Comedy movie

A **comedy movie** is a genre of movie which is mainly humorous. These movies are made to make the audience laugh. These movies nomally have a happy ending (black comedy is an exception). Comedy movies are one of the oldest genres in movies. They come from the classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent movies were comedies. This is because slapstick comedy did not need sound to be entertaining. When sound in movies begen being used in the 1920s, comedy moviess still did well because laughter could come from both situations and dialogue.

Comedy puts much more focus on individual actors. Many former stand-up comics began doing movies because of this. Many comic movies are lighthearted stories. They have no goal other than to make people laugh. Others have political or social commentary.

In _The Screenwriters Taxonomy_ (2017), Eric R. Williams says that movie genres are mainly based upon a movies atmosphere, character and story. He says the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be a genre. Instead, his comedy taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of movie that contains at least a dozen different sub-types.

### Silent movie era

The first comedy movie was _L'Arroseur Arrosé_ (1895). It was directed and produced by Louis Lumière. The movie is less than 60 seconds long. It shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most well known comedy actors of the silent movie era (1895-1927) were Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton.

### Anarchic comedy

The anarchic comedy movie is a random type of humour. It often makes fun of authority. The genre began in the silent era. Notable examples of this type of movie are those made by Monty Python. Others include _National Lampoon's Animal House_ (1978) and Marx Brothers movies such as  _Duck Soup_ (1933).

### Bathroom comedy (or gross out comedy)

Gross out movies are a recent creation. They use vulgar, sexual or "toilet" humor. They often have a large amount of profanity.  Examples include _Porky's_ (1982), _Dumb and Dumber_ (1994), _There's Something About Mary_ (1998), and _American Pie_ (1999).

### Comedy of ideas

This type uses comedy to look at serious ideas such as religion, sex or politics. The characters normally have world views that are different from most people. How they interact with other people leads to comedic effect and social commentary. Some examples include _Bob Roberts_ (1992) and _MASH_ (1970).

### Comedy of manners

A comedy of manners satirizes a social class. The plot of a comedy of manners is often about some scandal. The plot is usuallly less important for its witty dialogue. This form of comedy has been used at least since _Much Ado about Nothing_ created by William Shakespeare in 1623. Examples for comedy of manners movies include _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ (1961) and _Under the Tuscan Sun_ (2003).

### Black comedy

The black comedy movie deals with taboo subjects. These include death, murder, crime and suicide. These subjects are used in a satirical way. Examples include _Arsenic and Old Lace_ (1944), _Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb_ (1964), _S.O.B._ (1981), _Monty Python's The Meaning of Life_ (1983), _Brazil_ (1985), _The War of the Roses_ (1989), _Heathers_ (1989), _Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels_ (1998), _Thank You for Smoking_ (2005), _Burn After Reading_ (2008), _The Wolf of Wall Street_ (2013), _Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri_ (2017) and _Parasite_ (2019).

### Mockumentary

Mockumentary comedies are fictional, but use a documentary style. They often have interviews and "documentary" footage along regular scenes. Examples include _The Gods Must Be Crazy_ (1980), _This Is Spinal Tap_ (1984), _Waiting for Guffman_ (1996), _Best In Show_ (2000), and _Reboot Camp_ (2020).

### Parody (or spoof)

A parody or spoof movie makes fun of other movie genres or classic movies. These movies use sarcasm, stereotyping and make fun of scenes from other movie and the actions of characters in those movies. Examples of this form include _Mud and Sand_ (1922), _Blazing Saddles_ (1974), _Airplane!_ (1980), _Young Frankenstein_ (1974), _Spaceballs_ (1987), and _Scary Movie_ (2000).

### Sex comedy

The humor in sex comedy come from sexual situations. Examples include _Choke_ (2008) and _Knocked Up_ (2007).

### Situational comedy

Humor that comes from knowing a group of characters (or character types) and then putting them to different situations to create humor. This type of movie includes _Galaxy Quest_ (1999) and _Madea's Big Happy Family_ (2011).

### Straight comedy

This type applies to movies that dused comedy for comedic sake. _Clueless_ (1995) and _Mrs. Doubtfire_ (1993) are examples of straight comedy movies.

### Surreal comedy

Although not a part of the history of surrealism, these comedies have behavior and ways of telling the story that are not logical. Some examples are _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ (1975) and _Swiss Army Man_ (2016).

## Bibliography

- Thomas W. Bohn and Richard L. Stromgren, _Light and Shadows: A History of Motion Pictures_, 1975, Mayfield Publishing.
- Williams, Eric R. (2017) The Screenwriters Taxonomy: A Roadmap to Creative Storytelling.  New York, NY: Routledge Press, Studies in Media Theory and Practice.

## Other websites

- Comedy movies at IMDB
- Top 100 Comedy movies from Rottentomatoes