What makes a Comedy film?

So what makes a comedy film?


Majority of people when watching a comedy film expect to be laughing throughout but there is a variety of different types of comedy films. There are 4 main types of comedic film.

                                         Slapstick Comedy

Slapstick originated from a stage device made of sticks that make a loud sound when slapped together. This type of comedy was particular successful during the silent years of film, which then made it unique and laughable at time for it's physical  gags, exaggerated pantomime and harmless violence. A good example of slapstick comedy was Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp'.(1915)





              Screwball Comedy

 This type of comedy became popular amongst the American public during 'The Great Depression'. It is a sub genre of romantic comedy film and was established 1930's to mid 1940's. A popular Screwball film around this time was Frank Carpa's, 'It Happened One Night'.







Black Comedy

This form of comedy was popular in the 1940's. This type of comedy consist of making the audience laugh despite the dark , sinister story line behind the film. A popular black comedy film was Michael Banton's 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.


Parody/Spoof

Parody films do have similarities to Black comedy as they take serious situations and use some slapstick techniques to make their audience laugh. A very successful modern type of this type of movie is the Scary Movie series, which was first in 2000.