Comedy in Harry Potter

Mad muggles and witty wizards populate the Potterverse. From The Adventures o Marting Miggs to Zonko's Joke Shop, the wizarding world likes a laugh. Why do we laugh? Rude Mechanicals will explore several of the less than satisfying theories about humor and see if any of them apply to Harry Potter. Is the seventh book really a romantic comedy? Is a Skiving Snackbox the ultimate commodity fetish? Just as children's tales have escaped the serious attention of the critics, so too has comedy. But, as with comedies from Aristophanes to Shakespeare, Harry Potter begins his journey in what we feel is the real world and enters a "green world" where he grows up and, having resolved his comic predicament, returns to the real world.

It's no accident that each book begins in the fall and ends in the spring. Comedy is a celebration of the triumph of summer over winter, of love and life over fear and death. It's about youth challenging the old and winning; it's about finding love and defeating rivals; it's about happy endings. All told with a cast of knaves, fools, braggarts, buffoons, tricksters, lovers and imposters. In keeping with its topic, this lecture will endeavor to be light and amusing. Its object is a catharsis through joy and laugher. Surely we will be joking. Why not? As E.B. White said "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind."