Suppose, for example, that the doctor's
twisting of the victim's leg should so enrage him that he would leap
upon the doctor and bite the torturer's leg in the manner of a dog.
The wife, coming in, might think that her husband had hydrophobia, and
a whole train of farcical results might follow. We have all seen
unnatural yet uproariously funny situations to which such a
complication might lead in farce.
_Burlesque_ takes a well-known and often a serious subject and hits
off its salient points in an uproarious manner. One might burlesque
"Hamlet" by causing a red-nosed Prince of Denmark to do a juggling
act with "poor Yorick's" skull.
_Extravaganza_ deals with the unnatural and the impossible. The
super-human antics of the acrobatic buffoons in Hanlon's perennial
"Superba," and those of the Byrne Brothers in "Eight Bells," are
familiar examples.
_2. Comedy a Difficult Art_
A writer in one of the photoplay journals, advising writers who are
struggling to succeed, concludes by admonishing them either to avoid
stories which because of prohibited themes are likely to make them
unpopular with editors, or else to "try comedies."
It may be that this writer is one of those who have never tried to
write comedy scripts, or possibly he is one of the favored few who
have a special talent for humor.
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