East is east is a social situation conflict comedy but includes slapstick and gross-out within it. The scene we analyzed was when the 2 ‘ugly’ girls and their parents were invited to the khans’ house. The scene starts with the youngest child running into the house and announcing that the guests were here. ‘Mum, the paki’s are here’ is how he refers to them, but what makes it funny is that he’s the same as them and doesn’t think of himself as the same. He doesn’t realize that he’s even though he’s referring to them he’s also making people laugh at him.
Screwball comedy is another type. They are often Romantic comedies with added chaos. Films such as Runaway Bride and Notting hill fall in to this category. The typical plot of a screwball is: couples who play hard to get towards each other, tensions between them are shown as verbal arguments and differences in opinion result in these too. However after a chaotic middle to the story, the film often ends with the couple together at last. Visual gags are also often included in screwball comedies. In the film ‘Runaway bride’ we found that the plot runs just like the typical screwball, Julia Roberts – the leading actress who is known to act in this kind of comedy, portrayed her role well.
The scene we watched was that of her getting married to the main male role in the film. This however, was no different to any of her previous ‘marriages’. The chaotic way in which she got out of the ceremony was intended to be funny. This was created by adding point of view shots by the camera from her point of view and the suspense built up as she walked up the aisle. The audience was waiting for the dramatic runaway of the well known ‘runaway bride’ as her previous fiancés and family stared with their beady eyes as she glided. Her great escape was the main point of the film as she climbed through windows in her gigantic dress and jumped onto an awaiting carriage - a delivery van. The unlikely ness of this to happen in a realistic situation was what made the film a hit with its comedy.
Situation comedy is a comedy in which a lot is going on in one environment. It includes bonding or arguments with family or partners and is more realistic then most other subgenres of comedy.
Many comedies are known as ‘black’ comedies’ or Satires. These types usually concentrate on more serious issues such as war, death and illnesses. They involve issues which are otherwise ignored and they also create awareness. Dr. strange love is a type of satire which concentrates on ‘the cold war’. It involves a serious attack on a particular society and its values. This concentrates on verbal humour. Yet in this case we are not laughing at the stupidity within the tone, but the fact that such serious issues are dealt with in such a lame manner.
Spoofs are also placed into the comedy genre. They concentrate on other specific films with a more serious plot and mock them. They usually concentrate on well known jokes such as making blondes look dumb and obvious mistakes. Scary movie is a spoof; it concentrates on the mocking of the ‘scream’ collection. It does this by identifying obvious ‘dumb’ moments and making the audience aware of them. ‘Not another teen movie’ – this is also a spoof comedy and concentrates on the makings of teen comedies. These are often set in high schools and so spoofs of teenage comedies concentrate on clear facts included in them, such as cheerleading. Spoofs concentrate on showing the audience their own feelings and thoughts on particular types of comedies.
A comedy is not just a genre like the rest but it contains many sub genres within it and combined they form one genre called comedy. it is intended to make its audience laugh by including gags and unrealistic settings. All of these things combined achieve this and bring the comedy genre up to become a hit.
By Areeba
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