Comedy Film

Comedy Film

A comedy film is a film laced with humor or that may seek to provoke laughter from the audience. Along with drama, horror and science fiction, comedy is one of the largest genres of the medium.

A comedy of manners film satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters. The plot of the comedy is often concerned with an illicit love affair or some other scandal, but is generally less important than its witty and sometimes bawdy dialogue. This form of comedy has a long ancestry, dating back to Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare.

In a fish out of water comedy film the main character, or characters, finds himself in an alien environment and this drives most of the humor in the film. Such films can be portrayals of opposite gender lifestyle, such as in Tootsie (1982); adults swapping roles with a kid, as in Big (1988); a freedom-loving individual fitting into a structured environment, as in Police Academy (1984), and so forth.

A parody or spoof film is a comedy that satirizes other film genres or classic films. Such films employ sarcasm, stereotyping, mockery of scenes from other films, inconsequential violence, and the obviousness of meaning in a character's actions. Examples of this form include Blazing Saddles (1974), Airplane! (1980), and Young Frankenstein (1974).

The anarchic comedy film uses nonsensical, stream-of-consciousness humor which often lampoons some form of authority. Films of this nature stem from a theatrical history of anarchic comedy on the stage and in street performances. Well-known films of this sub-genre include National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

The black comedy is based around normally taboo subjects, including, death, murder, suicide and war. Examples include Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Ladykillers (1955), The Loved One (1965), Monty Python's the Meaning of Life (1983) and The War of the Roses (1989).

Gross-out films are a relatively recent development, and rely heavily on sexual or "toilet" humour. Example of these movies includes American Pie (1999), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Dumb and Dumber (1994).

The romantic comedy sub-genre typically involves the development of a relationship between a man and a woman. The stereotyped plot line follows the "boy-gets-girl", "boy-loses-girl", "boy gets girl back again" sequence. Naturally there are innumerable variants to this plot, and much of the generally light-hearted comedy lies in the social interactions and sexual tensions between the pair. Examples of this style of film include Pretty Woman (1990), It's a Wonderful World (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

It was not uncommon for the early romantic comedy film to also be a screwball comedy film. This form of comedy film was particularly popular during the 1930s and 1940s. There is no consensus definition of this film style, and it is often loosely applied to slapstick or romantic comedy films. Typically it can include a romantic element, an interplay between people of different economic strata, quick and witty repartee, some form of role reversal, and a happy ending. Some examples of the screwball comedy are: It Happened One Night (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), and more recently What's Up, Doc? (1972).

• Social comedy film
• Silent comedy film
• Slapstick film
• Splatstick film
• Teen comedy film
• Tragicomedy and related Black comedy


History
The very first movies to be produced were Thomas Edison's kinetoscope of his assistant Fred Ott in Record of a Sneeze. This could also be considered the first to show a comedic element.

Comedic films began to appear in significant numbers during the era of silent films, prior to the 1930s. These were mainly focused on visual humor, including slapstick and burlesque. A very early comedy short was Watering the Gardener 1895 by the Lumiere Brothers. Prominent clown-style actors of the silent era include Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

A popular trend during the 1920s and afterward was comedy in the form of animated cartoons. Several popular characters of the period received the cartoon treatment. Among these were Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat, and Betty Boop. However the development of the cartoon medium was inhibited by the lack of sound and color.

1930s
Toward the end of the 1920s, the introduction of sound into movies made possible dramatic new film styles and the use of verbal humor. During the 1930s the silent film comedy was replaced by dialogue from film comedians such as the W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. A few studios still clung to the silent film medium, but within three years of 1928 almost all movies were making use of sound. The comedian Charlie Chaplin was one of the last hold-outs, and his films during the 1930s were devoid of dialogue, although they did employ sound effects.

The introduction of sound led to a consolidation of the studios, as the equipment required was too expensive for the smaller studios to afford. The MGM studio became particularly dominant during this period, and they were noted for their comedies among other genres.

Screwball comedies, such as produced by Frank Capra, exhibited a pleasing, idealised climate that portrayed reassuring social values and a certain optimism about everyday life. Movies still included slapstick humor and other physical comedy, but these were now frequently supplemental to the verbal interaction.

