History of the genre

1. History of the Genre
by arne blankenberg
Comedy

2. 1895s-1920s (the Titanic
sinks)
There were a lot of comedy movies appearing during the
silence film area. One of the first comedy shorts was
Watering the Gardener in 1895 by the Lumière brothers. The
most prominent silent film actors of America were Charlie
Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
In the 1920s and afterwards the trend
was going to comedy in form of
animated cartoons, like
Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse,
Betty Boop or Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,
who were one of the first
big cartoon characters.

3. 1930s-1940S (World War ll)
In the 1930s the silent film was replaced by verbal humour
because of the introduction of sound into the film. It was from
comedian like W. C. Fields or the Marx Brothers. The films of
Charlie Chaplin who was one of the last silent film hold-out were
devoid of dialogue in the 1930s although they had sound effects.
While the USA entered in the World War ll Hollywood focused on
the themes about it. Comedies often stood for military themes like
civil defence or boot-camp.
In this time Hollywood spend nearly a quarter on
attending movies.
In 1948 commercial momentum began to acquire
By the television. There were about a hundred
Television transmitter placed in the year after
in the cities of America.

4. 1950S (Disneyland opened)
In this century the television industry began to be a
serious competitor for the film industry. Even the
televisions had technological limitations, that time
people wanted to stay home and watch TV instead of
doing other things. Cartoons and the short subject where
shown on the televisions than in theatres. Film studios
also made more comedy movies
For adults than for the whole family.
During this period there were a few film
stars such as Judy Holliday with the
comedy team phenom of Dean Martin
and Jerry Lewis.

5. 1960S (J.F. Kennedy was shot)
In the 1960s serious topics became
popular, including satire and social
commentary. Lots of films were about dark
humour and sexual themes in ways that it
wouldn’t be possible a few years earlier.

6. 1970s-1980s (Microsoft was
founded)
In the 1970s black comedies like M*A*S*H were
popular and where long-running series on TV.
In this century where a lot of new film stars born like
Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, who wrote, directed and
appeared in their movies. Also successful was Neil
Simon after a carrier in the theatre and
the Broadway with film like
The Sunshine Boys or California Suite,
Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy
and Dan Aykroyd.

7. 1990s-now
British comedies brought the Asian community in British life into
the cinemas, like Bhaji on the Beach or Bend it like Beckham.
’’Stoner’’ comedies, which normally involves two guys who are on
an adventure with drugs-related jokes and crude content, while
random things happen along their journey were and are made
since 1990.
In films there was often
’’gross-out humour’’ used as
well. This is made for young
adults in films like
American Pie or
There’s Something About Mary.