| A | B |
|---|
| Anticlimax | Dropping from the sublime to a ridiculous for a bathetic effect |
| Antithesis | A figure of speech with strongly contrasting words or ideas; a contrast of ideas expressed in a grammatically balanced statement |
| Bathos/Bathetic | A lapse into the ridiculous by a writer aiming at elevated expression; overly sentimental |
| Burlesque | A composition which derives its humor from exaggerated imitation of a more serious work; a parody |
| Caricature | A cartoon-like portrait in literature, featuring an exaggerated representation of a character |
| Entrapment | Switching the situation to trick the reader, after having lured him or her into a sense of comfort |
| Euphemism | an inoffensive expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive; avoiding the description of something outrageous by cloaking it in sheltered terms |
| Hyperbole | Exaggeration |
| Innuendo | A form of irony in which something derogatory is implied; insinuating or suggesting a harmful idea |
| Invective | Harsh and abusive language directed against a person or cause |
| Verbal irony | Discrepancy between what is said what is really meant |
| Situational irony | What actually happens is opposite of what is expected or appropriate; a twist |
| Dramatic irony | The audience or reader knows something important that a character does not know |
| Juxtaposition | Positioning side by side or close together mismatching elements, sometimes resulting in comic incongruity |
| Mock heroic | Exaggeration and distortion of a literary epic and its style; elevating the trivial to a level higher than it deserves |
| Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas (bittersweet) |
| paradox | A statement which, because of its contradictory nature, seems absurd, but which really is well founded |
| Parody | A mocking imitation of a known person, literary work, movie, or event (a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail) |
| Reductio ad absurdum | A method of argument which carries to an extreme but logical conclusion some general idea in order to show its falsity |
| Repetition | Repeating key words or phrases for comic emphasis |
| Sarcasm | A form of verbal irony giving strong and personal disapproval; from the Greek, meaning to tear flesh |
| Shock | Using outrageous details to startle the reader and grab attention |
| Summary statements | Summarizing a shocking or fantastic episode in bland generalizations, often resulting in comic understatement |
| Tag names | Giving names indicative of a persons basic character (Tony Lumpkin) |
| Understatement | Implying the opposite by saying less than is meant |
| Verisimilitude | Seeming truth; establishing a willing suspension of disbelief in the reader through use of various devices meant to establish realism |
