This powerpoint travels back in time to explore where the genre comedy originates from, it includes legends such as Charlie Chaplin and Macaulay Culkin.

1. The history of the Genre
Comedy
Crime and gangster
AdventureRomance and drama
War
WesternSci-fi
Action
Horror
Emily Cherry.

2. History of comedy 1895-1930’s.
• History of comedy dates back to the era of silent film in 1895 where it first
began in television programmes. With the absence of sound it made it
difficult for the comedy to transfer to the audience, 1895-1930 silent film
comedy relied on heavy slapstick and burlesque humour.
• Burlesque is theatrical entertainment which includes parodies and comical
sketches mainly aimed at an adult audience which is why explicit scenes
are shown such as stripteases.
• Slapstick includes energetic comical conventions such as collisions, chases,
and often practical jokes.

3. History of comedy 1930-50’s
• Comedy was taken to another level when the silent film era
was ‘growing out of fashion’ and the addition to dialogue
advanced the technology at the time. Verbal humour was now
common whilst slapstick was used less, these verbal humours
consisted of innuendos, onscreen puns and also parodies.
“My little chikadee” used various jokes and puns and because
of this it became very successful.

4. History of comedy 1960s
• Comedy became darker and very serious in films, social
commentary and spoofs were included. These was successful
and were carried on throughout the next decades. The most
popular was ‘Monty Python’, there was surreal comedy
involved to captivate audiences by having consecutive
humorous. ‘The Life Of Brian’ also has this, the surreal
strangeness made it funny and very amusing for the audience.

5. History of comedy 1990
• Home alone was influential for comedy, the
films includes short snippet comedy scenes in
which the boy tries to stop the intruders. This
film includes logical progression unlike ‘Monty
Python’, this is a main influence and
inspiration as modern comedy films involve
romance and sex.

6. History of genre – 2000s and present
• Action comedies had started to fail around the late 2000s mainly because
the competition started to gradually get harder, however a lot of spoofs
created such as scary movie, disaster movie and date movie etc were a
massive hit and a major development.
• Comedies nowadays are specific types usually named as mockumentaries,
spoofs, charades and jests, these are usually humorous including
impersonates, imitates, punctures and also conventions.
• The Austin Power movies are a great example of a world wide loved comedy
mainly because of the crude jokes and the silly impersonate of James Bond.