We have all seen it done before, either in real life or in the movies. A situation is funny because of the misinterpretation of someone's actions or the complete conflict of what a situation seems to be and what it really is. People come into contact with sight gags all the time. One might be trying to be sneaky and hide something and then when someone looks, one pretends to be doing something else not to get caught. One could also pantomime using an umbrella as a baseball bat. These are both basic forms of sight gags.
Sight gags are an essential part of comedy, especially the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin's time. A sight gag is a visual form of comedy. In this form of comedy, the actors rely on the way the audience perceives the actions on screen for humor. This could include a misunderstanding by characters or a misrepresentation of an everyday object. In order to make the gag work, the actor must use smooth, visible actions to convey his or her point. Noel Carroll outlines six different types of sight gags in the book, Comedy/Cinema/Theory. In this paper, I will talk about each gag and give examples from the three Charlie Chaplin films that we have watched.
The first type of sight gag discussed is the mutual interference. This type of sight gag is set up so that a character in the film misunderstands something that is happening in the scene, however the audience can see both sides of the situation and is aware of the truth. The author says that this "perception of incongruity in an event or situation amuses us, which in turn causes risible sensations - laughter, for example - that we feel in response to humor."(Page 27) This type of sight gag tends to be a favorite in the silent film comedies. One example of this type of sight gag is from the Charlie Chapin film, The Immigrant. In one scene, Chaplin's character is seen taking money from a woman's pocket and is accused of being a pickpocket. The accuser, however, had not seen that Chaplin had put the money in her pocket in the first place. This misunderstanding makes the scene funny when the man tells the woman to check her pockets and she is overjoyed to find money.
The second sight gag discussed is the mimed metaphor, which is when an actor uses pantomime as a gag. For this, the actor uses an object that is very recognizable and pantomimes something that is not its proper use. This is a kind of "visual simile," and is generally used in silent films more than sound films. The mimed metaphor is different from the mutual interface gag in that there are not multiple points of view to consider, they often do not result in mishaps, and commonly deal with objects rather than events. The mimed metaphor is used in the film The Count, in which at one point Chaplin's character uses his cane like a pool cue in order to hit an object off the table.
At the beginning of The Immigrant Chaplin's character is hanging over the side of the boat. The audience gets the impression that he is seasick, however we soon learn that he is actually just fishing. This is a perfect example of switch image. In the beginning, the audience is led to believe one thing, but with the revelation of new details we soon realize that our perception of the situation was wrong, and generally our perception changes to something quite unexpected. This type of sight gag commonly pertains to events, unlike the mimed metaphor, which deals primarily with objects.
The definition of a switch movement sight gag is when "one movement is
transformed into another in one seamless line of movement."(Page 35) With
this technique, it is possible for a character to completely change the way
one action looks by smoothly shifting into another action. There are many examples
of this technique in the Chaplin films we have watched, and often times it is
used to reverse the negative picture of the scene he is in. For instance, in
the film Easy Street, Chaplin is trying to call the police from the phone. Meanwhile,
the villainous man is keeping a close eye on him. In this scene, Chaplin attempts
to distract the villain and make the call. Whenever the man looks at him, he
pretends to be using the phone for something else, like a musical instrument
or a telescope. His plan fails in this scene, but succeeds in The Immigrant
as he uses a similar situation to pick money up off the floor. When he is caught
approaching the floor in this scene he pretends to be tying his shoe or brushing
off his pants.
The next technique must be looked at from two different aspects, the literal
and the metaphorical. This technique is the object analog, which occurs when
the character uses an object for something that it is not intended for. This
is different from the mimed metaphor simply because there is no pantomime necessary
for the object analog. It is important that the audience recognizes "visual
similarities while remaining peripherally aware of their differences."(Page
36) An illustration of this is in Easy Street when the woman carries the stolen
food in her apron and it looks as though she might be carrying a child.
The final gag is one called the solution gag. There is some debate as to whether or not this technique is actually a sight gag or not. The author believes that it is because of the unexpected nature of the situation, along with the ingenious nature that is necessary in order to accomplish victory in a difficult situation. In order to make this gag work, it is necessary to have the immediate reversal of a situation caused by the character doing something that the audience cannot foresee. I believe that the best example from the three Charlie Chaplin films that we saw was from Easy Street. In the scene where Chaplin confronts the villain and is being strangled, Chaplin does something that the audience would not be able to predict; he forces the head of the large man into the lamp post which makes the man sleepy and, thus easier to control.
There are many comedic aspects to a silent film and I believe that these six techniques are excellent examples of how humor can be conveyed to the audience without words. Sight gags tend to suggest the possibility of interpreting a situation in more than one way. The author points out that "the sight gag flies in the face of the prejudice that movies can only brutishly recapitulate from a single point of view what stands before the camera." From the conflicts of interpretation to the literal and metaphoric points of view, it is these things that confuse but amuse us. I am sure that most of us have seen variations of these six basic techniques in both movies and real life. Hopefully with this information one will be able to better understand and appreciate the humor of the sight gags and silent films.
Works Cited
Horton, Andrew S. Comedy/Cinema/Theory. Los Angeles, CA: University of
California Press, 1991.