In my seemingly never-ending quest to fill in the glut of blind spots in moviegoing history, I tackled my first Marx Brothers’ film, 1933’s “Duck Soup.” As some of you may have realized, comedy isn’t my favorite genre simply because it frequently fails to make me laugh. Nevertheless, I continue to watch supposedly rib-tickling films in an effort to develop more of a taste for the genre. While I did find “Duck Soup” amusing, I cannot say I found it funny. “Duck Soup” hardly has a plot to speak of, as it’s a collection of gags and bits from the Marx’s repertoire. The storyline, as it is, focuses on Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx), who has recently been named ruler of Freedonia. Neighboring country Sylvania hires Chicolini (Chico Marx) and Pinky I thought almost every slapstick, physical bit was overlong and drawn-out. Even my favorite bit, the three hats business with Chico, Harpo and a lemonade stand vendor, went on a few beats too long. I also think these would have been aided by some comical music to accompany them. The mirror bit near the end with Groucho and Harpo, which has certainly been copied to no end, is the epitome of this. It lasted for an interminable amount of time, wearing out its welcome, and could have been made funnier by some zany music. Although I didn’t like those aspects of the humor here, the Marx Brothers deserve credit for making such a relentlessly funny movie. The density of gags here is astounding, as they come in seemingly every breath for the entire runtime. Even if a portion of those jokes don’t land, that seems less significant given just how many jokes there are. Nevertheless, like I said, I found “Duck Soup” more amusing than funny. I hardly laughed, though I smiled fairly regularly, because I just didn’t find many of the jokes that hilarious. The brothers certainly showcase their talents, and the movie deserves credit for its verbal wit and nonstop humor. Even if the physical humor didn’t work for me, “Duck Soup” was hardly a waste of time, even though I didn’t think it was the comedy masterpiece that so many moviegoers consider
My least favorite aspect of this play was the ending. The ending confused me and was anticlimactic. It was not funny and not entertaining at all.
There were however something’s that he could improve on. While it may have been acceptable for Ferrell to take a less serious more comedic approach there still should have been some type of sense of seriousness. I felt through watching it that there was some places especially when he called out his wife that there may have been an awkward feeling in the room. You never want to give your speech where you make people in the crowd uncomfortable.
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:
When I saw Everett, Delmar, and Pete together in the opening scene, hiding in the grass with every step, I had the impression that the plot would be amusing since they immediately seemed to resemble The Three Stooges. Every character also appeared as exaggerated and almost unrealistic or too good to be true because they were so funny! For example, at the beginning of the film, they ride on a handcar on the railroad driven by a blind African American man who tells them a prophecy. For me, his prophecy felt so randomly placed to me and I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous! Little did I know, the rest of the film continued to feel this way, but it was a very effective and well-done in adding a comedy to the film. "Big Dan" resembled the cyclops in Homer 's Odyssey, which I found hilarious because not only did he look strange, but his character seemed so exaggerated that I found that he was meant to be this film 's version of the cyclops straightaway. There were other characters, like George Nelson, Homer Stokes, the midget, and the little boy with the gun, that aided in making this story become a more modernized version of the fictitious occurrences within the Odyssey. New ridiculous characters were continually added and discovered as the story progressed, just like the
... hardships in the seventies and eighties, but due to the subdued seriousness through comedy, a larger audience can become aware of desperate situations.
Frank was at first an amateur with silent film-making, but working as an apprentice with producer Henry Cohn, he began more adept at it. He started with gags and comedy humor movies, but the emergence of fil...
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
The first instance of ambiguity between comedy/drama begins directly at the beginning credits of the film, with the brilliant shot of a uniform waltzing party, in carousel motion, or a perfect circle. From my perspective, I was unable to recognize w...
The original film has a lot of things going for it. It has a lot of comedic heavyweights in it, like Ted Knight, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Chevy Chase. The film is a winner with all of its quotable dialogue, great characters, and slapstick humor. In the sequel, only Chevy Chase returned after a lot of pushing on the studio 's part. It was a needless sequel that should not have been made.
... immensity of its horror finally makes him drop the pretense of knowing detachment he has held for so long. As he drunkenly sobs, “What’s funny? What’s so goddamned funny? I don’t get it” (Ch. 2, 23) his lurking humanity becomes evident. The subtly of interplay between The Comedian’s persona, his humanity, and even his hypocrisy strongly support his status as a living person alongside Dr. Manhattan.
...rough what he or she revealed of universal human nature, rather than individual differences, forever changing French theatrical comedies.
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is a political allegory based off the Russian Revolution of 1917, where the author explores the cruel dictatorship of Napoleon, and his comrade Snowballs views on Animalism. The value that both Snowball, and Napoleon share is mainly the factor of pig’s superiority, however, there are attributes they both contrast in; Snowballs goal to create egalitarian communism while Napoleon is in favor of gaining power over the animals.
In fact, English speakers in America clearly differ from those in Britain by tone, delivery, and expression. Since the language differs in these ways based on its local use, it is understandable why the two countries’s humor differ as well. America’s obvious slap-stick and Britain’s blunt irony, differ between their own individual standards, just like their versions of the English language, and continue to change with time. In comparison to the humor used by Hollywood’s original actors in the early fifties, the comedies we are currently exposed to on television today has changed drastically.
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
Most of us have a tendency to regard a clever sense of humor as the distinction of a person who is good hearted and friendly, someone people feel at ease with. They are "life of the party" we always invite and the co-worker who always has a joke. Everyone has the jocular family member that they always look forward to seeing. We remember the kid in school that always made the class break into laughter. Humor is never forgotten when we reminisce and it is just as amusing as it was the first time.