While reading your posts this evening, I was struck by another connection to a recent event that might help us explore the trope of mistaken identity within dramatic comedies.
On Monday, I saw the headline below:
Here's a link to the video
Now, I am sure this is not at all a laughing matter for the reporter, though Samuel L. Jackson manages to play the moment for some modicum of comic effect, but does this mix-up of identity work in the same way as the Tonino/Zanetto confusion in The Venetian Twins? Wherein does the difference lie? How would you alter this situation for it to work within a comedy frame?
Similarly, given the following plot synopsis of the Hitchcock thriller "North by Northwest," shouldn't it be a comedy? Why doesn't the plot sound like a comedy? How does the trope of "mistaken identities" need to function within a text for it to earn the label "comedy"?
A suave, succesful New York advertising executive finds himself, through a case of mistaken identity, embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder that takes him across the country to prove his innocence to the police and get an evil crime syndicate, looking for a lost microfilm, off his tail.--Google
In Hans Sachs' The Pregnant Farmer, there is a conversation of misunderstandings between Heinz, the farm-hand, and Isaac, the Jewish doctor. One character is on a completely different lingual plane of existence than the other.
So what about this lack of understanding is so funny? Though I don't know the theoretical discourse behind the comedy of miscommunication, I did notice a few things that stood out to me.
Social Class
Heinz is a farm-hand. And though Isaac is more of a hoax than a healer, he still carries the deceptive title of doctor. This contrast is interesting on two levels: (1) There are two vastly different people standing in a room together, and (2) They are trying to communicate. Now, I don't know why, but the thought of the President of the United States stuck in a room with a Venezuelan coke dealer who doesn't speak a lick of English is hilarious to me. A super conservative Republican and an extremely liberal Democrat find out they go to the same church. A dog and a cat are trapped in the same kennel.
Even if opposites don't attract, they're still an attractive idea. Playing with the social hierarchy of any country has a morbid appeal, like mixing two elements that clearly don't match, just to see what happens.
Along the same lines lies...
Intelligence
Heinz doesn't understand what Isaac is alluding to. This is the basis of what a misunderstanding means. Heinz understands Isaac's words, but ends up applying them to the wrong meaning. It turns into a sort of reverse double entendre, where two meanings can be taken from the same phrase, but Isaac doesn't intend for that to happen.
Isaac, as well, is seen as a more crafty individual (with his scams and his invented "medicine"). And yet, he's still bested by Heinz's unintelligence. By his lack of understanding, Heinz manipulates Isaac into using language that Isaac would rather not say aloud.
Which brings us to...
Vulgarity
Lending to Heinz and Isaac's jargon is that Isaac is of a more subtle disposition, while Heinz speaks blatantly and without remorse. This incorporates both intelligence and social class. Isaac puts on a doctor's air, and must speak in a delicate, doctor-like manner. Heinz spilled a jar of human pee and replaced it with donkey piss -- he's something far removed from delicate.
Part of the humor of putting one kind of person in a room with another kind of person is the uncharacteristic actions that are wrung from one or both. Isaac, for instance, tries very hard to skirt around using any form of vulgarity, but Heinz's misunderstandings force his hand.
In a way, this can be seen as simple-mindedness besting intelligence. Crassness trumping suaveness. It's an unexpected outcome, and for me, that's what makes it funny.