Another common comedic production from the 1930s was the short subject. The Three Stooges were particularly prolific in this form, and their studio Columbia produced 190 Three Stooges releases. These non-feature productions only went into decline in the 1950s when they were migrated to the television.

Other notable comedians of this period were Mae West and Jack Benny.

In Britain, film adaptations of stage farces were popular in the early 1930s, while the music hall tradition strongly influenced film comedy into the 1940s with Will Hay and George Formby among the top comedy stars of the time.

1940s
With the entry of the United States into World War II, Hollywood became focused on themes related to the conflict. Comedies portrayed military themes such as service, civil defense, boot-camp and shore-leave. The war-time restrictions on travel made this a boom time for Hollywood, and nearly a quarter of the money spent on attending movies.

Major film comedians of this period included Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Danny Kaye, as well as the comedy teams of Abbot and Costello and Laurel and Hardy.

In Britain, Ealing Studios achieved popular success as well as critical acclaim with a series of films known collectively as the "Ealing comedies", from 1946 to 1956. They usually included a degree of social comment, and featured ensemble casts, which often included Alec Guinness or Stanley Holloway. Among the most famous examples were Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).

The post-war period was an age of reflection on the war, and the emergence of a competing medium, the television. In 1948 the TV began to acquire commercial momentum and by the following year there were nearly a hundred television transmitters in American cities.

1950s
By the 1950s the television industry had become a serious competition for the movie industry. Despite the technological limitations of the TV medium at the time, more and more people chose to stay home to watch the television. The Hollywood studios at first viewed the TV as a threat, and later as a commercial market. Several comedic forms that had previously been a staple of movie theaters transitioned to the TV. Both the short subject and the cartoon now appeared on the TV rather than in the theater, and the "B" movie also found its outlet on the television.

Some Like it Hot won an academy award for best costume and was nominated in several other categories.

The 1950s saw a trend away from family oriented comedies and toward more realistic social situtions. Only the Walt Disney studios continued to steadily release family comedies. The release of comedy films also went into a decline during this decade. In 1947 almost one in five films had been comedic in nature, but by 1954 this was down to ten percent.

Some comedy films began to examine more realistic, mature themes. Marilyn Monroe starred in adult-oriented comedies such as Some Like it Hot (1959). The film themes often avoided social issues, and focused on humor.

This decade saw the decline of past comedy stars and a certain paucity of new talent in Hollywood. Among the few popular new stars during this period were Judy Holliday and the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Lewis followed the legacy of such comedians as Keaton and Harold Lloyd, but his work was not well-received by critics in the United States (in contrast to France where he proved highly popular.)

The British film industry produced a number of highly successful film series, however, including the Doctor series, the St. Trinian's films and the increasingly bawdy Carry on films. John and Roy Boulting also wrote and directed a series of successful satires, including Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right, Jack (1959). As in the U.S., in the next decade much of this talent would move into television.

A number of French comedians were also able to find an English speaking audience in the '50s, including Fernandel and Jacques Tati.

1960s
The next decade saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Great Race (1965). By the middle of the decade, some of the 1950s generation of American comedians, such as Jerry Lewis, went into decline, while Peter Sellers found success with international audiences in his first American film The Pink Panther. The bumbling Inspector Clouseau was a character Sellers would continue to return to over the next decade.

Toward the end of the 1950s, darker humor and more serious themes had begun to emerge that included satire and social commentary. Dr. Strangelove (1964) was a satirical comedy about Cold War paranoia, while The Apartment (1960), Alfie (1966) and The Graduate (1967) featured sexual themes in a way that would have been impossible only a few years previously.

1970s
In 1970 the black comedies Catch 22 and M*A*S*H reflected the anti-war sentiment then prevalent, as well as treating the sensitive topic of suicide. M*A*S*H would be toned down and brought to television in the following decade as a long-running series.

Among the leading lights in comedy films of the next decade were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. Both wrote, produced and acted in their movies. Brooks' style was generally slapstick and zany in nature, often parodying film styles and genres, including Universal horror films (Young Frankenstein), westerns (Blazing Saddles) and Hitchcock films (High Anxiety).

Woody Allen focused on humorous commentary and satire, often based around relationships, as in Annie Hall in 1977 and Manhattan in 1979.

