Comedy

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. Also, films in this style typically have a happy ending. One of the oldest genres in film, some of the very first silent movies were comedies. Comedy, unlike other film genre, puts much more focus on individual stars, with many former stand-up comic transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. While many comedic films are lighthearted stories with no intent other than to amuse, others contain political or social commentary (such as Wag the Dog and Man of the Year). The following are various sub-genres of comedy: Comedic films began to appear in significant numbers during the era of silent films, roughly 1895 to 1930. The visual humor of these silent films relied on slapstick and burlesque. A very early comedy short was Watering the Gardener (1895) by the Lumière brothers. In American film, the most prominent comic actors of the silent era were Charlie Chaplin (although born in England, his...