Main Task - 6 - History of chosen genre

In my group, we decided that our film was going to be that of a social comedy, focusing on the comedic aspects of two opposite characters.
As research, I looked into the history of the comedic genre of film.

In my research I found a historic timeline of comedy films, TIMELINE, from this timeline I have chosen pivotal points in history about the genre and how it has changed.

As shown above, the differences in years between each aspect of history, and especially the difference between how films used to be, is the clear reason for the change. As worldwide, life-changing events happened, such as WWII, comedy films began to change. There are 4 main time eras associated with comedy, these eras are labelled for the aspect of comedy which was most prolific. The table below, from the same website as the timeline, shows these eras.

Within all comedy films at least 1 of the 5 main elements for comedy are used. These are: Farce, Situational Comedy, Slapstick, Comedian and Timing. In silent movies, timing and slapstick were the main feature, seeing as there was no sound, the actors and director had to use physical features to make the audience laugh. In modern times, situational comedy is the main one used, however farce is common too. Comedians have been used through-out, Laurel and Hardy were one of the most well known comedy duos and still are, even though they were actors in silent films, now, comedians are placed in films possibly for audiences to know what they're 'going to get' from the film. A well known comedian in a film, means fans of that comedian are going to see it.

While films may have changed from silent to full on blockbusters, there are still elements which have condtinued though time, the comedic element of timing is a feature which is prodominante in all comedy movies, being on of the elements which makes a comedy...well, a comedy.


As a genre, pure comedy films are not known for having a high grossing result in comparison to some genres, especially in the 2000s. The table below shows the top 10 highest grossing pure comedy films (with no cross-genres) with only 1, no.10, being made in the 2000s.

While these are the top GROSSING comedy films in history, opinions on the 'greatest' comedy films is much different. Through research, I saw that the top 5 'greatest comedy films', voted by the hundreds of 'comedy writers, comedy directors, comic actors and stand-up comedians' List here are: 5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail  

4. Annie Hall

3. Monty Python and the Life of Brian

2. Airplane!

1. This is Spinal Tap