The History of Comedy

History of Comedy Comedy dates back to the era of silent film in 1895 where it first began

to be shown in television programme.With the absence of dialogue/speech it was very difficult for comedy to come across and between the years 1895 and 1930 silent film comedy relied heavily on slapstick and burlesque humour.

Burlesque is theatrical entertainment which includes comical sketches and parodies aimed at an adult audience due to the explicit scenes that were shown, these included stripteases.

Slapstick is quite different to burlesque as this includes very energetic comical conventions such as chases, collisions and very often practical jokes were played.

Slapstick 1895 The first known silent comedy film was called “Watering the

Gardener” by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. It was the first known slapstick comedy and it only lasted 49 seconds. The film was about a gardener who was watering his plants when a boy jumped on the hose which stopped the water flowing through the nozzle. The gardener looks at the nozzle and puts it towards his face. As he does this the boy steps off the hose and the water flows through and soaks the gardener. The gardener then chases the boy and spanks him.

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Charlie Chaplin 1914

Charlie Chaplin was the master of slapstick, he revolutionised the slapstick era by self directing and creating his comedy films. Chaplin was most famous for his slapstick acrobatics which was unique in his styles when portraying to an audience. Instead of making something artficial happen, he would walk around in an environment until something natural occurred. His first slapstick comedy film was in 1914 and was called “Making A Living.” It was about a swindler who stole a photo and claimed it was his own and the rest of the film is about him being chased including scenes where the chaser is caught in bed with another mans wife.

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1930-50’s Comedy The silent film era was growing out of fashion due to the addition

of dialogue and advanced technology meant that comedy was taken to a new level. Verbal humour was used more and more and Slapstick was used less and less. Verbal humour consisted of onscreen puns, innuendos and parodies. One of the first directors to use verbal humour was William Fields. He used many jokes and puns in his films such as “My Little Chickadee” he used the line “Whilst travelling through the Andes mountains, we lost our corkscrew. Had to live on food and water for several days!” The pun immediately referring to their absence of their bottle opener, they were forced to eat food and drink water.

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1960’s ComedyDuring the 1960s there was a increased number

of broad, star packed comedies including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) and The Great Race (1965). The Pink Panther was one of the most successful films in 1960’s comedy

Timeline from 1970’s Onwards

1980s-1990s

1990s-2000s

Summary of Timeline

Popular Comedies of today

Popular Comedy Actors of today