Humor and the Metadiscourse of Control in the Comedia

Who gets to determine what is funny in the comedia? This article seeks to answer this question, on the level of character dialogue, through the use of two principal theoretical constructs regarding language and humor. These are, respectively, agonistic language-games and metadiscourse as it refers to the control of discourse through humor. They have been chosen as more flexible alternatives to foundational speech act theory because close analysis of character dialogue consistently points towards Wittgenstein's observation that we "make up the rules as we go along." While holding to the basic premise that there are winners and losers, though not always defeated parties, this article asserts that restrictive attempts to define conditions under which jokes are told can be counterproductive and even misleading. The comedia genre allows for a great number of contests of wit that may defy supposed conventions or even go undetected. A gracioso who is apparently silenced may actually be a winner in his control over discourse through transgressive humor. The galán and the gracioso may switch roles, or the galán, even a segundo galán, may supplant the gracioso and become the driving comic force of the play. When jokes are studied in terms of discourse and who is in control, further complexities of the comedia as a genre, and even previously undiscovered jokes, can be revealed. (TLLB)