Thursday 10 October 2013
Wednesday 9 October 2013
History Of Comedy
History
Of Comedy
The
word “Comedy” originates from Greece, and generally intends to be humorous or
make he audience laugh. Comedy can be used in Theatre , Film , Television or
Stand Up Comedy but the popularity of different types of comedy has transformed
over many years. Comedy Films sprung in to action as soon as they were revealed
to the public in “Silent Film” form such a Slapstick Comedy. Comedy movies
generally have no intent other than to amuse and involves 2 protagonists having
some sort of row or fight that entertains the audience.
There
are may different types of Comedies that can involve lots to different
situations aimed at creating humor.
Slapstick- Involves visually funny
humor which does not require sound, therefore referred to as Silent Movies. The
Tree Stooges is an example of a silent movie.
Fish out of water- Stages a individual involved
n a situation they have never experience before and results in a sequence of
humorous happenings. Situations can involve such things as an Environment
change, Gender change, Age change or Role change. Big is an excellent example
of Age change as it involves Tom Hanks transforming to a child to adult
overnight.
Parody or Spoof- Generally A film that
‘takes the mick’ out of another film including sarcasm or stereotyping to
create humor for the audience. Movies such as Scary Movie are a prime example
as they show the humorous side to horror
film.
Romantic Comedy- Involves a pair falling In
and out of love , which capture the social interactions and sexual tensions
between the pair , along the ride. The movie generally includes ‘boy gets
girl’ ‘boy looses girl ‘ boy wins girl
back’. It’s a Boy Girl thing is an example
of a rom-com.
1895–1930
Comedy was first popularized in the late
1800’s involving the visual humor of Slapstick and Burlesque. Charlie Chaplin
was the main protagonist of the era promoting his famous Bowler hat and walking
stick. In the 1920’s a popular trend came to light , Animated Comedy in the
form f cartoons. Such films involved characters such a Mickey Mouse, Donald
Duck , Betty Boop and Felix The Cat.
1930-1950
As the end of the 1920’s approached, so
did the introduction of sound movies. Humor was now extracted through verbal
humor (jokes ect…) as well as on screen humor. As the 1930’s progressed film
comedians W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy took over the comedy scene with the
enabling of sound effects to enhance their visual humor, this introduced these
lucky chaps into the film industry and from then on their name was widely
recognized.
1960-1980
As
the next decade loomed the film industry saw a wider range of stars introduced
to comedy films such as Peter Sellers, finding success in his first American
comedy The Pink Panther. A new category of comedy materialized to the end of
the 1950’s as Dark humor and more
serious themes had begun to emerge, including satire and social commentary.
Sexual themes were also presented
To the public which would of been forbidden
only a few years earlier.
Wednesday 2 October 2013
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