Comedy began in 1895 with silent films that relied on slapstick and burlesque humor. Slapstick involved exaggerated physical comedy like chases and pratfalls, while burlesque used parodies and sketches. Charlie Chaplin was famous for his slapstick films in the 1910s that featured daring stunts and aerobatics. As silent films lost popularity in the 1930s-1950s, comedy films incorporated dialogue and verbal humor like innuendos and parodies. In the 1960s, comedy became darker with social commentary and spoofs, exemplified by the influential Monty Python. Modern comedy encompasses various formats, from sketch shows like Little Britain to films that use humor around alcohol and youthful hijinks like

1. History of Comedy

2. The beginning...
• Comedy started with silent films in 1895
where it started on TV shows.
• They relied on slapstick and burlesque
humour as it was hard to get the comedy
across.
• Slapstick: involves chases and practical jokes.
Very energetic,
• Burlesque: parodies and comical sketches.

3. Slapstick
• The first silent comedy film was called
‘Watering the Gardener’ in 1895 and it was
done by the Lumiere brothers. The sketch was
only 49 seconds long.
• It was very basic and the humour involved
basic acting.

4. Slapstick directors
• Charlie Chaplin is the most famous slapstick
director.
• He was famous for using aerobatics in his
sketches.
• His first slapstick film was in 1914 and it was
called ‘Making A Living’.

5. The next step...
• 1930-50
• Silent films were quickly becoming out of
fashion.
• Now the addition of dialogue moved comedy
films onto the next level.
• Verbal humour consisted of innuendos and
more parodies.

6. 1960’s
• In the early 1960’s comedy became darker,
this included social commentary and more
spoofs.
• The most popular group to do this was Monty
Python. They created well coordinated
comedy films.

7. Present time comedy
• Comedy in the present time has various
different forms. Like Monty Python there are
many others that do sketches. For example,
Little Britain is a hilarious show that is based
around Britain.
• Other films like The Hangover and Superbad
use humour by using alcohol and the antics
that come along with it.