Comedy Conventions

Words: 448

Pages: 2

Open Document

Comedy is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement and most often work by exaggerating characteristics for humorous effect. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies, as slapstick comedy often relies on visual depictions, without requiring sound. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films took another swing, as laughter could result from burlesque situations but also dialogue.

Comedy, compared to other film genres, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity (like Kevin Hart). While many comic films are lighthearted stories with no intent other than to amuse, others contain political or social commentary (such as Wag the Dog and Man of the Year). …show more content…
Charlie Chaplin, through silent film, became one of the best known faces on earth. The silent tradition lived on well in to the 20th century through mime artists like Marcel Marceau, and the physical comedy of artists like Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. The tradition of the circus clown also continued, with such as Bozo the Clown in the United States and Oleg Popov in Russia. Radio provided new possibilities : with Britain producing the influential Goon Show after the Second World War. American cinema has produced a great number of globally renowned comedy artists, from the Three Stooges and Jerry Lewis to performers like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy and Kevin Hart at the end of the

Comedy Conventions

of both horror and comedy because they're different sides of the same coin: Both are about using emotion to provoke an instinctual, physical response, and if you're lucky, spontaneous evacuation of bodily waste products." — Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Extra Punctuation Comedy-horror is a literary and genre that combines elements of comedy and horror, It can generally be categorised under three sub-genres: black comedy, parody and spoof. Comedy-horror generally takes the conventions of a well-known film…

Words 510 - Pages 3

jake essay

What comic conventions are used in the resolution of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? The resolution of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ takes place in the fifth act as with all his plays. By this point it has been made clear through the actions and story of the characters that the play is a comedy and this continues in the fifth act. Despite the story coming to a clear resolution where all the characters have found their love, the comic aspects of the play seem to actually climax within the…

Words 651 - Pages 3

Classical Period Essay

that content is what is being said and form is how it is said ii. Content is the criteria which we distinguish between genres c. Myths, conventions, and iconography as constituents of a genre i. Conventions- certain ways of doing things in genres/talk some about form 1. Musicals- use music and dance to tell the story. 2. Science fiction- uses special effects 3. Gangster Films – the…

Words 1320 - Pages 6

Much Ado About Nothing - An experience of pleasurable merry-making and social inversion Essay

“An experience of pleasurable merry-making and social inversion” – to what extent do you agree with this interpretation? William Shakespeare’s acclaimed comedy ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ intertwines humor and tragedy in order to produce a play based on social inversion, while adhering to the conventions of comedy and producing moments of pleasurable merry-making. There are tragic aspects of the play which make it less pleasurable; namely the ubiquitous presence of death. However, the restoration at…

Words 1658 - Pages 7

OCR Revision Pack Section A & B Essay

Pack Contents: Section A – Action/Adventure Films 1. Terminology Glossary 2. What is Section A about? 3. Action/Adventure Conventions Revision 4. Superman Returns screenshot analysis 5. Action/Adventure Representation Revision 6. Representation screenshot analysis Section B – TV Comedy 1. Terminology Glossary 2. What is Section B about? 3. Audience Pleasures in TV Comedy Revision 4. Institution and scheduling Revision Practice Exam Papers 1. Practice Questions 2. Example Answers Glossary…

Words 2931 - Pages 12

Much Ado About Nothing Gender Analysis

expectations. Despite Much Ado About Nothing being a Renaissance play and The Importance of Being Earnest being a Victorian play, both use a similar genre to expose and question the gender norms of their time. Both plays are comedies; the type of comedy deployed being a comedy of manners, where the plot "deals with the relations and intrigues of men and women living in a sophisticated upper-class society" and relies on "the violations of social standards and decorums" (Abrams, A glossary of literary…

Words 774 - Pages 4

Essay on Week 2 Assignment Matthew Wilson

genre of Romantic Comedy using the film “Knocked Up” (2007). Though the audience can’t know exactly what will happen, they know they can expect events to turn out a particular way. These events can be called elements. “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back” is a staple of the romantic comedy films and can be tweaked to the story that each film wants to tell. I will identify examples from the film to illustrate how it falls into the romantic comedy genre. Romantic Comedy is a sub-genre…

Words 1181 - Pages 5

Essay on Biology: Comedy and Theme Song

the audience in the same position as the character which omits any dramatic irony as they know no more than the characters. The camera movements are very shaky to reflect that the characters are filming and using a hand held recorder. This is a convention of a horror genre as it makes the audience feel involved as they share the nerves and unease that the characters do in the moment. The choice of camera movement allows the film to look more realistic. Mid-shots and close-ups are used to show the…

Words 1406 - Pages 6

Comparison Of Duck Soup And Dr. Strangelove

Throughout the late nineteenth century to the present day, comedy films have captivated audiences, shed light on sensitive subjects, and most importantly induced laughter from its audiences. From Leo McCarey’s Duck Soup (1933) to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964), the conventions of this genre have greatly evolved. Although both the slapstick comedy Duck Soup and the dark comedy Dr. Strangelove satirize war and the government’s delinquency through the use of irony, acting, dialogue, and props…

Words 621 - Pages 3

you mugs Essay

century. He uses various methods of comedy to explore his views; satire features prominently within the play in order to ridicule many of the social and political conventions that Shakespeare looks to expose. Many of the messages Shakespeare delivers within the play derive from characters that make the audience laugh; this prevents the message being met with criticism and allows the audience to process what Shakespeare is trying to say, so that through the medium of comedy we can see serious issues explored…

Words 1988 - Pages 8