Comedy Applied (Cross Genre Study)

From mediaartiststudio

1 Synopsis
2 Comedy in Film
3 Joke Formulas
4 Edgar Wright

[edit] Synopsis

Through using theories of how comedy works and from viewing many comedy, action, sci-fi, drama, horror, and other types of films, I truly believe that comedy shines through most when it's not condensed and thus it is ideal to apply it onto other genres rather than over saturating humor to a point where it’s always expected. When humor is unexpected, it is much more powerful. When a horror movie throws a punch line in after 8 minutes, it’s relieving and, because it catches you off guard, the joke doesn’t have to be extremely funny. Humor, in an action movie, is not only meant to achieve comic relief but to set a softer mood. But it doesn’t have to make the movie fluffy. Dark comedies or black comedies often use sick humor that keeps you from the depression of the otherwise despairing and cheerless story, but at the same time the “sickness” of the joke keeps you in the right mind frame for the movie. On the other hand, parodies that are suffocating in joke after joke have no depth and are generally designed for people with sheet thin attention spans—either that or the humor must be ridiculously funny to continuously surprise the viewer. For these reasons, I believe comedy is most appealing when applied to other genres rather than pure.

[edit] Comedy in Film

In the book Writing the Comedy Film, Stuart Voytilla and Scot Petri discuss six tenets of comedy.

Tenet 1: Comedy is Conflict and Collision
Tenet 2: Comedy is Conviction
Tenet 3: Comedy is Deception
Tenet 4: Comedy is Wish-Fulfillment and Worst Fear
Tenet 5: Comedy is Truth
Tenet 6: Comedy is Chaos and Anarchy

This book also explains 10 structures of comedy films.

Comic Structure 1 – The Fish-Out-of-Water
Comic Structure 2 – Romantic Comedy
Comic Structure 3 – The Sports Comedy
Comic Structure 4 – The Crime/Caper Comedy
Comic Structure 5 – The Military Comedy
Comic Structure 6 – The Teen/Coming-of-Age Comedy
Comic Structure 7 – Ensemble Comedy
Comic Structure 8 – Farce
Comic Structure 9 – Black Comedy
Comic Structure 10 – Satire, Parody & Mockumentary

Voytilla, Stuart, and Scott Petri. Writing the Comedy Film. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Production, 2003.

[edit] Joke Formulas

In the book How to Be Funny, Steve Allen writes about different formulas for jokes.

1. The Play on Words
2. The Reverse Formula
3. The Exaggeration Formula
4. The Implication Formula
5. The “I’m not so dumb” Formula
6. The Visualization Formula
7. The Juggling Formula
8. The Random Rhyme Formula

Allen, Steve, and Jane Wollman. How to Be Funny. McGraw Hill, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987.

[edit] Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright.

Edgar Wright (18 april 1974) is a director from Poole, Dorset, England, UK. He is famous for his cross-genre comedy films that make up the "Blood and Ice Cream" trilogy--this includes Shaun of the Dead (a horror zombie comedy), Hot Fuzz (a police action comedy) and the soon to come science fiction comedy.

[edit] Trivia

Birthname: Edgar Howard Wright jr.

Height: 5'8"

[edit] Filmography

Director

Don't {Grindhouse fake commercial} (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Forced Hilarity (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Spaced (1999-2001)
more less famous works

Writer

Don't {Grindhouse fake commercial} (2007)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Forced Hilarity (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
more less famous works

[edit] Future Endeavours

The famous british show "Spaced" will be recreated in this American version called "Spaced". He will be directing "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" starring Michael Cera. Two other movies announced to be directed by Wright are "Them" and "Ant-Man".