Comedy film has been around for over 120 years. The first comedy film ever was created in 1985. It was called Tables Turned on the Gardener. This film was created by Louis Lumière. This was a french director who has created a lot of films from 1895 to 1896. The film was a silent and in black and white. This used slapstick comedy with very exaggerated expressions such as the running and the hitting. Slapstick comedy was the main way that comedy was expressed when comedy films were first starting. Many different huge filmmakers used this such as Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977)
Deadpan comedy was also quite popular in the 1930s with the film The Gay Bride. Deadpan comedy is when they use expressionless characters to show comedy by having them i situations that may be considered unusual or places where they do not fit in. Many modern sitcoms use this form of comedy such as Arrested Development and Brooklyn 99.
Screwball comedy was also really popular between the 1930s-1940s. This became very popular in the great depression along with film noir. This genre can be compared to film noir with some of the conventions that it uses such as a woman usually being rotated around a mans wants and needs. However, at the start of the film it is usually the female who dominates the relationship as the mans masculinity is lost in some way. This usually lead to the man trying to regain his masculinity in some way.
Black or dark comedy is when a typically serious subject matter such as murder, racism, war are talked about comically in a situation and are taken lightly. There are many instances of this in modern day society such as in stand up comedy acts or internet jokes online. One of the most popular instances in film of black or dark comedy is in the film series Monty Python. This is also seen in films such as Blazing Saddles where they discuss racism in a comedic way.
Parody or spoof films were popularised in the 1980s. These focused on taking popular genres at the time and popular franchises such as star wars and putting a comedic value on it. For example, Spaceballs by Mel Brooks is one o the most popular examples of a parody of the Star Wars films. Even films such as Men in Black spoofed the popular genre of Sci-Fi at the time.
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