Genre Conventions

The comedy genre is a style of film that's main aim is to make an audience laugh. In a comedy film, the average everyday situation is over exaggerated to make it a comical happening. A comedy film is a film in which the audience can escape the routine of the everyday life and laugh at someone else’s misfortune instead of thinking of their own and use it as a form of escape from their own lives.

Arguably, the comedy stylistic element is never the main focus of a film unlike genres like horror and thrillers which are usually the main dominant focus genre of the film itself and do not require sub-genres to be included to add to the film. This is because comedy being a stylistic element, have to include sub-genre(s) within the narrative structure of the film as a film cannot be based around just comedy as this will create no real story line or narrative structure. Usually, the same sub-genres included in comedy stylistic films which are romance, drama and horror or a combination. These genres being included in more or less every comedy film and therefore, could be argued as being included in the codes and conventions of the ‘comedy genre’.

According to the main codes and conventions of the comedy stylistic, a comedy film usually includes a happy ending as the comedy styling is based around light hearted drama and romance. Examples of these styles of comedy are; ‘Bruce Almighty’ directed by Tom Shadyca, released in 2003 and ‘Forrest Gump’ directed by Robert Zemeckis, released in 1994. Both films are based around a main character's problems with themselves and their lives and how in a comical way, they solve their problems. However, sometimes the comedy used in a film can create a serious consequence and therefore, subverts the comical expectations and turn into another genre, an example of this type of film is ‘Gremlins’ directed by Joe Dante, released in 1984.

My individually created comedy will take a sub-genre form of the comedy stylistic. Slapstick style comedy was very popularly seen in silent films since they didn’t need sound for the comedy to be effective. Additionally, it was very common for foreign actors to be in the films who didn’t speak English. Over exaggerated visual images were very important in this sub-genre due to sound not being an option. Due to this, it was very common for these films to include: aggressive and physical contact, this including painless violence and cruelty to the character (e.g. poking fun of things such as a character falling over and hurting themselves, water soakings and practical jokes.) In the times in which silent films were watched, some of these actions were seen as vulgar (someone’s trousers being pulled down or skirt being blown up, car crashes, etc.) due to them not being socially acceptable in some classes like people from a higher class.

In a lot of comedy films, subverted comedy expectations are used to create surprise within the comedy genre to create a more comical feel. A perfect example of this is ‘The Lady Killers’ directed by Alexander Mackendrick, released in 1955. The film subverts the traditional audience’s expectation due to the fact that a group of male criminals cannot together get away with a crime from an old woman and together, cannot out smart her and eventually, end up killing each other off. The fact that this comedy subverts the audience’s expectations creates additional humour due to everything that happens in the film, being a comical surprise. This is very hard to do in a comedy film due to the traditional codes and conventions being used throughout the years in comedy films and therefore, the audience being able to predict a lot of the comedy which would be in a film. However when used correctly, it creates a more natural kind of comedy in which an audience can genuinely laugh and be humoured by a comedy they have never seen before.