Visual humor like slapstick and burlesque were popular in late 1800s comedies. In the early 1900s, silent films were common and comedies began using sound effects. Charlie Chaplin's silent films in the 1900s included some sound effects. Towards the 1950s, darker humor known as black comedy emerged, finding humor in hopeless situations, becoming more popular on TV in the 1970s. Popular comedies of the late 1900s like Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Ferris Bueller's Day Off are still watched today, while the 2000s saw the rise of romantic comedies and gross-out comedies aimed at teenagers.

1. By Oli Searle

2. Late 1800’s

 Visual Humour was the main concept used in 1800
comedies.
 Either Slapstick of Burlesque was a common form of
visual humour.
 In Burlesque they would use certain music to make
us laugh at the unfortunate person who was
probably getting injured in some way.

3. Early 1900’s

 The industry was mainly focussed on producing short
silent films.
 However a variety of sounded aided comedies began to
emerge, with the use of sound effects and occasional
dialogue.
 Charlie Chaplin was famous in the 1900’s for his silent
comedies, although he never used dialogue in his
films, he did include sound effects in some of his films
during the 1930’s.

4. Mid 1900’s

 Towards the end of the 1950’s a darker humour had
emerged, in the form of black comedies. These were
comedies based around finding humour from even the
most hopeless situation.
 In 1970 black comedies started to become more
popular, with so films being transferred to TV for TV
series, such as M*A*S*H.
 Also in Britain various comedies were spin offs from TV
series in the early 1970’s.

5. Late 1900’s

 1980 was a time of popular comedies, many of which
are still popular now!
 Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Ferris Buellers Day
Off were both produced in the late 1900’s and are
still watched now.

6. Early 2000’s

 The emergence of Romantic Comedies, also known
as Rom-Coms.
 Also the introduction of ‘gross out’ comedy, that
aims itself at teenagers and includes embarrassing
and often disturbing situations that shock the
audience.
 Classic examples of this are; When Harry Met
Sally, American Pie and The Inbetweeners.

7. Comedy through the
Years

1895
Maam, May
We Go Out

8. Comedy through the
Years

1936
Modern Times

9. Comedy through the
Years

1970
M*A*S*H

10. Comedy through the
Years

1989
Honey I
Shrunk The
Kids

11. Comedy through the
Years

1991
American
Pie

12. Comedy through the
Years

2011
The
Inbetweeners
Movie