Humor is a powerful rhetorical device employed at all levels of human discourse—from casual banter to political debate. Still, despite humor’s global prevalence, its historical transgressiveness, and its distinct potential both to neutralize and critically engage highly fraught issues, humans do not often pause to ask how humor works. And what does its working tell us about our humanness? This thesis explores the operation of humor in literature and performance, using tools provided by structuralist, deconstructive, and postmodern critical arenas, to reveal how humor’s fundamental structures invite humans to entertain new perspectives and practice empathy. The study considers irony, the performance of stakes, wordplay, departure from form, timing, metatheatrics, and cross-dressing. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ca. 1595) serves as a key text, but films and television series including Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977, 1983), Young Frankenstein (20th Century Fox, 1974), and Doctor Who (BBC,1963- ), are employed among other popular examples to demonstrate diverse types of humor.
","abstract_html":"<p>Humor is a powerful rhetorical device employed at all levels of human discourse—from casual banter to political debate. Still, despite humor’s global prevalence, its historical transgressiveness, and its distinct potential both to neutralize and critically engage highly fraught issues, humans do not often pause to ask how humor works. And what does its working tell us about our humanness? This thesis explores the operation of humor in literature and performance, using tools provided by structuralist, deconstructive, and postmodern critical arenas, to reveal how humor’s fundamental structures invite humans to entertain new perspectives and practice empathy. The study considers irony, the performance of stakes, wordplay, departure from form, timing, metatheatrics, and cross-dressing. William Shakespeare’s <em>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</em> (ca. 1595) serves as a key text, but films and television series including <em>Star Wars</em> (20th Century Fox, 1977, 1983), <em>Young Frankenstein</em> (20th Century Fox, 1974), and <em>Doctor Who</em> (BBC,1963- ), are employed among other popular examples to demonstrate diverse types of humor.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Libby, Jaime"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Master's Thesis","degree_discipline":"Graduate Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Judy Halebsky, PhD","Graham Guest, PhD"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:04:35Z","subjects":["humor","comedy","shakespeare","pun","stakes","comic timing","Acting","Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory","English Language and Literature","Other Film and Media Studies","Other Theatre and Performance Studies","Performance Studies","Theatre History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.dominican.edu/masters-theses/229","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Judy Halebsky, PhD","Graham Guest, PhD"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Libby, Jaime"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["1970-01-01T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Graduate Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master's Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["humor","comedy","shakespeare","pun","stakes","comic timing","Acting","Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory","English Language and Literature","Other Film and Media Studies","Other Theatre and Performance Studies","Performance Studies","Theatre History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.dominican.edu/masters-theses/229"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Humor is a powerful rhetorical device employed at all levels of human discourse—from casual banter to political debate. Still, despite humor’s global prevalence, its historical transgressiveness, and its distinct potential both to neutralize and critically engage highly fraught issues, humans do not often pause to ask how humor works. And what does its working tell us about our humanness? This thesis explores the operation of humor in literature and performance, using tools provided by structuralist, deconstructive, and postmodern critical arenas, to reveal how humor’s fundamental structures invite humans to entertain new perspectives and practice empathy. The study considers irony, the performance of stakes, wordplay, departure from form, timing, metatheatrics, and cross-dressing. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ca. 1595) serves as a key text, but films and television series including Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977, 1983), Young Frankenstein (20th Century Fox, 1974), and Doctor Who (BBC,1963- ), are employed among other popular examples to demonstrate diverse types of humor.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Behind the Stakes, Between the Lines, Beyond the Pun: A Critical Deconstruction of Humor in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Other Popular Comedies"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Judy Halebsky, PhD","Graham Guest, PhD"],"dc:creator":["Libby, Jaime"],"dc:date.available":["1970-01-01T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Humor is a powerful rhetorical device employed at all levels of human discourse—from casual banter to political debate. Still, despite humor’s global prevalence, its historical transgressiveness, and its distinct potential both to neutralize and critically engage highly fraught issues, humans do not often pause to ask how humor works. And what does its working tell us about our humanness? This thesis explores the operation of humor in literature and performance, using tools provided by structuralist, deconstructive, and postmodern critical arenas, to reveal how humor’s fundamental structures invite humans to entertain new perspectives and practice empathy. The study considers irony, the performance of stakes, wordplay, departure from form, timing, metatheatrics, and cross-dressing. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ca. 1595) serves as a key text, but films and television series including Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977, 1983), Young Frankenstein (20th Century Fox, 1974), and Doctor Who (BBC,1963- ), are employed among other popular examples to demonstrate diverse types of humor.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.dominican.edu/masters-theses/229"],"dc:subject":["humor","comedy","shakespeare","pun","stakes","comic timing","Acting","Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory","English Language and Literature","Other Film and Media Studies","Other Theatre and Performance Studies","Performance Studies","Theatre History"],"dc:title":["Behind the Stakes, Between the Lines, Beyond the Pun: A Critical Deconstruction of Humor in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Other Popular Comedies"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Graduate Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master's Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:04:35Z"}