MOVIE HUMOR

Because they are not language-dependent, silent movies have a universal appeal that the talkies don’t have. For example, every year in Gabrovo, Bulgaria, there is a humor festival in which a large percentage of the town members put on their derby hats and oversized pants and shoes, pick up their canes, and go about the city turning square corners like Charlie Chaplin did. Other icons of the silent films include Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., the Keystone Kops, and Fatty Arbuckle. In vaudeville, Buster Keaton was the human mop who never smiled. He also never smiled in movies, even when a side of a house came falling down around his ears.

In the field of movie humor, Mel Brooks was very creative and insightful. In Blazing Saddles (1974), after a bunch of cowboys have beans for dinner they have a farting contest. Young Frankenstein (1974) is about the grandson of the infamous scientist. He tries to get back his good name by pronouncing his name “Frahnkensteen” and by teaching his monster to dance in top hat and tails. In Blazing Saddles (1974), after a bunch of cowboys have beans for dinner they have a farting contest. Young Frankenstein(1974) is about the grandson of the infamous scientist. He tries to get back his good name by pronouncing his name “Frahnkensteen” and by teaching his monster to dance in top hat and tails. Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety (1977) spoofs Alfred Hitchcock-type thrillers. His Spaceballs (1987) spoofs such space epics as Star Wars (1977). In his History of the World, Part I (1981), Brooks plays the roles of Moses, Louis XIV, and Comicus, a “stand-up philosopher” who can’t get a job and so has to work as a waiter, asking at the Last Supper, “Are you all together, or is it separate checks?”

Humorous quest stories can be as realistic as Biloxi Blues (1988), the autobiographical story of Neil Simon’s 1945 conscription into the army, or as ridiculous as Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) in which Pee-wee Herman goes searching for his lost bicycle. Screwball comedies are the zany but romantic movies that were produced during the Depression and on into the early 1940s. Virtually all screwball comedies included a male-female conflict, with one or both of them being rich. Therefore the screwball comedy was always set in the elegant surroundings of the idle rich, with occasional visits to the poorer sides of life. Modern screwball comedies, like the earlier screwball comedies, are based on the slapstick relationships that can occur in the battle of the sexes. They include Some Like It Hot (1959), Tootsie(1982), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), War of the Roses (1989), and Arthur(1981). The rich theme can be seen in Trading Places (1983). Roxanne (1987) is a parody of Cyrano de Bergerac. Men in Black (1997) parodies the whole genre of movies about secret government agencies and aliens from outer space. Airplane (1980) parodies the disaster movies that were produced in the 1970s. When Leslie Nielsen asks Robert Hays if he can fly the plane, Hays responds, “Surely you can’t be serious?” Nielson responds, “Don’t call me Shirley.”

Caddyshack (1980) is a parody not so much of other movies as of the game of golf itself. In the same way, Stir Crazy (1980) contains much prison humor. Bull Durham (1988) is filled with baseball humor. And Analyze This (1999) has humor about psychiatric counseling. Woody Allen’s Bullets over Broadway (1994), Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys(1975), and Some Like it Hot (1959), are filled with inside jokes about show business. The Pink Panther(1964), The Naked Gun (1988), Fargo (1996), and Pulp Fiction(1994) are detective spoofs. The Police Academy films (1984) are police spoofs. Inglourious Basterds (2009) is a parody of war movies.

Don and Alleen Nilsen’s Humor PowerPoints: https://aath.memberclicks.net/don-and-alleen-power-points