Facetiae

//__Facetiae __//


 * Definition:: (n.) Plural; humorous sayings or writings; witticisms. **


 * Origin:: Classical Latin term meaning skillfulness, cleverness, and wittiness. **


 * See also:: ** Paronomasia

Definition taken from: The Oxford English Dictionary- Online (www.oed.com)


 * Examples ** from text:

1) The television series //All in the Family// has several examples of facetiae. In fact, the show is chalk full of humorous sayings and one-liners. In the episode we watched, Mike (the husband of Gloria), states, "I just thank God I'm an Atheist". This saying stimulates laughter because of the situational irony within the quote.

2) //The Killing Joke//, a comic we read in class, also brings forth examples of facetiae. In this story, facetiae is seen more in the witty sense of humor. The Joker uses this wittiness within most of the things he says. Specifically: The Joker says to Batman, "You had a bad day once, am I right?... Why else would you dress up like a flying rat?" As usual, the Joker laughs hysterically, but even Batman is laughing during this time. Batman laughs along in this instant because the Joker is helpless at the time.

3) One other example of this stylistic device I found was in the internet story of //The Guild//. This story involves the connection of six on-line game players that are all apart of the Knights of Good. None of them actually no each other personally until mid-way through the first season. Throughout this comedy, multiple quotes involving wittiness are found to be comical to the audience. The cast of the show brings forth many interesting characters, but the most interesting is definitely the clueless Zaboo. A comical quote from Zaboo is: "I'm a Hinjew." In this context, Zaboo is trying to combine his nationality and religion to make a clever and witty remark to Codex.

(JH)