Following his success on film and on Broadway with The Odd Couple playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon would also be prominent in the 1970s, with films like The Sunshine Boys and California Suite.

Other notable film comedians that appeared later in the decade were Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Burt Reynolds.

Most British comedy films of the early 70s were spin-offs of television series, including Dad's Army and On the Buses. The greatest successes, however, came with the films of the Monty Python team, including And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979.

Late in the 1970s a trend toward youth-oriented movies began to emerge, and this was reflected in the comedies. More than half of all movie-goers were under the age of 25, and this resulted in movies such as Animal House, Meatballs, and Kentucky Fried Movie, all in 1978-1979.

1980s
In 1980 the gag-based comedy Airplane!, a spoof of the previous decade's disaster film series was released and paved the way for more of the same including Top Secret! (1984) and the Naked Gun films.

Popular comedy stars in the '80s included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Many had come to prominence on the American TV series Saturday Night Live, including Bill Murray, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. Eddie Murphy made a success of comedy-action films including 48 Hours (1982) and the Beverly Hills Cop series (1984-1993).

The decade also saw the rise of teen comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds. Many of these were based around teenager’s attempts to lose their virginity, a theme that would surface again in the late 1990s.

Also popular were the films of John Hughes, who would become best known for the Home Alone series of the early 1990s. The latter film helped a revival in comedies aimed at a family audience, along with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s a trend emerged toward the release of sequel films based on previously successful productions. Among the sequels were Trail of the Pink Panther, The Great Muppet Caper, and Porky's II. Unfortunately the revenue for sequels sometimes did not satisfy the investment, and the films would often met with criticism.

Other notable comedies of the decade include the gender-swap film Tootsie (1982), Broadcast News (1987), and a brief spate of age-reversal films including Big, 18 Again, Vice Versa and Like Father, Like Son. Also notable were the Police Academy series of broad comedies, produced between 1984 and 1993.

1990s
Popular comedy stars in the 1990s included Jim Carrey (The Mask), Adam Sandler (The Wedding Singer) and Mike Myers (Austin Powers and Wayne's World).

One of the major developments was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film, encouraged by the success of When Harry Met Sally... in 1989. Other examples included Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Clueless (1995) and You've Got Mail (1998) from the U.S., and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999) from the U.K..

Probably more representative of British humour were the working class comedies Brassed Off (1996) and The Full Monty (1997). Other British comedies examined the role of the Asian community in British life, including Bhaji on the Beach (1993), East is East (1999), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Anita and Me (2003).

Some Australian comedies also found an international audience following the 1980s success of Crocodile Dundee. Examples included Strictly Ballroom (1992), Muriel's Wedding (1994) and The Dish (2001).

Another development was the increasing use of "gross-out humour" usually aimed at a younger audience, in films like There's Something About Mary, American Pie and its sequels, and Freddy Got Fingered.

2000s
In mid 2000s the trend of "gross-out" movies is revamping, with adult-oriented comedies picking up the box office. In 2005 several gross-out movies have performed surprisingly well catering to such an adult market, these include Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But serious black comedies (also known as dramatic comedies or dramedies) were performing also well, such as The Weather Man, Broken Flowers and Shopgirl.

Black comedy
Black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is a terrifying comic treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer's comedy Little Murders (1965) is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations. The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor.

Gross-out film
Gross-out films form a sub-genre of comedy movies in which the producers aim to "gross out" their audience with disgusting and disturbing material, such as sexual or "toilet" humour. Since the abolition of the Production Code and its replacent with the MPAA film rating system in the late 1960s, some filmmakers began to experiment with vulgar humor. Early pioneers to the gross-out genre include several John Waters films of the early 1970s, such as Pink Flamingos (1972) and Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974).

The first true "gross-out film" was 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House, which was a great success at the box office. Since the 1980s, gross-out films increased in number, and became the norm for comedy films. Some films of this genre could be aimed at teen audiences (such as Porky's or American Pie) or adult audiences (such as There's Something About Mary or Wedding Crashers).

Mo lei tau is a name given to a type of humour originating from Hong Kong during the late 20th century. It is a phenomenon, which has grown largely from its presentation in modern film media. Its humour arises from the complex interplay of cultural subtleties significant in Hong Kong. Typical constituents of this humour include nonsensical parodies, juxtaposition of contrasts, and sudden surprises in spoken dialog and action.

