Comedy films aim to elicit laughter from the audience through humorous situations, exaggerated characters and dialogue. They take a lighthearted approach to drama in order to amuse and entertain viewers. The comedy genre has evolved over time, with silent films relying more on slapstick and visual humor. More recent subgenres like action-comedy, black comedy, and horror-comedy blend comedy with other genres through humorous takes on conventions like action scenes, taboo topics, and horror tropes.

1. Comedy
- Comedy film is a genre of film in which
the main emphasis is on humor. These
films are designed to elicit laughter from
the audience. Comedies are generally
light-hearted dramas and are made to
amuse and entertain the audiences. The
comedy genre often humorously
exaggerates situations, ways of speaking,
or the action and characters
Regular People, but
with accidents Idiots
occuring around
them General
Conventions
Very
Stupid
Smart but
socially
Awkward Fatou Panzout

2. How it all began….
• Comic films began to appear in significant
numbers during the era of silent films, roughly
1895 to 1930. The visual humour of many of
these silent films relied on slapstick
and burlesque. A very early comedy short
was Watering the Gardener (1895) by
the Lumière brothers. In American film, the most
prominent comic actors of the silent era
were Charlie Chaplin (although born in England,
his success was principally in the U.S.), Buster
Keaton and Harold Lloyd. In his native France
and throughout the world, Max Linder was a
major comic feature and might qualify as the first
true film star.
• 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, Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky
Rabbit, and Betty Boop.

3. Old Fashioned is Best !
• "Caddyshack" (1980)
• "Young Frankenstein" (1974)
• "History of the World: Part I"
(1981)
• "Life of Brian" (1979)
• "Monty Python and the Holy
Grail" (1975)
• "A Night at the Opera" (1935)
• "Duck Soup" (1933)
• "Blazing Saddles" (1974)
• "South Park: Bigger, Longer and
Uncut" (1999)
• "Dumb and Dumber" (1994)

4. • Action-Comedy
Subgenre’s
• As it’s names suggests, this sub-genre combines action with
humor. Action-Comedy relies on the characters to bring out
the humor, while the action scenes tend to be less intense
than in the traditional action movie.
• Examples: Beverly Hills Cop, Rush Hour, Hot Fuzz.
• Black-Comedy
• Black Comedy is a sub-genre of both Comedy and Satire.
These films often explore concepts and topics that are
considered taboo. Black Comedy takes topics and situations
that are commonly held as serious and explores them in a
comical way. Because of this approach, Black Comedies
often cause the audience to laugh and feel uncomfortable
simultaneously.
• Examples: Fargo, Harold and Maude, Dr. Strangelove or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
• Horror-Comedy
• Horror-Comedy combines comedy with traditional horror
movie themes and characters. Because of the subject
matter, Horror-Comedy films can cross over into the Black
Comedy sub-genre. Horror-Comedy films aim to scare the
audience, but also provide comical outlets that let the
audience laugh at their fear.
• Examples: Beetlejuice, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead.
• Dramedy
• Dramedy film is a genre that has a dramatic tone, yet has
important elements of comedy. In Dramedys, the amount of
drama and comedy are almost equally balanced. This
balance provides comedic relief for the audience, while still
addressing serious issues.
• Examples:Little Miss Sunshine, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost
in Translation.

5. Hybrids
• Sci-fi comedy
• Sci-fi comedy films, like most hybrid genre of comedy use
the elements of science fiction films to over the top
extremes and exaggerated science fiction stereotypical
characters. Popular examples of these types of films
include Back to the Future, Spaceballs,
Ghostbusters, Evolution, Innerspace, Galaxy Quest, Mars
Attacks!, and Men in Black.
• Military comedy
• Military comedy films involve comic situations in a military
setting. When a film is primarily about the experience of
civilians called into military service and being trained, it may
be referred to as a "service comedy". Military and service
comedies include:
• Buck Privates
• Carry On Sergeant
• Catch-22
• the Flagg and Quirt series
• the Francis (1950 film) series