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28-435: Two widows lived in a hut, and one had two sons and the other had one—or a single widow had three sons. One day the eldest son was told by his mother to fetch water for a cake, because it was time for him to seek his fortune, and the cake was all she could give him. The can was broken, the water he brought back little, and so the cake was small. The mother offered him all of it with her curse, or half with her blessing, and he took

56-473: A fairy , gave him a magical wand and a great deal of advice on what to do, and vanished. The shepherd, swineherd, and goatherd told him of the Red Ettin and the king of Scotland's daughter, and said that he was the man to defeat him. He walked boldly through the beasts to the castle, striking one dead with the wand, and stayed at the castle. The Red Ettin asked him his riddle, but the man answered and cut off

84-623: A metaphor . Juxtaposition is a literary technique which causes the audience to compare two elements simply because they are placed next to each other. When the comparison is unexpected, it creates irony . In some cases, this can be created through grammatical ambiguity. For example, success and failure. The mistaken identity (often of one twin for another) is a centuries-old comedic device used by Shakespeare in several of his works. The mistake can be either an intended act of deception or an accident. Modern examples include The Parent Trap ; The Truth About Cats and Dogs ; Sister, Sister ; and

112-439: A collection of three words, phrases, sentences, lines, paragraphs/stanzas, chapters/sections of writing and even whole books . The three elements together are known as a triad . The technique is used not just in prose, but also in poetry , oral storytelling, films, and advertising . A tricolon is a more specific use of the rule of three where three words or phrases are equal in length and grammatical form. A hendiatris

140-466: A dramatic pause or beat to allow the audience to discern the subtext of the comedic situation or joke. Additionally, comics may create a laugh from quick juxtaposition between fast and slow timing such as in the case of George Carlin's delivery in his routine " Seven Words You Can't Say On Television ". Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence. Slapstick was heavily used by Buster Keaton , Charlie Chaplin , Laurel and Hardy ,

168-476: A modus operandi and build tension before the Irishman (usually assumed to be the stupid one) provides the resolving juxtaposition. Hyperbole, an overstatement, is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated or extravagant. It may be used to reflect or affect strong feelings or impressions. An understatement is a figure of speech in which statements are purposely understated. It may be used to indicate

196-477: A pair of rocks. And four rocks were unacceptable because four rocks would indicate 'some rocks' but it would be one rock more than was necessary to convey the idea of 'some rocks.'" In storytelling , authors often create triplets or structures in three parts. In the rule's simplest form, this is merely beginning, middle, and end , as expressed in Aristotle 's Poetics . Vladimir Propp , in his Morphology of

224-517: A series of three elements is also a well-known feature of public oratory. Max Atkinson , in his book on oratory entitled Our Masters' Voices , gives examples of how public speakers use three-part phrases to generate what he calls 'claptraps', evoking audience applause. Martin Luther King Jr. , the civil rights activist and preacher, was known for his uses of tripling and the rule of three throughout his many influential speeches. For example,

252-512: Is a figure of speech where three successive words are used to express a single central idea. As a slogan or motto, this is known as a tripartite motto . Many advertising campaigns and public information slogans use the technique to create a catchy, memorable way of displaying information. In marketing theory, American advertising and sales pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis laid out his three chief copywriting principles, which he felt were crucial for effective advertising: The mission of an advertisement

280-406: Is often ironic or risqué and requires the audience to have some additional knowledge to understand the joke. A pun consists of a deliberate confusion of similar words or phrases for humorous effect, whether humorous or serious. A pun can rely on the assumed equivalency of multiple similar words ( homonymy ), of different shades of meaning of one word ( polysemy ), or of a literal meaning with

308-410: Is one of the many comedic devices regularly used by humorists , writers , and comedians . The third element of the triple is often used to create an effect of surprise with the audience, and is frequently the punch line of the joke itself. For instance, jokes might feature three stereotyped individuals—such as an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman ; or a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead—where

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336-461: Is still followed. The effectiveness of a pattern of three items has also been noted in the visual arts. Cartoonist Art Spiegelman described the rule of three as being key to the work of Nancy creator Ernie Bushmiller , giving the example that "a drawing of three rocks in a background scene was Ernie's way of showing us there were some rocks in the background. It was always three. Why? Because two rocks wouldn't be 'some rocks.' Two rocks would be

364-406: Is the essential comedic device and is often used in combination with other devices to reinforce them. The "callback" in comedy writing—in which a statement or theme is recalled as the punchline or close of a scene—is a classic example of the tension and release that are possible using repetition. It is also the basis for "Englishman, Irishman, and Scotsman" jokes, where repetition is used to set up

392-406: Is to attract a reader so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it, he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement. Some examples include: In comedy, the rule of three is also called a comic triple and

