Genre Research

Comedy Genre

    The Comedy genre continues to be one of the most popular genres in Hollywood since they are media texts created with the intention of making us viewers laugh to provoke enjoyment. Comedies allow us to take a mental break from the harsh reality and tap into an experience we can all relate and laugh to. Why can we do this? Because comedies often exaggerate the setting, characters, action, or body language in a hilarious way to connect with the audience on a deeper level.

    When it comes to content in comedies the plot usually varies because there are a variety of different types of comedies. However, the characters are almost always regular relatable people whether that be to you or someone you know, to create humor. This is seen in the popular show The Office where the setting takes place in a work office but prioritizes includes jokes, sarcasm, puns, and witty banter and is an example of a mixture of a mockumentary (filmed like a documentary) and a sitcom. Comedy content also includes humorous situations which are everyday problems like awkward interactions or bad luck shown in a funny way.  A movie that portrayed this really well was Mean Girls with the social drama involved.

    Noticeable techniques in making films hilarious are seeing the reactions of the characters when something unexpected is happening in the plot since they tend to over exaggerate. In doing so, comedies use bright lighting so that the characters are visibly seen with their over the top expressions, to add comedic effect. 

    Comedies are marketed to different age groups depending on what type of comedy it is, however adult comedies are tailored to market people around the ages of 18-40 years old. Comedy films are very good at making their trailers very engaging. They tend to use the best parts of the film to exaggerate the most humous parts to grab viewers attention.

    An example of a popular comedy is The Hangover created in 2009 by Todd Phillips about these group of friends who go to Las Vegas for a bachelorette party, with the intention of having a great time. They end up getting drugged and going on outrageous adventures like stealing a cop car, stealing Mike Tyson's tiger, getting married to a stranger with a baby, and leaving their friend stuck on the roof of the hotel they are staying at. The conflict in the storyline is that they don't seem to remember anything they did the next day due to the intake of drugs. This film embodies the genre of Comedy because it includes fast paced actions, jokes, and slapstick which is physical comedy. Slapstick includes crashes, falls, or extreme physical actions to gain laughter from an audience. A great example of this is when they were driving their car normally and then started swerving, screaming, and crashing into a truck next to them because the tiger they had stolen woke up and started acting out aggressively in the back of the car.

Pitch Perfect is one of my personal favorite movies, partly because it is a musical comedy and partly because it is a young adult comedy with relatable themes involved. This film is about college girls looking to start an acapella group after a recent event that ruined the previous groups dynamic. In doing so, they collect a group of non-singers and awkward personalities in hopes of winning against the "Treblemakers," their biggest competition. Pitch Perfect is considered a comedy because it focuses on it's large variety of jokes incorporated that most college students would find entertaining. Every character in this movie is used for humor in some sort. For instance, one of the characters name's is Amy but she is plus sized, and so she refers to herself as Fat Amy to create a light hearted tone. This film contains funny moments, awkward scenes, and even humor through their musical performances. 

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