Film ComedyWallflower Press, 2002 - 230 pages What exactly is film comedy and what is the basis for its widespread appeal? Film Comedy uses formal, socio-historical and industrial perspectives to answer this question. What, for example, is the basis of the appeal of gross-out comedy in films such as There's Something About Mary and American Pie? What is the relationship between comedy and narrative, from early silent slapstick to the performance of actors such as Steve Martin and Jim Carrey? How has romantic comedy changed, or remained the same, from the 1930s to today? What happens when comedy is put to more serious ends in satire ranging from works produced under communism in Eastern Europe and Cuba to Hollywood features such as Bullworth and Wag the Dog? To what extent is comedy nation-specific? And what is the role of comic relief in Hollywood action movies and black comedy such as American Psycho and Man Bites Dog. |
Contents
taking comedy seriously | 1 |
comedy and narrative | 19 |
transgressions and regressions | 63 |
satire and parody | 93 |
comedy and representation | 129 |
comedy beyond comedy | 170 |
notes | 203 |
filmography | 209 |
| 219 | |
| 227 | |
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absurd American antics appears audience behaviour Blazing Saddles British Bulworth Buster Keaton cartoon central character Chaplin characteristics Charles Chaplin cinema Classical Hollywood comedian comedy comedian comic comic effect contemporary context conventions created cross-dressing cultural dimension disruptive dominant Doubtfire early elements emotional established exaggeration extent feature fictional figure film comedy film-makers format forms of comedy frame gender genre gross-out comedy Hollywood Hollywood Comedy humour identity implications incongruity Jenkins Jerry Lewis joke Karnick Keaton kind laughter mainstream male Marx Brothers Mel Brooks modality narrative norms offered parody particular performers perspective play pleasure political potential production qualities racist realm relationship role romantic comedy routines Routledge satire Scary Movie scene Scream films screen sequence serious sexual shot slapstick social Soviet Spaceballs specific star stereotypes strategy structure style suggests target tradition transformation transgression University Press usually viewer woman Woody Allen You've Got Mail