1. Film Language
The secret of comedy is timing and performance. A person could analyse routines, gags etc. and see how they are used within a narrative feature. It would be interesting to compare a visual gag with a classic suspense sequence. Both involve a careful playoff between what we know as the audience and the awareness displayed by the character. Our pleasure comes from the gleeful anticipation of the humiliation of the comic character or our fear for the hero.
2. Representation
Possibly the most productive approach, analysis of character 'types' and situations should open up comedy films for student analysis. Comedy, like drama, depends on conflicts, in particular between weak and strong characters. Much comedy arises from the success of the weak in deflating the powerful. On the other hand, comedy is also a weapon against fear of the unknown or 'the Other', so that the basis for comedy becomes racism, sexism etc.
3. Audience
The advantage of comedy to producers is that it appeals across all audience groups. However, there are distinct differences in audiences for certain types of comedy. In the UK these are often class differences and age differences. The distinctions were particularly strong in earlier periods when genre production was still possible in British Cinema - e.g. the 1950s with Norman Wisdom (working class) v. the Doctor series (middle class).
4 Institutions
Comedy films may be quite good for studying institution. Historically, various cycles of films can be traced back to their origins in other forms such as music hall, radio and television and in the last twenty years, from club 'stand-up'.
