Genre Paper on Comedy

Danielle Salm
Visual Literacy
Prof. Hammond
March 12, 2010

Aristotle has told us that the Greeks were the ones who first developed the idea of comedy. At country festivals bands roamed the streets with torches and instruments, singing songs of comedy and tragedy. These were called the phallic processions. It leads to groups of people running around the streets of Athens acting like complete clowns. Comical acts soon became acceptable ways of making political attacks. Plato identifies comedy as a way to excite people. Soon comedy was incorporated into musicals and then to silent movies, which lead to the comedy films we see today.
Early comedies were silent films and they began in the 1900’s. Slapstick was a predominant type of comedy in this time. The name comes from the idea of pieces of wood that clowns slap together to indicate applause. It worked for many different types of audiences because of the lack of words. There was limited technology those days, so the whole film relied on the visual humor that it implied. Once sound could be incorporated into the films, jokes could be formulated and complex situations could become more comprehensible. This lead slapstick comedy to evolve into the new and improved screwball comedy. It is a sub-genre of romantic comedy that incorporates lightheartedness, with wittiness, and some sort of a romantic story line that has two sexes or protagonists battling each other in a certain sense. Often enough, these two end up together in the end (but not always). Black or dark comedy is sarcastic or humorous situations based around some dark issues like war, or death. A parody or spoof is the typical more commonly known and understand type which stick to a very humorous style that makes fun of serious topics and/or just has comical characters. Satire can also be included into parody or spoofs because it makes fun of politics or social remarks.
Comedy is most popularly known by the craft of humor and amusement. The characters use witty jokes and exaggerated actions to bring a smile to onlooker’s faces. Comedy entertains, amuses. It takes the serious aspects of life and makes them less important or just makes people look at them in a more light-hearted way. We get so caught up in everyday life that being able to laugh at the things that stress us out is healthy and takes some of the weight off of our shoulders. In some ways, it is an escape from the conflicts of life to a place where it is all just one big joke. Comedy has many different conventions for the different audiences. It is categorized by teen comedy, romantic comedy, social comedy, and gross out comedy. The typical conventions consist of the gag which is the jokes and the visuals with the most impact. There is a comic situation or narrative, which has characters with a certain relationship that makes people laugh. There is often an issue between the gag and the situation between the characters which causes hostility that much be solved so that the narrative can progress.
Romantic comedy is one of the most successful recently because it incorporates the two basic things that people like to see when they are taking a break from life. It has the love aspect and can make them laugh. Love is a topic that gets thrown around a lot these days and so many are looking for it. Although it is not an easy thing to find for all, they turn to the romantic comedies to give some liberation to people that it is out there and it is possible to find. These comedies also make people feel a little bit better because while watching something in which they are so desperately looking to find they can laugh and see it in a more optimistic way. This is not to say that there aren’t plenty parodies and spoofs that people are interested in as well. While some are interested in the more romantic side of things, others just want to laugh at jokes that make fun of everyday life and the situations being portrayed.


Video Clip- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDzoLUzwMMI

Work Cited:
http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/bates001.html
http://movies.lovetoknow.com/wiki/History_of_Comedy_Films
http://www.filmsite.org/comedyfilms.html
http://www.katpad.co.uk/media%20website%202000/genre.html