Theatrical Cartoon Comedy: From Animated Portmanteau to the risus purus Suzanne Buchan Blackwell's Companion to Film Comedy (eds. Andrew Horton & Joanna Rapf), Wiley & Sons / Blackwells, 2012 (in production) Abstract: This essay explores forms and techniques of humor and comedy in the animated theatrical cartoon up to the mid-1950s, from the genial wit of Émile Cohl's graphic universe to Chuck Jones's evocation of Samuel Beckett's risus purus. Using a methodological framework that includes Freud's theories of the joke, Bergson's On Laughter and the language play of James Joyce, it reveals comedic analogies between written and spoken language and animated cartoons. Central to the investigation are Joyce's use of puns and the portmanteau word and how the use of this latter technique in the animated moving image can create comic animated figures, situations and events. It also shows how caricature and parody of the human in animation can take great freedoms with animated versions of real-life stars. Key words: animated comedy, theatrical cartoons, 'risus purus', drawn animation, visual portmanteau, sonic portmanteau, Émile Cohl, Tex Avery, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson.