Le comique classique, est-il toujours actuel ? : Une étude comparative de L’Avare de Molière et la série comédie télévisée H.

Through the history of mankind comedy has been, and still is, a form of entertainment. Comedy also has a critical function when the comedians use irony or satire to critize for example politicians, institutions or human behaviour. By dealing with difficult subjects such as disease, death, prejudice, and by ridiculing human fears, comedy plays a liberating role. Consequently, comedy is very important to us; laughter is important. This essay is a comparative study between The Miser by Molière and the French television comedy H created by Abd-el-Kader Aoun, Xavier Matthieu and Éric Judor. The series was broadcasted for the frist time in France between the years 1998 and 2002. It is still broadcasted in many frenchspeaking countrys. H takes place in a hospital and the title stands for the French words Hôpital, Histoire and Humour. The study examines if the classical comedy is still viable today, and if the different types of comedy that Molière used in his grand plays are still used in a modern television comedy. The following types of comedy are used for the analysis: character comedy, situational comedy and play on words. Finally, H et The Miser is compared with the Classicism, the farce and Commedia dell’arte. The analysis confirmed our hypothesis that the same type of comedy that Molière used is still in use today. We have shown that character comedy is fundamental for the two analysed comedies. Both The Miser and the television comedy H contains comical and ridiculous characters who are obsessed by their fixed ideas. Misunderstandings are an important element in intrigues and both The Miser and H use misunderstandings to create intrigues. Situational comedy, that for exemple can turn on the contriver himself by repetition, and play on words are also employed by the creators of both comedies. We have also found resemblances between the two comedies and the Classicism, the farce and Commedia dell’arte