420-526: The Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale type ATU 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers". Rule of three (writing) The rule of three is a writing principle which suggests that a trio of entities such as events or characters is more humorous, satisfying, or effective than other numbers. The audience of this form of text is also thereby more likely to remember the information conveyed because having three entities combines both brevity and rhythm with having

448-569: The Keystone Cops , the Three Stooges . Slapstick is also common in animated cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes . Stereotypes in humor are when an exaggerated and oversimplified version of a person or group of people is used to poke fun at the original. A comedian will sometimes use misdirection to have the audience think they're going to say one thing but then get the proverbial rug pulled from under them during

476-463: The Ettin's three heads. He restored the stone and freed the women the Red Ettin held prisoner, and the king married him to his daughter. Joseph Jacobs collected a version with the three men, but suppressed one because it was repetitious. Andrew Lang included all three young men. The word etin or ettin is related to Germanic Jötunn . The incident of the life token is also present in variants of

504-539: The Folk Tale , concluded that any of the elements in a folktale could be negated twice so that it would repeat thrice. This is common not only in the Russian tales he studied but throughout folk tales and fairy tales : most commonly, perhaps, in that the youngest son is usually the third, although fairy tales often display the rule of three in the most blatant form. A small sample of the latter includes: The use of

532-413: The films of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen . There is a liberating element to saying something that nobody else would say in a civilized environment. Being disgusting or politically wrong in front of an audience can surprise and shock an audience (i.e. jokes about pedophiles). Comic timing is the use of pacing and delivery to enhance the effectiveness of comedy. Often, comedy writers and performers insert

560-472: The man fled them and hid in a castle. An old woman told him that it was the castle of the Red Ettin, which had three heads, and he should leave, but he begged her to hide him as best she could, for fear of the beasts. The Red Ettin returned, soon found him, and asked him three riddles; when he could answer none of them, the Ettin turned him to stone. At home, his knife grew rusty. In the variants with three sons,

588-410: The rule of threes in comedy relies on building tension to a comedic release. In the case of the rule of threes, tension is built with the first two items in the pattern and then released with the final item, which should be the funniest of the three. Most triples are short in length, often only two or three sentences, but the rule can also be implemented effectively at longer length as long as base formula

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616-662: The smallest amount of information to create a pattern. Slogans, film titles, and a variety of other things have been structured in threes, a tradition that grew out of oral storytelling and continues in narrative fiction . Examples include the Three Little Pigs , Three Billy Goats Gruff , Goldilocks and the Three Bears , and the Three Musketeers . Similarly, adjectives are often grouped in threes to emphasize an idea. The rule of three can refer to

644-425: The speaker's nonchalance (or obliviousness) regarding an often important or otherwise remarkable situation. It often results in irony where, for instance, the speaker's response to an event does not match how the viewer expects the speaker to react. A double entendre is a spoken phrase that can be understood in either of two ways. The first, literal meaning is an innocent one, while the second, figurative meaning

672-402: The speech "Non-Violence and Racial Justice" contained a binary opposition made up of the rule of three: "insult, injustice and exploitation", followed a few lines later by "justice, good will, and brotherhood". Conversely, the segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace inveighed "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" during his 1963 inaugural address . The appeal of

700-561: The surprise or punch line of the joke comes from the third character. The comedic rule of three is often paired with quick timing, ensuring that viewers have less time to catch on to the pattern before the punch line hits. As a whole, the comedic rule of threes relies on setting up a pattern of two items and then subverting viewer expectations by breaking that pattern with the third item. One particularly notable example comes from The Dick Van Dyke Show – "Can I get you anything? Cup of coffee? Doughnut? Toupee?" Just like most comedic writing,

728-423: The three-fold pattern is also illustrated by the transformation of Winston Churchill 's reference to " blood, toil, tears and sweat " (echoing Giuseppe Garibaldi and Theodore Roosevelt ) in its popular recollection to "blood, sweat and tears". Comedic device Comedic device refers to a kind of device used to make a statement more humorous. In layman's terms, it is what makes things funny. Repetition

756-406: The whole. He left behind a knife, and said if the blade grew rusty, he was dead. He met a shepherd, a swineherd, and a goatherd; each of the three told him the Red Ettin of Ireland had kidnapped the king of Scotland's daughter, but that he was not the man to rescue her. The shepherd also told him to be wary of the beasts he would meet next. They each had two heads, with four horns on each head, and

784-447: The younger brother went after the elder, and met the same fate. The youngest son, or the son of the other widow, set out after him, or them. First, a raven called over his head to look out as he brought the water, and so he patched up the holes and brought back enough water for a large cake. Then he left half with his mother for her blessing. He met an old woman on the way who asked for a piece of his cake, and he gave it to her. She, being

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