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Comedic Tenor, Comic Vehicle:

Humor in American Film Comedy

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Authors

Paul H. Grawe

Paul's interest in theater began at Carleton College and reached out into comedy at Northwestern University, where he earned his MA (1966) and PhD (1971) in English. His dissertation, Sombre Comedy, Comedy in a New Mood, puts forth a definition of comedy that covers the range of Greek New Comedy to present light as well as dark comedy. In 1983 in Comedy in Space, Time, and the Imagination (Nelson-Hall) he further developed the definition of comedy into Comedy Theoretical, Comedy Lucrative, Comedy Popular, Comedy Sombre, and Comedy in Ultimate Realty.

As professor of English at Winona State University, he has taught Shakespeare's comedies, American film comedy, a television comedy course, a Jane Austen seminar, and the like.

Since joining the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) in 1990, Paul has expanded his interest in comedy to include humor, bringing quantitative humor preference analysis to the study of literary criticism.  He has designed numerous test instruments and has authored over 25 academic articles and conference presentations on humor. He is content editor of the Humor Quotient Newsletter.

Paul can be contacted at pgrawe@hbci.com.

Robin Jaeckle Grawe

Robin earned her undergraduate degree at Carleton College and her MA in English at Winona State University. A member of the International Society for Humor Studies since 1990, she is the chief designer of the Humor Quotient Test and the layout editor of the Humor Quotient Newsletter.  She has authored over 20 articles, reports, and conference presentations on humor, with special emphasis on senior humor in American film, HQT humor analysis of comedic literary forms, and the use of humor in group negotiating. She has spoken to civic groups on negotiation styles for women and other humor-in-the-workplace topics.  She has had extensive experience as a dissertation and thesis consultant.  In her "other life," she has had major environmental interests as a governor-appointed member of the MN-WI Boundary Area Commission and its successor organization.

Robin can be contacted at ragrawe@hbci.com.

 

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