matter of knowing the secret of all TV shows; At the end of the episode, everything's always right back to normal." The more I hear or think about it, the more I find it to be true. Comedy is absurd, but fearless. There are no risks so characters can do absolutely anything. But, with nothing ventured, nothing will be gained. That's why comedy is great, but an overdose is boring.

So if comedy is fearless, then drama should be fearful. At the end of every installment, things are different from how they started. Drama needs a mental and emotional investment, so an overdose of it is exhausting.

I am painting in broad strokes here, but I find that broad strokes tend to get to the heart of the matter. If comedy is things not changing and drama is the opposite, then are they mutually exclusive? My gut reaction is to say, of course. Things cannot change and not change at the same time. However, I then find myself drawn to the classic saying, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." And I think of comic books as a perfect example of mixing comedy and drama.

Spider-Man is incredibly dramatic. From high school to college and into middle age, Peter Parker has done nothing but change and grow. However, Spider-Man has been the same wise ass punster since day 1. That is why we can still chuckle when Spidey throws an air conditioning unit at a bad guy and tell him to "cool off", even if when the battle is over, he won't have the money to pay for dinner.

It seems to me that blending these styles is incredibly important in writing to avoid the overdose on either end. Two of my favorite comics do it in different ways. Least I Could Do tends to alternate between serious story arcs and silly gag strips. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal does this by having inherently dramatic situations that never have any backstory or follow through, so things never really change because we never see the characters again. Both of those comics are incredibly successful and popular, which supports my belief that a blending is necessary. I certainly can't think of any works that are 100% one style and don't cause me to suffer from long-term exposure.