Movies

Visual Humor

Charlie Chaplin is best known for being a master of visual humor. From his curious waddle to his small moustache and oversized shoes, his impressive acts of physical comedy are the very heart and soul of his films. The visual comedy of his films begins with his appearance. In all three of the films we watched, Chaplin was dressed in his customary suit and hat, wearing his vastly oversized shoes, and sporting his small moustache and a cane. His appearance is then further accentuated by his supporting actors, namely Eric Campbell, whose large proportions are augmented by camera work to make Chaplin look like an even smaller figure. Eric Campbell's appearance is also a source of visual humor in the films; his eyebrows are often made-up to be very large and strikingly-shaped, and he often has a very long beard. While the actors' appearance enhances the comedy therein, much of the movies' real entertainment derives from the slapstick antics of Chaplin. In "The Immigrant," he is sent sliding back and forth across the mess room on the ship, as well as his method of eating beans one-at-a-time in the restaraunt scene later in the film are both amusing. In "The Count," the foodfight he gets in and the following chase scene, with substantial slipping and sliding about the dance floor ensuing, leaves the audience with a huge grin on their face. Finally, in "Easy Street," Chaplin's encounters with the bullying menace of Eric Campbell's character result in tremendous slapstick moments such as the futile efforts of Chaplin to knock his foe unconscious with his billy club, or his running in and out of the windows or rolling over and then back under the bed to escape his opponent give the viewer a unique brand of comic hero; a dancing-coward who actually does confront their problem--while fleeing from it.

Verbal Humor

As silent films, the verbal humor of Charlie Chaplin's work is not as readily apparent. There are however some elements of verbal humor to be found within these movies. While the preacher in the beginning of "Easy Street" is giving his sermon, the viewer can hear incomprehensible mumbling. The humor of this situation is the complete irrelevance of whatever it is that this preacher is saying. It is, in some fashion, burlesque; an important or dignified person being presented in an unimportant or undignified way. Personally, we also found the subtitle "Watermelons" quite amusing during the dinner scene in "The Count." The humor of this rather simple statement stems partially from its spontaneity and simplicity, but also from the wonder and anticipation of what could possibly be about to happen.

 

Visual Humor

There are very few instances in It Happened One Night that use visual humor exclusivly. Most of the movie is a combination of both visual and verbal humor. Instead of examining visual humor exclusivly we will look at scenes that use primarily visual humor. One of the best examples in It Happened One Night when Peter and Ellie are going to hitchhike. Peter brags that he knows everything about hitchhiking and denomstrates several diffrent ways to hail a car. Once he starts attempting to hitch a ride he winds up flailling his thumb in vain as several cars pass by. Ellie then proceeds to stop the next car that travels down the road by simply showing a little leg. Even if you missed Peter bragging that he knows everything about hitchhiking it would still be humorous to watch him fail misserably only to have Ellie succeed with no effort.

Verbal Humor

Scenes using exclusivly verbal humor are more common in It Happened One Night. There are two instances near the end of the movie that rely on verbal humor. When Peter meets with Ellie's father about reimbursment for returning her he refuses the reward and says all he wants is $39.60 as compensation for the money he spent. As he is leaving with his check Ellie's father asks him if he loves his daughter to which Peter responds " A guy that'd fall in love with your daughter should have his head examined."(Imsdb), Ellie's father continues to push the question until, finally, as Peter is walking out the door he finally says " Yes! But don't hold that against me. I'm a little screwy myself."(Imsbd). The visual part of this scene helps inforce the comedy of the scene, but doesn't provide any real humor on its own. At the very end of the movie a couple that owns an auto camp is talking about a couple staying there. The wife remarks that she had to bring them a rope and a blanket, and the husband says he brought them a toy trumpet. The humor in this scene derives from the audiences knowing that Peter referred to the blanket that seperated his and Ellie's bed as the Walls of Jericho. The audience does get to see a blanket fall to the ground and then the lights in the room go out, but that is not increadibly important to the humor in the final scene. Overall the combination of Visual and Verbal humor reigns supreme in It Happened One Night. Although there are scenes that rely almost entirely on one or the other, both are there and really make each scene a complete whole.

the wording of all quotes from the It Happened One Night was taken from the script available at
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/It-Happened-One-Night.html

Visual Humor

Far more common than any other type of humor in this movie is slapstick. The film gets slapstick in almost right away with Harpo taking off one costume only to reveal another costume beneath it. Harpo, in fact, dominates the visual humor of the film with scenes like the one just mentioned, his panio and harp playing on the boat, his repeated knocking of people unconscious, and the grand finale during the opera when he cleverly dodges the police chasing him by climbing and swinging all throughout the back-stage of the opera-house. Absurdity also plays a role in the visual humor of the film, primarily with the appearance of Groucho. His obviously fake moustache and thick glasses create a ridiculous image. Nearly every scene of visual humor, however, was supplemented with quite a lot of verbal humor, as the Marx brothers rip into everyone, even eachother. For instance, during the highly slapstick scene of the detective searching Groucho's apartment for Chico, Harpo, and Riccardo, he asks Groucho why the table is set for four, to which Groucho responds, "That's nothing, my alarm is set for eight!"

Verbal Humor

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the visual and verbal humor of this movie are closely tied. The Marx brothers are extremely witty and employ copious amounts of wordplay as they mock everyone and everything around them. A major theme of this humor is burlesque of the upper class. None of their characters really fit into the high-society that they are infiltrating, and it is quite clear that this is so. When Chico and Groucho try to negotiate the contract, it is evident that neither of them has any idea of what the contract means or what it should say as they rip off portions of the contract that they dislike, leaving themselves with the signature line and the 'sanity clause.' Another great example of this is when Chico, posing as one of the three famous aviators, is asked to give a speech and tells New York that the first time they tried to fly to America, they got half way there before running out of gasoline and having to go back. Quite a lot of the humor in their one-liners was the element of surprise that they carried. The viewer certainly doesn't expect Groucho to respond to Ms. Claypool's affirmative response to whether she followed him with, "Well stop following me; I'll have you arrested."