Semantics
Mo lei tau is perhaps a corruption of (Jyutping: mo4 lei4 tau4), which can be loosely translated as "with no source" but is generally used to mean "makes no sense".

Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films.

The basic plot of a romantic comedy is that two people meet, banter with each other, but despite an attraction obvious to the audience do not become romantically involved because of some internal factor (on the surface, they do not like each other) or an external barrier (one is romantically involved with another person, for instance). At some point, after various comic scenes, they are parted for some reason. One partner or the other then realizes that they are perfect for each other, and (often after some spectacular effort, sometimes termed the Grand Gesture, and/or incredible coincidence) they meet again, they declare undying love for each other, and disappear off into the sunset together.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Of course, there are innumerable variations on this basic plotline. It is not even essential for the two lead characters to end up in each other's arms: My Best Friend's Wedding is a good example.

The basic format of a romantic comedy predates the cinema by centuries. For instance, many of William Shakespeare's plays, such as Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream fall squarely within the bounds of the romantic comedy.

Screwball comedy film
The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring film genres. It first gained prominence in 1934 with It Happened One Night, and although many film scholars would agree that its classic period ended sometime in the early 1940s, elements of the genre have persisted, or have been paid homage to, in contemporary film.

While there is no authoritative list of defining characteristics that comprise the screwball comedy genre, several qualities can be enumerated that tend to frequently appear in films considered to be definitive of the genre (see below). One proposed definition is "a sex comedy without the sex."

Other genres with which screwball comedy is associated include slapstick, situation comedy, and romantic comedy.

Characteristics of classic screwball
• Comedies produced by the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and early 1940s that contain certain story or stylistic elements (mentioned below). Most acknowledge that the screwball comedy had stragglers through the late 1940s and 1950s, but the onset of World War II and the end of the Great Depression undermined some of the themes so necessary to the genre.
• Reverse class snobbery by implying (or the belief that) common folk had better common sense than the wealthy, and was therefore superior to them. Associated with this was the belief that even the wealthy had the potential to exhibit the nobility of ordinary folk.
• Romantic elements depicting a couple that were at once opposites but destined to complement each other. This element provided the dramatic tension to the audience who knew that the pair would eventually admit that the two of them were meant for one another, but wondered how this would come about and under what circumstances.
• The stories almost always revolved around an idle rich socialite who comes into conflict with the guy who has to work for a living (Bringing Up Baby), or has to overcome her family's insistence that the man in her life is unacceptable because of his circumstances (Holiday). While the lifestyles of the wealthy characters are depicted as sumptuous, they often find themselves in less than comfortable situations and are forced to adapt (It Happened One Night).
• Divorce and remarriage (The Awful Truth). Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence of the shift in the American moral code by showing that despite freer attitudes about divorce, marriage wins out because it is ultimately a superior way of life.
• Fast-talking, witty repartee (You Can't Take it With You, His Girl Friday). This stylistic device did not originate in the screwballs (although it may be argued to have reached its zenith in screwball comedy), but can be found in many of the old Hollywood Cycles including the gangster film, journalism, romantic comedies, and others.
• Ridiculous, farcical situations, such as in Bringing Up Baby, in which a socialite (Katherine Hepburn) ensnares an unsuspecting man (Cary Grant) into helping her keep tabs on her brother's pet leopard. Slapstick elements are also frequently present (witness the numerous pratfalls Peter Fonda takes in The Lady Eve).
• Mistaken identity or circumstances in which a simple explanation could clear up matters but the parties involved seem either unable or unwilling to do so (My Favorite Wife and its remake, Move Over, Darling). Sometimes screwball comedies feature male characters cross-dressing, further contributing to the misunderstanding between characters (Bringing Up Baby, I Was a Male War Bride).
• Gender power reversal. Women are often the ones who have power over men in these films. Although the male lead may eventually be the one who resolves the plot's crisis, he is usually still dominated in some part by the female lead at the end of the film (The Lady Eve).

Other films from this period in other genres incorporate elements of the screwball comedy. For example, Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps features the gimmick of a young couple who find themselves handcuffed together and who eventually, almost in spite of themselves, fall in love with one another, and Woody Van Dyke's 1934 detective comedy The Thin Man portrays a witty, urbane couple who trade barbs as they solve mysteries together.

