Week 16 & 17

Comedy through the decades

Of course Comedy has changed a lot through the years, what we may find laugh out loud, slap my knee funny now would probably have been thought of as outrageously crude and inappropriate in the 1920s, and we probably find comedies that were made in the 1930s just bore us. Needless to say times change and society twists and changes our views almost every day.


1970s
In the 70s we were bought Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen. After watching the trailer, and comparing it to trailers I have previously looked at from the current era, I could see a huge difference. The comedy element wasn’t pushed into the face, it was a lot more subtle. The narrative was fairly different to what I had usually seen in comedy trailers, there wasn’t really a story line put across, it was just clips from throughout the film with a voice over introducing significant characters. The Mise-en-scene was all very similar and reflected the era very well, although being made in that period obviously contributed to that part of the film anyway. What stood out the most to me was the fact you weren’t shown any ‘funny’ or ‘silly’ clips, something which is now very popular in today’s society.


1980s
The 80s introduced us to Lost in America, Directed by Albert Brooks. Theres quite a change in comedy from the previous film: Annie Hall, which is quite interesting to see seeing as its only 1 decade apart. The comedy is something that connects more with the audience, its more emotional comedy than ‘in your face’ comedy.


1990s
The 90s came with the film The Big Lebowski, Directed by Joel Co en. This trailer came across as a lot more up to date in comparison to the previous two. The trailer met the forms and conventions I had originally found for this specific genre, and unlike the last two trailer, I was shown some ‘funny’ clips that did bring a smirk to my face if not a laugh.


2000s
One of our very popular comedies of the noughties – Anchorman, directed by Adam McKay. I definitely found this the funniest of the trailer out of the lot – though this is probably my age showing. This fell perfectly into the comedy genre for me, it was obvious, it was in your face, it was well portrayed.

After watching each trailer it became very clear of the change in society through the years. People have come to accept inappropriate behaviour as humour and Witt, as opposed to feeling angry and frustrated. I feel that in the earlier decades directors tiptoed a little too much around the idea of comedy. The real change is the intellect that went into the comedies, from the 70s it was humour that would be funny to a more adult audience and the same for the 80s, I feel that comedy has progressively become something that is for anyone with or without much intelligence. It slowly became something simple to watch. Though a lot of comedy is starting to become something enigmatic.