First of all, it is necessary to define comic. This is a special tool that allows you to reveal, eradicate the contradiction of life, with the usual laugh. Humor in literature can notice this discrepancy only at the verbal level, in plot moves (when the hero, for example, finds himself in some kind of funny situation) or in character (inadequate self-esteem of the character of himself against the common sense).
Of course, laughter and laughter are different. Satire and humor in literature are two different concepts. If the first involves a good laugh at the heroes of a short story or novel, then the second prefers to severely denounce the characters and evil deeds. And it is absolutely far from the funny stories of Shukshin, early Chekhov - as well as from Swift's pamphlets - a grotesque with a phantasmagoric interweaving of the unconnected. This kind of laughter is no longer fun.
Humor in literature is ...
This type of comic is considered the most universal. In contrast to satire, he is kind, malicious, although he is not without a certain sharpness. His main goal is to help the character get rid of his bad qualities. Humor in literature is a series of comic situations, ridiculous mistakes. However, the hero because of them does not lose attractiveness, which is impossible in Dead Souls or History of a City. Literature proves this. Sancho Panza is the epitome of such a character. He is far from ideal: cowardly, always guided by his peasant prudence, because of which she does not allow him to offend himself.
The key property of humor is when you laugh kindly at someone, you don’t notice how you start to pay attention to your shortcomings, you try to fix them. Using this kind of comic allows you to find in the insane the wise, the insignificant - the sublime, and in the wayward reveals the true nature. Not a single normal person can live without humor, even his grim variety is out of place. As Remarque once stated, we laugh and joke not at all because we are endowed with a sense of humor. But because without him we will be lost.
There are a lot of works containing elements of humor in Russian literature. This is the story of Gogol, and to some extent the plays of Ostrovsky, Chekhov. Soviet literature gave us Zoshchenko, Bulgakov, Shukshin and many others. In addition, there is humor in children's literature (the famous "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer").
Irony
The irony is distinguished by a special technique, when, in fact, the negative meaning of the statement is hidden behind its external positive side. At the same time, laughter is already getting bitter colors. Compare the above examples of humor in literature and the use of irony in some of Nekrasov’s poems. So, in Kalistrat, the comic effect is based on opposing the promises of mother that her child will live happily, and the real situation of the peasant son in the then society.
In order to catch the irony, it is always necessary to consider the context. For example, Chichikov in Dead Souls calls the police chief a well-read man. There seems to be nothing in this statement that allows one to doubt its fallacy. However, the narrator goes on to say: “We (that is, the police chief) lost to Whist all night.” Irony, as well as humor in literature, is a rapprochement of two planes, conditionally referred to as given and due. However, in the case of Dead Souls, this is a higher degree of discrediting the ridiculed object. At the same time, such a division carried out in theory cannot always be guided in practice.
Satire
If humor in literature is the usual mockery of an individual, then the satire is aimed at the sides of public life that deserve criticism. The latter is usually achieved by caricaturization, exaggeration, an absurd image. To put it figuratively, the satire executes this imperfect world, does everything to rebuild it with its ideal program. It does not at all strive to convey any life-like character; it sharpenes, hyperbolizes it, brings it to the point of absurdity.
A vivid example of satire is “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov. The “Griboedov’s house” deserved special ridicule, in which there was nothing left of literature, and all the doors in such a “cultural” institution were hung with signs “fish and cottage section”.
The specificity of the satire explains why it is most often embodied in a novel form. It is the novel that allows you to cover as many areas of reality as possible. In this case, satire is always timely. Of course, if a satirical writer begins to expose insignificant (or even nonexistent) vices, then he himself risks becoming a laughing stock.
Sarcasm
From Greek sarcasm is translated - "torment". This kind of comic is close to irony, but indignation manifests itself more openly, exposing more clearly. For example, in The Duma, the poet sarcastically says that his contemporaries are rich in the cradle of “the mistakes of the fathers and their late intelligence”. Sarcasm is actively used in pamphlets and other similar genres.
Grotesque
In the 15th century, Raphael and his students discovered, during archaeological excavations , bizarre drawings, which became known as the grotesque (from the word "grotto"). Its specificity is that the effect of the comic is based on a combination of the real and the fantastic, even the absurd. Let us recall at least the missing nose of Major Kovalev from the story of Gogol or the mayor with a stuffed head in the novel Saltykov-Shchedrin.