2. When Did It First Start
Comedy first originated in 1895 as silent films.
Silent comedy relied on very strong slapstick or
burlesque humour.
Slapstick comedy includes very energetic
comical conventions such as; collisions, chases
and practical jokes.
Burlesque comedy theatrical entertainment
which includes commercial sketches and
parodies aimed at adults due to explicit scenery.
3. L'Arroseur arrosé
L'Arroseur arrosé was known to play in the
first silent comedy film called “Watering The
Gardener” in 1895. The film was a 49
second sketch about a man who was
watering his garden, when a young boy
stands on the hose to stop the water
supple. The man watering the garden tilts
the hose upwards to figure out why the
water has stop, as he does this the young
boy gets of the hose making the man get
drenched. This is then followed by a chase
afterwards.
4. Charlie Chaplin
16th April 1889 Chaplin was born. Charlie
was famous for his slapstick comedy.
Instead of making something artificial
happen, he would walk around until
something natural happened, which is why
it was funny because it was relatable.
Charlie’s first slapstick comedy film came
out in 1914 called “Making A Living” about
a swindler who stole a photo and claimed
it to be it was his own. The rest of the film
was mainly a chase.
5. How Has Chaplin Influenced Us?
Charlie Chaplin was very clever towards the
way he portrayed his slapstick comedy as he
would include real life events to relate to
everyone. For instance if I were to do a play I
could incorporate someone riding a bike who
had a flat tire as this is a natural occurrence
and Charlie would have used this and
something people can relate to.
6. 1930-1950 Comedy
Towards the end of 1920’s sound was
introduced into movies. During the 1930’s
silent comedies were replaced with dialogue.
Silent comedians such as W.C Fields, who was
very popular, used the arrival of sound to
enhance his comic humour and went onto
great success in talking films. Movies still
included slapstick humour but these were
now frequently replaced with verbal
interactions. By 1950, the television industry
became a serious competition for movies.
Television started to become filled with family-
orientated comedies films.
W.C Fields
7. 1960-1980 Comedy
Towards the end of the 1950s dark humour and more
serious themes had begun to develop, such as
commentary's. During this decade, comedies became
increasingly star-packed. The most popular being Monty
Python and his team and their well coordinated comedy
films. He used surreal comedy to capture the attention of
audiences and he did this by have consecutive humours
scenes. An example of his film is “The Life Of Brian” is an
animated comedy movies based on aliens. In 1980 people
like Eddie Murphy came into comedy, he made his
success doing comedy-action films such as 48 hours.
8. 1990-2010 Comedy
A popular comedy that came out in the 1990s was
“Home Alone.” This movie features a young boy who as
left home alone accidently while his family are on
holiday. During this time two thieves try to break into his
house to steal things. The film includes short humorous
snippets of where the boy tries to stop the intruders.
One of the major developments in comedies during the
1990s was creating romantic comedies such as “When
Harry Met Sally”, in 1989. Parodies remained funny as
well such as “Scary Movie” and its series. By the late
2000s action comedies had started to fail. This was
because the competition started to get harder. However
the humour in most comedy films is tightly connected to
the home culture of the films' creators.