More recent screwball comedies
Various later films are considered by some critics and fans to have revived elements of the classic era screwball comedies. A partial list might include such films as:
• How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), d. Jean Negulesco
• Bell, Book and Candle (1958), d. Richard Quine
• Some Like It Hot (1959), d. Billy Wilder
• The Grass is Greener (1960), d. Stanley Donen
• What's Up, Doc? (1972), d. Peter Bogdanovich
• To Be or Not to Be (1983), d. Alan Johnson (remake of 1942 movie of the same title)
• A Fish Called Wanda (1988), d. Charles Crichton
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), d. Joel and Ethan Coen
• You've Got Mail (1998), d. Nora Ephron
• Two Weeks Notice (2002), d. Marc Lawrence
• Down with Love (2003), d. Peyton Reed
• How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), d. Donald Petrie
• Intolerable Cruelty (2003), d. Joel and Ethan Coen

Elements of classic screwball comedy often found in more recent films which might otherwise simply be classified as romantic comedies include the "battle of the sexes" (Down with Love, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), witty repartee (Down with Love), and the contrast between the wealthy and the middle class (You've Got Mail, Two Weeks Notice). Modern updates on screwball comedy may also sometimes be categorized as black comedy (Intolerable Cruelty, which also features a twist on the classic screwball element of divorce and re-marriage).

The television series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and Gilmore Girls (2000–) have also adapted elements of the screwball comedy genre for the small screen.

Stoner film
A stoner film (or stoner movie) is colloquial term referring to a subgenre of movies depicting the use of marijuana. Typically, such movies show marijuana use in an undiminished, comic, or even positive fashion, earning them a following as cult films. Stoner films are generally made by, and for, stoners. Marijuana use is one of the main themes, and inspires most of the action.

The series of movies in the 1970s starring Cheech and Chong are archetypal "stoner movies." Some anti-drug films like Reefer Madness have also become popular as "stoner movies" because viewers see their anti-drug message as so over the top that the film amounts to self-parody.

Many stoner movies also have certain elements and themes in common.

Often stoner movies revolve—at least in part—around a quest or a mission that the main characters, always well meaning but easily distractible stoners, must embark upon. Usually these quests are altruistic or noble in nature and involve the main characters raising a large sum of money or putting their band back together for some reason.

In Half Baked, Thurgood and his friends must become drug dealers, but only to raise money to bail their wrongly convicted friend Kenny out of jail—not for personal profit. In Rolling Kansas, the protagonists embark upon a journey to find the fabled Magical Marijuana Forest, but again, only to earn enough money to save the main character’s failing business. Similarly, the plot of Dude, Where's My Car? begins with a seemingly self-centered quest to find Jesse’s car but ends in a potentially life threatening mission to save the universe from an alien weapon.

Another almost universal element of stoner movies is sex, or the lack thereof. Stoner movies are irrefutably horny ones, as reflected in the main characters. Beautiful, many times naked women are a staple of the genre. More often than not, the main characters are unsuccessful in love, and the search for it can be their quest. The well-meaning but sexually frustrated male adolescent is a common stereotypical view of the stoner. Female stoner equivalents of the sexually frustrated male stoner are rare—if not entirely absent—from the stoner genre.

These themes are loosely based upon the ideals of the stoner culture’s parent culture, the hippie movement. The origins of free love and the easy-going, warm-hearted, sometimes altruistic lifestyle are firmly rooted in Haight-Ashbury. The idea that one can personify these attitudes, face seemingly insurmountable challenges, smoke a lot of weed and still emerge victorious provided that one’s heart is true and intentions noble is perhaps the most common stoner theme.

Some stoner movies, however, do not share these common elements. “Dazed and Confused,” for example, focuses on an ensemble cast of characters and takes place entirely on the last day of school in a Texas suburb. This day-in-the-life movie does not involve a quest—at least in the sense described above—and is thus unique from most stoner films. Even so “Dazed and Confused” does contain some more common themes, such as adolescent rebellion and the oppressive nature one’s hometown can assume in those adolescent years.

