"With my freeze ray, I will stop-:" carnival incompleteness in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and "Once More, With Feeling"

This paper applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of carnival and reduced laughter to Dr. Horrible and "Once More," demonstrating both works’ insistence on musical inconclusiveness. Bakhtin’s "gay and free laughing aspect of the world, with its unfinished and open character" invites audiences to create meanings through interaction with musical comedies, partially explaining the appeal of musicals for audience members who feel themselves "unfinished and open."