Since the early 1900s and the invention of motion pictures, the comedy genre has experienced significant changes. Numerous comedy movies lift spirits and allow spectators to escape reality by immersing themselves in laughter. The comedy genre has a rich list of subgenres that allow the viewers to watch all sorts of movies, starting with romantic comedies and ending with black comedies. While some subgenres might not be popular among the majority of people, several subgenres remain prevailing.
When it comes to the history of the comedy genre dates back to 1920, the rise of silent movies. Actors such as Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd portrayed the socioeconomic changes of early 20th-century America in humorous tones, in which modernization, urbanization, and the rise of new, middle-class people changed conventional social norms and habits (Belton 173). These actors are considered to be the ones who established comedy.
Several decades later, the prevailing comedy subgenres were screwball, comedy slapstick, and romantic comedy. The era of screwball is considered 1930, and this subgenre implies a combination of high comedy, like a romantic comedy, and comedy of manners, like low slapstick comedy (Belton 179). In this period, it didn’t rely on clowns who appeared amusing, wore silly outfits, or had a distinct humorous identity (Belton 179). Instead, it pushed passionate men and women who had made a name for themselves in serious theatre into the wild realm of crude slapstick routines.
The period of the 1970s and 1980s can be described through the art of Woody Allen. Allen not only mocked the film characters’ shortcomings, phobias, concerns, and addictions but cast them in a variety of classic genre scenarios ranging from criminal docudramas to comedies (Belton 189). The further decade, the 1990s, can be referred to as the time of family comedies since the most popular movies of this genre included Home Alone, Problem Child, etc. However, there was a shift in the late 1990s and 2000s, where most comedy movies tended to be either ironic romantic comedies or “gross-out comedies” (Belton 194). With the main idea of such movies was to focus on everyday issues while exaggerating and mocking them. Thus, the history of the comedy genre underwent various trends, which could indicate further changes.
Probably one of the most famous comedy subgenres is romantic comedy. In this respect, it is vital to analyze three movies of this subgenre from different times. The first movie that illuminates the given subgenre is His Girl Friday from 1940, another movie that shares the same characteristics is Groundhog Day from 1993. However, the last movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, was released in 2005 and tended to show the shift in romantic comedies. These movies allow the viewer to analyze the main characteristics of comedy and deviations of the subgenre throughout the decades.
The first characteristic of the romantic comedy subgenre is the characters who tend to be opposites. For example, in the first movie, His Girl Friday, Hildy Johnson is transformed into an opinionated, fearless reporter, while Walter Burns is a cunning and manipulative editor of the newspaper (Hawks et al.). Similarly, Groundhog Day maintains the same idea and depicts the sardonic weatherman, Philip Connors, as opposed to Rita Hanson, a woman with a kind soul (Ramis et al.). However, in the recent movie, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, where the main character, Andy, is opposed to the female character, Piedmont, as an introverted individual.
Another characteristic of both the romantic comedy subgenre and the comedy genre is the focus on common problems and their later exaggeration. The first movie, His Girl Friday, concentrates on the struggle of Johnson, who tries not to lose his wife to somebody else. Groundhog Day sheds light on a similar issue, where the main character tries to win the attention of the woman he fell in love with. However, in the last movie, the viewer can see the shift from the common issues that used to be portrayed. In the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the problem of the main character is losing his virginity.
The last characteristic of the given genre and subgenre is the happy ending. While the first two movies have logical happy endings, the previous work, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, tends to use deception before revealing the real finish. For example, in the film His Girl Friday, the two characters have to go through struggles that make them closer, and eventually, the viewer can predict the proposal of Burns. Moreover, in Groundhog Day, the happy ending is achieved when Connors stops deceiving Rita and starts being himself, making the woman fall in love with him (Ramis et al.). Meanwhile, the last movie shows a nontraditional ending of a romantic comedy. Here, before seeing the happiness of the characters, the viewer has to observe their dispute, which could be misleading.
Therefore, the first movies show that there have not been any drastic changes in the evolvement of the romantic comedy subgenre. The film focused on two characters with polar personalities, their everyday problems, and struggles that made them closer in the end. Meanwhile, the last movie shows a shift in the genre. It could indicate the decision to opt for a complex plot with more emotional swings and meaning.
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that while the comedy genre remains popular, some of the subgenres tend to fade away. For example, from the examples above, it is evident that the subgenre of romantic comedy has lost its popularity for decades. While this subgenre was popular between the 1940s and 1990s, the movies from early 2000, such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, indicate the shift towards either screwball or slapstick comedy. On the other hand, some movies, while being titled romantic comedies, tend to belong to entirely different genres, such as drama.
When discussing the state of the comedy genre today, it is interesting that many newly released comedies tend to illuminate the issues of modern society, masking the ideas with the help of humor. For example, while exaggerating the challenges of people who live in a developing country, the movie Borat sheds light on the poor conditions of people’s lives and their daily struggles. In turn, the film Legally Blonde illuminates the issue of unfair treatment of society that judges people by their looks and underestimates their abilities. This could be one of the many reasons why the comedy genre does not lose its popularity. Through the prism of puns, people find it easier to acknowledge issues. American comedy, therefore, does not always serve the objective of laughing but encourages the audience to pay attention to controversial topics.
Hence, the comedy genre is one of the most popular genres. It has a rich history, dating back to the origin of silent movies. Since the early 1900s, the given genre developed several subgenres, the most famous of which are slapstick comedy, romantic comedy, and screwball. While slapstick comedy and screwball maintain their popularity, romantic comedy seems to fade away. From the movies mentioned above, it can be seen that there is a shift from romantic movies to more farce films with exaggerated moments and stories. Moreover, it becomes evident that comedy does not always serve as a laughing matter but tends to pay attention to the acute problems of society.
Works Cited
Belton, John. American Cinema/American Culture. McGraw Hill, 2021.
Hawks, Howard, Charles Lederer, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Charles MacArthur, and Ben Hecht. His Girl Friday. Columbia Pictures, 1940.
Ramis, Harold, Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Brian Doyle-Murray. Groundhog Day. Columbia Pictures, 1993.
Judd Apatow, Lyle Workman, and Bruce Fowler Tom Calderaro. The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Apatow Productions, 2005.