Wacky Comedy film
Wacky comedy or anarchy comedy is a genre of cinema using nonsensical, stream-of-consciousness humor which often lampoons some form of authority. Jokes and visual gags fly fast and furious, usually in a non sequitur manner that eschews narrative for sheer absurdity. No subject is too sacred; no joke too silly. These movies strive for laugh-a-minute pacing and gut-busting guffaws. Though they may be hit-and-miss, the ultimate success or failure of this type of comedy depends on the overall percentage of jokes that amply tickle a viewer's funny bone.

Like farce, wacky comedy uses widely exaggerated characters and situations to provide humor, but unlike farce, where any outrageous event springs from the situation, the gags used in this type of comedy have no narrative context. The gags are often similar to slapstick, but with less emphasis on physical violence and more emphasis on comic antics.

The wacky comedy has its roots in the lowbrow popular stage, namely the circus, minstrel shows, the traveling medicine and Western shows, vaudeville, burlesque, and the music hall. In these venues, especially the last three, comic business came in the form of sketches, which generally had no self-contained narrative. Since the performers needed to get immediate reactions from the audience, any and all appropriate jokes were thrown in these sketches at the expense of telling a story.

This type of moment-by-moment comedy made its way into early film. From the dawn of the medium through the mid-1910s, film comedies either showed one single gag - like the Lumiere Brothers' "L'arroseur arrosé"(The Sprikler Sprinkled)- or, in a one-reeler, showed repetition of the same basic gag - like 1912's "That Fatal Sneeze". The famous comedians of the silent screen started out, in their two-reelers, using disconnected black-out sketches built around one theme (Buster Keaton's The Playhouse, for example), but by the early 1920's they had moved on to more cohesive narrative forms and, thus, abandoned anarchic comedy altogether (although Buster Keaton captured the anarchic spirit with Sherlock, Jr).

It was in the 1930s that the wacky comedy started to blossom, as vaudeville performers raced to the big studios. The Marx Brothers were the kings of anarchic comedy, the proponents of their own brand of no-holds-barred humor captured for prosperity in films like The Cocoanuts, Duck Soup, and Horse Feathers. They had a knack for complex wordplay, double entendres, outrageous slapstick, and being able to walk into a room full of society people and leave the place in shambles. There was also W.C. Fields, a vaudeville comedian who made the switch to film in the early '30s and worked his own twist on the "up-the-society" theme. In such classics as The Bank Dick and Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, Fields perfected an everyman persona who fights the world of henpecking housewives, bumbling bureaucrats, and obnoxious children with made-up words, a shyster's sense of chicanery, and a steady stream of liquor.

The '40s produced Olsen and Johnson, two comedians whose Hellzapoppin manages to spoof Hollywood musicals, the aristocracy, and the entire notion of narrative linearity, and whose Crazy House contains in its first fifteen minutes the wackiest comic business of the decade. Also in this decade, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour started making the casually anarchic farces known as the "Road" pictures. Hurried ad-libbing by all involved made otherwise corny comedies into gems such as Road to Morocco and "Road to Utopia". Bob Hope would later return to the anarchic format in "Son of Paleface."

The '50s saw a general decrease in wacky comedy, although some works of Frank Tashlin (Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?) and Jerry Lewis (The Bellboy) definitely had some anarchic elements, as did the big budget comedy epics of the '60s, especially It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, "The Great Race", and "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines".

When the Monty Python group made a big splash in cinema with such films as Monty Python And The Holy Grail and The Meaning Of Life, they brought down institution after institution with deadly accuracy. Thus, the 1970s became the Golden Age of Anarchic Comedy; as American society spiraled out-of-control and the populace lost faith in the hypocrisies of the government and the church, the general public embraced a style of comedy that wasn't afraid to bite the hand that fed it. Movies such as Bananas, Animal House, The Jerk, and Caddyshack wore a thin veil of narrative over the basic theme of the slobs vs. the snobs and attacked the upper crust of society, while the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team kept the stream-of-consciousness comedy alive with Kentucky Fried Movie and Airplane!.

The surreal styling of humor that mark the wacky comedy still reigned supreme in the comedy of the '90s; as long as there are sacred cows to be mocked and ridiculed, the subgenre will continue to live long and prosper well into the millennium.

Examples:
• Duck Soup
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery