The film Bridesmaids exhibits the use of several principles of “comedy of a genre,” including happy ending, uplifting worldview and magnified disharmony/disorder. Comedy films tend to have happy endings, in which conflicts and challenges are resolved positively, sympathetic protagonists achieve their goals and gain rewards, antagonists have a change of heart or undergo moral conversion or receive due comeuppance, and there is communal and/or familial reconciliation. In Bridesmaids, we see all of these tropes exhibited in the ending - for example, Lillian’s wedding does end up happening successfully, Annie is able to get out of her “low point” and ends up with Officer Rhodes, and Annie and Helen become friends by the end of the film. An uplifting worldview in comedy films promotes a …show more content…
positive attitude toward the world, framing life’s difficulty and duress as grounds for levity and not gravity. Comedy affirms that everything works out as it should in the end, embraces humanism over egocentrism, and charts character’s paths towards personal betterment and wellbeing.
This can be seen throughout Bridesmaids, for example in how Annie is able to move past her fight with her best friend and troubles in her work and personal life. This can also be seen in the scene where Megan visits Annie at home and stages an intervention. Embrace for humanism over egocentrism is also exemplified by how Annie ends up with Rhodes (a better person) instead of Ted (more egocentric). Magnified disharmony, disorder and disturbance commonly issues from exaggerated egocentrism, mishaps, misfortunes and misadventures, misintegration, miscalibration, misunderstandings or imposture. Exaggerated egocentrism is defined as human affairs driven by self-absorption or self-interest. This can be seen in the film such as in the character Ted, who only cares about his own enjoyment, or when Annie and Helen are more focused on competing to be Lillian’s best friend than planning her wedding. Mishaps, misfortunes and misadventures are failures and fiascos caused by intentions, schemes and intrigues that go terribly
wrong. This type of humor is seen multiple times throughout the film, such as when the bridesmaids try to go dress shopping but end up with food poisoning, or when they try to go to Las Vegas, or when Annie and Lillian fight at her bridal shower. Misintegration, also known as “fish out of water,” is when characters are functioning ineptly, awkwardly, or erratically when thrust into alien contexts beyond their ordinary knowledge, competence or comfort zone. Examples of alien contexts could be cross cultures, age groups, professions, supernatural worlds and so on. In Bridesmaids, we can see examples of misintegration in scenes such as when Annie is thrust into an alien context when she tries to navigate Lillian’s new world, such as at the country club or at Helen’s house (cross-social class). Miscalibration is when characters treat a situation or circumstance with either too much or too little seriousness. For example, Annie and Helen take their tennis game with too much seriousness, whereas Megan takes a situation like packing a loaded gun in Dougie’s carry-on with too little seriousness. Imposture are characters who use disguises or false identities to advance goals to create comic slip-ups, extemporaneous fabrications, suspense, and usually embarrassing or dangerous exposure. The only time we see use of imposture is when Annie tries to get into first class on the plane as “Mrs. Iglesias.” Misunderstanding can be both small or large, and are comic complications, confusion or alarm arising from mistaken identity. In Bridesmaids, misunderstanding is not used to create humor.
In the short stories “A Drug Called Tradition,” “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” and “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore” collected in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, author Sherman Alexie uses humor to reflect the life on the Spokane Reservation. In “A Drug Called Tradition,” the story starts with a joke by having Thomas sit down inside a refrigerator in response to Junior’s comment as to why the refrigerator is empty. The Indians are having a party hosted by Thomas, who gets a lot of money from a corporation for leasing some of his land. Alexie’s three second selves, Victor, Junior, and Thomas, later go to the Benjamin Lake and use the drug that Victor brings with him. In “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” Jimmy Many Horses, who suffers from terminal cancer, humorously describes his tumors to his wife, Norma, who cannot bear Jimmy’s humor and leaves him. At the end, Norma comes back to Jimmy because the person she lives with is too serious. In “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore,” Victor and Adrian talk about the basketball stars on the reservation, hoping that someone on the reservation can resist alcohol and develop his or her basketball skills to be a successful ballplayer. The function of Alexie’s humor shifts throughout his stories. In “A Drug Called Tradition,” Alexie’s humor effectively accomplishes one of his goals by obliging readers to reconsider their concepts, while his humor helps his characters improve their situations in “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor.” In “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore,” humor mitigates the characters’ pain and despair. One common function hum...
Although the nursing profession has emerged tremendously since the 19th centuries and many great accomplishments and changes has taken placed over the years, however there were presented issues from the film “Sentimental Women Need Not Apply” that were striking to me as they are still very relevant in both the nursing field and in our society.
Comedy often allows for a subversion of the status quo that is not tolerated in more serious genres. Beginning in the 1930s, the subgenre of screwball comedy presented female characters who were active and desiring, without evoking negative characterizations as "unfeminine" or "trampish." Screwball comedies represent a specific form of romantic comedy that features a complicated situation--or more often a series of complications--centered around a strong-willed, unpredictable female. The comedy is generally physical as well as verbal. Screwball and other forms of romantic comedy do not just reverse the masculine/active, feminine/passive paradigm--which as E. Ann Kaplan notes accomplishes little in terms of change--but instead strengthens the female and weakens the male just enough to put them on more equal footing.
In the movie, the three main types of comedy I recognized were farce, parody, and satire. Farce is comedy designed to provoke the audience into simple, hearty laughter and often uses highly exaggerated or caricatured character types and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations. It also makes use of broad verbal humor and physical horseplay. Some examples of farce in the movie are:
Director Paul Feig that is well known for his works in Freaks and Geeks, The Heat, and I am David worked on the movie Bridesmaids. Bridesmaids is one of the examples of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, where the hero face through certain challenges in life. Annie Walker will be the main character of this movie that portrays the hero’s journey. She who has been having problems throughout her life, goes through hardships in order to fulfill her friend’s happiness. Her mother always tells her that “Hitting bottom is a good thing. Because there’s nowhere to go but up” (Bridesmaid). Without thinking twice Annie tries her fullest to impress her best friend to become the maid of honor. Even though another woman is trying to take her place, still, she heads forward to where it would be the hero’s treasure. In this case, Annie’s treasure would be her friendship. The goal of the hero’s journey would be getting what the hero aims for. This movie clearly illustrates some of the steps in the hero’s journey; Annie’s treasure, her hard life and her rivalry.
Dark humor makes light of a serious and often dreadful situation and it is something that Alexie’s novels are famous for. In The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor: Sherman Alexie's Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Joseph L. Coulumbe writes an article about Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds”(Coulumbe 94). In Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven, there is a short story entitled “The Fun House” where Alexie reveals some of the personal struggles of women living on the reservation. In this story Alexie reveals some of the disrespect and injustice women on the reservation have to endure. The story features Victor’s aunt Nezzy who is watching television with her husband and s...
Bridesmaid is a movie about the competition between the maid of honor Annie and Helen another bridesmaid, over who is the bride Lillian’s best friend. The film reflects how class, gender and sexuality intersect in the real life. As the Rolling stone critics the film “ dudes always fear movies that might shrivel their sexual standing when women prioritize. Man up and see Bridesmaid. You just might learn something.”
When you are seen as a negative person you feel negative, and after the many times Annie almost sabotaged Lilian’s wedding most of the bridal party deemed her a negative person that Lily shouldn’t even bother with. Ultimately Annie’s many freak outs landed her out of the bridal party as well as off the weddings guest list. This devastated her, not only was her friendship falling apart she wasn’t doing so well in the relationship department either and was also being forced to move home after losing her job. For Annie it was like hitting “rock bottom” and she became severely depressed over her foolish actions. On the day of Lilian’s wedding Helen visits Annie looking for Lilian and claims no one can find her, instinctually Annie helps find her. After locating her Annie visits her alone and discovers all the things Lilian I dealing with and how hard it has been for her not having her best friends support. During this scene Annie is able to see through Lily how she really is, a great, loyal friend who will always be there even if it makes her uncomfortable. Annie finally understands what is most important to her and how wrong she has been when she sees Lilian get into her honeymoon limo and drive
Each couple goes through a different scenario that affects marriage during their retreat and individual life journey. Through the scenarios, the audience can tell that money, lack of trust, closed feelings, and cheating breaks marriages apart; Tyler Perry’s writing about these problems creates a message for his audience. Tyler Perry’s combination of comedy and melodrama displays an unexpected climax leading to a soothing or a sad ending for the characters (Hale). This leaves the audience gasping to know what happens next; it introduces new drama for the characters. In addition, The plot structure focuses on “emotional affairs, domestic abuse, near-nervous breakdowns, cancer, and death” (Robeldo). In summary, Tyler Perry’s writing displays the connection between him and the audience, sharing a common lesson learned from watching the
Atwood’s “Happy Endings” retells the same characters stories several times over, never deviating from clichéd gender roles while detailing the pursuit of love and life and a happy ending in the middle class. The predictability of each story and the actions each character carries out in response to specific events is an outline for how most of us carry on with our lives. We’re all looking for the house, the dog, the kids, the white picket fence, and we’d all like to die happy.
The Screwball comedy is a film genre that found its way onto the screens in the early 1930s and lasted till the early 1940s. They were a consequence of the newly adapted censorship law in 1934 that restricted addressing adult content on screen. They therefore incorporated more comedic and creative ways of symbolizing topics such as sex and homosexuality. Screwball comedies were mainly based on plots that had conflict between social classes as their many premise and always had a happy ending which was almost always marriage. This consistent maintenance of the status quo of marriage is a major aspect of feminism depicted in screwball comedies (Heather 26). While advocating for marriage, screwball comedies highlighted the shift in the foundations of marriage and greatly highlighted the growth of feminism in light of a shift in roles and expectations surrounding this institution.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different kinds of marriages and relationships that ultimately result in the same ending. The “Happy Endings” shows that it’s difficult to have complete control over day-to-day events. No matter how hard society tries to achieve the perfect life, it does not always go as planned. It doesn’t matter if the characters are bored and depressed, confused and guilty, or virtuous and lucky; the gradual path of version A is not always in reach.
Comedy differs in the mood it approaches and addresses life. It presents situations which deal with common ground of man’s social experience rather than limits of his behaviour – it is not life in the tragic mode, lived at the difficult and perilous limits of the human condition.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and