Definition:
See also:
A rhetorical term for an abrupt shift from a serious or noble tone to a less exalted one--often for comic effect. Adjective: anticlimactic.
A narrative anticlimax refers to an unexpected twist in the plot, an incident marked by a sudden diminishment of intensity or significance.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "down a ladder"Examples and Observations:
- "The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money."
(Mark Twain) - "In moments of crisis I size up the situation in a flash, set my teeth, contract my muscles, take a firm grip on myself and, without a tremor, always do the wrong thing."
(George Bernard Shaw) - "Jones was having his first date with Miss Smith and was utterly captivated by her. She was beautiful, and intelligent as well, and as dinner proceeded, he was further impressed by her faultless taste.
"As he hesitated over the after-dinner drink, she intervened to say, 'Oh, let’s have sherry rather than brandy by all means. When I sip sherry, it seems to me that I am transported from the everyday scenes by which I may, at that moment, be surrounded. The flavor, the aroma, bring to mind irresistibly--for what reason I know not--a kind of faerie bit of nature: a hilly field bathed in soft sunshine, a clump of trees in the middle distance, a small brook curving across the scene, nearly at my feet. This, together with the fancied drowsy sound of insects and distant lowing of cattle, brings to my mind a kind of warmth, peace, and serenity, a sort of dovetailing of the world into a beautiful entirety. Brandy, on the other hand, makes me fart.'"
(Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor. Houghton Mifflin, 1971) - "Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends."
(Woody Allen) - "He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling."
(Walter Shobchak, played by John Goodman, as he prepares to spread Donny’s ashes, The Big Lebowski, 1998) - "And as I’m sinkin’
The last thing that I think
Is, did I pay my rent?"
(Jim O'Rourke, "Ghost Ship in a Storm") - "He has seen the ravages of war, he has known natural catastrophes, he has been to singles bars."
(Woody Allen, "Speech to the Graduates") - "I would have found it anticlimactic that after expecting to assemble a weapon of ultimate power you found a revelation you could have acquired from a fortune cookie."
(Victor Garber as Jack Bristow, "Succession." Alias, 2003) - "For [Immanuel] Kant, the incongruity in a joke was between the 'something' of the setup and the anticlimactic 'nothing' of the punch line; the ludicrous effect arises 'from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.'"
(Jim Holt, "You Must Be Kidding." The Guardian, Oct. 25, 2008)
Pronunciation: ant-tee-CLI-max
Also Known As: catacosmesis
