Conventions of a Comedy

A comedy is a genre of film which is professional entertainment used with jokes and sketches in order to make an audience laugh. There are generally no rules which a comedy follows apart from to make the audience laugh. The one thing which the director and audience have to understand before making/watching the film is that what one person find funny another will cringe at. There are three types of comedy which are slapstick, physical movement and gestures such as clowns, dark humor, deals with disturbing subjects such as murder, and wit or wordplay, the manipulation of words and phrases like puns usually aimed at the more educated person.


Common conventions used in a typical British comedy is that a comedy is always set in bright places so that the atmosphere is light and happy and to create a realistic environment, because of this most scenes are filmed in the daytime. Dialogue is also usually loud and clear to make sure it can be heard and laughed at. A lot of edited sound effects are also used to make emphasis on certain scenes and sketches. Props are also an important part of comedies, mainly dangerous props or things that can just go wrong very easily such as riding a bike or eating a cake.


Characters in a comedy are usually quite idiotic and dumb so the contrast between them and "normal" people are huge and very noticeable and emphasizes their stupidity. Other people such as very clever people or "nerds" are often used because stereo typically they are the most socially awkward people and unaware of social boundaries. The main form of comedy these type of characters used is sarcasm.