Comedy film

From ArticleWorld

One of the most popular genres of film is the comedy film. As with many of the large genres, there are many sub-genres which can fit into the category of comedy, all of which are designed to amuse the audience. This is done in different ways depending on the type of film but common examples include a continuous gag running throughout the entire film or a stream of shorter, visual gags designed to make the viewer laugh.

Romantic comedy

The romantic comedy first came to the fore in the 1930’s and 40’s. This type of film still continues to be made and enjoyed by many today and in general they revolve around a similar type of plot. The traditional romantic comedy usually has three specific stages where a boy meets a girl, then loses the girl, then wins her back again.

Recently the sub-plots have grown in importance and filmmakers are trying to come up with scenarios which have not been done before, but this is becoming increasingly hard. However, romantic comedies remain very popular and the casting of certain actors, such as Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant often guarantees box office success.

Black comedy

The black comedy is something which has become popular over the past decade. These films tend to deal with serious subjects, such as death, war or a social problem, and add a humorous twist to them. They have been evident for many years, an example being 1944’s Arsenic and Old Lace, but have become less taboo recently.

Gross out comedy

The most recent progression in the field of comedy films is the emergence of the gross out comedy. This is a film which relies heavily on toilet humour and visually off-putting gags. One of the first and most memorable gross out films is There’s Something About Mary, which was swiftly followed in 1999 by American Pie. This type of film remains popular and recent releases try to outdo each other in terms of the level of depravity included in the plot.