The comedy genre is a genre popular not just in film but in TV as well. Directors such as Woody Allen, Ben Stiller, and Adam McKay have been able to dominate this genre of film.
A main reason for why this genre is one of the top genres in the film industry is because it can appeal to many different ages. Starting off with the youngest age of audiences, children also enjoy watching comedic movies. A movie such as Despicable Me is a movie targeted towards children which holds the title of the highest grossing animated film bringing in $3.7 dollars at the global box office. However, the premiere target audience for comedies however is intended for teenagers or young adults (ages 15-24).
On top of humor being one of the main factors to the content in a comedy, comedies tend to consist of characters that are exaggerated. An example of this could be Adam Sandler playing the role of Happy Gilmore in the movie Happy Gilmore. In the movie, Adam Sandler portrayed the main character (Happy) where his personality was exaggerated to have major anger issues. This exaggeration provided a lot of comedic elements such as when Happy was yelling at the ball made it funny because the average person would not be yelling and cursing at a golf ball. Another factor to the content of comedy films is that the movies usually focus on just one main character. In this case, Happy Gilmore was the one main character and the whole production followed his story.
There are many different sub-genres in the realm of comedies such as buddy buddy comedy. This type of comedy involved two types of characters that usually contrast each other. For example in the movie Central Intelligence, this movie involved two characters, Bob Stone and Calvin Joyner, who contrasted each other in personalities. Bob Stone was more laidback and ready for everything while Calvin Joyner is much more uptight. This contrast of characters allows for opportunities of many comedic commentary between the two characters as they go on a quest figuring out how to deal with their contrasting personalities. Other popular genres include bathroom comedy, sex comedy, straight comedy, slapstick comedy, and more.
One of the more important production techniques to a comedy involved the matching transition technique. This technique is used in comedy to provide a comedic change of events. For example when looking at the image provided, it has at the beginning a guy just in his bed alone but all of a sudden the transition is matched with the guy in the same position but now there is another guy next to him. This sequence provides for some comedy because it shows how the guy that was in his bed by himself has done absolutely nothing and probably didn't even noticed that there was now someone else next to him since he was so consumed of his phone.
A big marketing strategy for comedies compared to other genres is that comedy focuses heavily on promoting the stars in the films. The poster from the movie Elf showcases just how much star power is used in advertising comedies. The poster reads, "Will Ferrell with James Caan". This demonstrates the impact of star power in marketing comedies because the poster has a picture of Will Ferrell and also has his name in a big font. Comedies also make great date night movies for teens. A movie such as DUFF depicts the high school scene in a funny light making this film relatable to teenagers and easy to market.
Tommy boy is a movie telling the story about the main character Farley who is socially and emotionally immature. Farley, whose dad was recently deceased in the beginning of the film, is given an executive job at the families auto part plant. Once the father dies, Farley has to prove to the bank that the companies new division will be proven successful. To prove this Tommy goes on the road with his fathers sycophantic assistant Richard. What makes this film illustrate comedy is that this uses the buddy buddy technique. Farley and Richard are both completely different types of characters as Farley is socially awkward and goofy while Richard is very strict and and stiff. Together, the two make a hilarious duo watching Richard put up with Farley's silly ways. In terms of looking at the production aspects of the film, one part that stands out is the sound. In the cow tipping scene, the sound effects of the mud and heard of stampeding cows make the scene much more over exaggerated and much more funny.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a film that follows the story of Alexander and his family where they have (like what the title says) a very bad day. The movie starts off with just Alexander have a bad day and when he confronts his family they give him little sympathy. Following this, Alexander learns that in fact each of his family members have a very bad day following when Alexander had his bad day. The content in this comedy consists of events that are usually unlikely however not impossible to happen in real everyday life such as destroying a car in a driving test or jumping up to touch a banner in celebration but instead by accidentally breaking what the banner was attached to. This sense of realistic events helps contribute to the comedic elements. Since a lot of bad sequences are happening throughout the movie, the production of stunts and effects needed to be used. For example when the trophy case broke there were little flashes of lights emphasizing how big of a deal this was. The sound effect was also very loud. Along with this the creation of this stunt and the timing of it provides a sense of suspense even though it is obvious that the result will not be good.
