FILM COMEDY

Comedy is one of the most popular forms in film, a status it has enjoyed since the birth of the medium and across much of the globe. But what exactly is film comedy and what might be the basis of its widespread appeal? This book offers a multi-perspective approach, using a number of different forms of analysis – including formal, social-historical and industrial perspectives – to examine a range of different types of comedy on film, from slapstick to political satire, romantic comedy to gross-out, concluding with a consideration of the role of comedy in films not primarily situated as comedies.

January 2002
208 pages

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Geoff King is Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Brunel University, London. He is the author of Donnie Dark (2007), co-author of Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace (2000) and co-editor of ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces (2002).

‘A very well-organised and highly informed analysis of the subject which manages to be extremely comprehensive in its embrace of comedy theory and the range of styles and approaches worldwide that come within the ever-elastic boundaries of "comedy" as a form. The examples used are wide and diverse, spanning all periods of cinematic history.’
– Paul Wells, Loughborough University

'King weaves comic bits and film plots into a seamless overview of his subject, interlacing sundry perspectives on theories of laughter to create a grand fabric of analysis and practice … King’s work has a scope that interconnects the broad variety shows of comedy, especially in his inclusion of one of the funniest subsets of film comedy, the animated cartoon.’
– Choice

‘Film Comedy provides an intelligent and well-written overview of this broad subject, exploring the broad social context of what makes comedy funny, with references ranging from the Lumière brothers [to] the Farrelly brothers. This could be a beginning of a "serious" look at comedy.’
– Film Ireland

'[The book] takes three approaches, looking at the aesthetic form, the socio-historical and industrial backdrop to a range of traditions ... Nicely illustrated, richly referenced, easily read and usefully supported with detailed bibliography, Film Comedy brings rigour, respect and humour to what is perhaps the most complex genre in Film Studies.'
– Richard Armstrong, The Film Journal