Comedy movie

A comedy movie is a genre of movie which is mainly humorous. These movier 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.
History
Silent movie era
The first comedy movie was L'Arroseur Arrose (1895). It was directed and produced by Louis Lumiere. 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.
Sub-types
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).
References
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
movie genres