Science fiction comedy (sci-fi comedy) or comic science fiction is a subgenre of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scient ...

that exploits the

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

(SF) genre's conventions for

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ...

effect. Comic science fiction often mocks or satirizes standard SF conventions – such as alien invasion of Earth, interstellar travel, or futuristic technology. It can also satirize and criticize present-day society. An early example was the '' Pete Manx'' series by

Henry Kuttner Henry Kuttner (April 7, 1915 – February 3, 1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Early life Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. Kuttner (1829–1903) and Amelia Bush (c. 1834–1911), the ...

and Arthur K. Barnes (sometimes writing together and sometimes separately, under the house pen-name of Kelvin Kent). Published in ''

Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing St ...

'' in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the series featured a time-traveling carnival barker who uses his con-man abilities to get out of trouble. Two later series cemented Kuttner's reputation as one of the most popular early writers of comic science fiction: the ''Gallegher'' series (about a drunken inventor and his narcissistic

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

) and the ''Hogben'' series (about a family of mutant hillbillies). The former appeared in '' Astounding Science Fiction'' in 1943 and 1948 and was collected in hardcover as '' Robots Have No Tails'' (Gnome, 1952), and the latter appeared in ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' in the late 1940s. In the 1950s comedy became more common in science fiction. Some of the authors contributing included: Alfred Bester, Harry Harrison,

C. M. Kornbluth Cyril M. Kornbluth (July 2, 1923 – March 21, 1958) was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, W ...

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellit ...

, and Robert Sheckley.The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Volume 1, Gary Westfahl, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, Page 145 '' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a comic science-fiction series written by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

in 1978, it later morphed into other formats, including stage shows, novels, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 computer game, and 2005 feature film. A prominent series in

British popular culture British culture is influenced by the combined nations' history; its historically Christian religious life, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the traditions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the impact of the British Empir ...

, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' has become an international multi-media phenomenon; the novels are the most widely distributed, having been translated into more than 30 languages by 2005. Terry Pratchett's 1981 novel ''Strata'' also exemplifies the comic science fiction genre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comic Science Fiction

Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

Science fiction genres Film genres

See also

References