Definition:
An abrupt shift from a serious or noble tone to a less exalted one--often for comic effect. Adjective: anticlimactic. Contrast with climax.
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) - "'For God, for Country and for Yale,' the outstanding single anti-climax in the English language."
(James Thurber) - "One of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at 21 that everything afterward savors of anticlimax."
(F. Scott Fitzgerald) - "Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends."
(Woody Allen) - "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, "My Speech to the Graduates") - "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 in The Big Lebowski, 1998) - "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
