| 1 | %%Image selected via Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1571072602068211500 |
| 2 | %%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 4 | [[quoteright:300:[[Film/TheDoctorTakesAWife https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_doctor_takes_a_wife.png]]]] |
| 5 | |
| 6 | [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant No, this doesn't mean what you think.]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The screwball comedy is a very strict story form, first developed during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood: a comedy film -- usually in black and white, although some were made in color -- in which an uptight, repressed, or [[UptightLovesWild otherwise stiff character gets broken out of his or her shell]] by being [[ManicPixieDreamGirl romantically pursued]] by a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} (or a similar character type). It does ''not'' just mean "zany comedy". ''Film/TheProducers'', say, is not a screwball comedy, although it is screwy, ballsy, and very funny. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Screwball comedy is characterized by fast-paced repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage and showing the struggle between economic classes. In other words, a {{parody}} of a RomanticComedy. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Compare {{Farce}}. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ---- |
| 15 | !!Classic screwball comedy examples include (period 1934-1944): |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[index]] |
| 18 | * ''Film/TheAwfulTruth'' |
| 19 | * ''Film/BachelorMother'' |
| 20 | * ''Film/BallOfFire'' |
| 21 | * ''Film/BringingUpBaby'' |
| 22 | * ''Film/{{Carefree}}'' |
| 23 | * ''Film/ChristmasInJuly'' |
| 24 | * ''Film/TheDevilAndMissJones'' |
| 25 | * ''Film/TheDivorceOfLadyX'' |
| 26 | * ''Film/TheDoctorTakesAWife'' |
| 27 | * ''Film/DoubleWedding'' |
| 28 | * ''Film/EasyLiving'' |
| 29 | * ''Film/FoursACrowd'' |
| 30 | * ''Film/TheGayDivorcee'' |
| 31 | * ''Film/HandsAcrossTheTable'' |
| 32 | * ''Film/HisGirlFriday'' (A remake of the play/movie ''Film/TheFrontPage'') |
| 33 | * ''Film/{{Holiday}}'' |
| 34 | * ''Film/IfYouCouldOnlyCook'' |
| 35 | * ''Film/ItHappenedOneNight'' |
| 36 | * ''Film/ItHappenedOn5thAvenue'' |
| 37 | * ''Film/ItsAWonderfulWorld'' |
| 38 | * ''Film/ItsLoveImAfter'' |
| 39 | * ''It Started with Eve'' |
| 40 | * ''Film/TheLadyEve'' |
| 41 | * ''Film/LibeledLady'' |
| 42 | * ''Film/LoveBeforeBreakfast'' |
| 43 | * ''Film/LoveCrazy'' |
| 44 | * ''Film/LoveIsNews'' |
| 45 | * ''Film/TheMadMissManton'' |
| 46 | * ''Film/TheMajorAndTheMinor'' |
| 47 | * ''Film/{{Midnight|1939}}'' |
| 48 | * ''Film/TheMiracleOfMorgansCreek'' |
| 49 | * ''Film/TheMoreTheMerrier'' |
| 50 | * ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith1941'' |
| 51 | * ''Film/MrDeedsGoesToTown'' |
| 52 | * ''Film/MyFavoriteWife'' |
| 53 | * ''Film/MyManGodfrey'' |
| 54 | * ''Film/NothingSacred'' |
| 55 | * ''Film/ThePalmBeachStory'' |
| 56 | * ''Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory'' |
| 57 | * ''Film/ShallWeDance'' |
| 58 | * ''Film/StandIn'' |
| 59 | * ''Film/TheodoraGoesWild'' |
| 60 | * ''Film/ThirdFingerLeftHand'' |
| 61 | * ''Film/ToBeOrNotToBe'' |
| 62 | * ''Film/TooManyHusbands'' |
| 63 | * ''Film/TopHat'' |
| 64 | * ''Film/{{Topper}}'', followed by two sequels. Based on two novels by Thorne Smith, who also wrote the book on which ''Film/IMarriedAWitch'' is based. |
| 65 | * ''Film/TrueConfession'' |
| 66 | * ''Film/TwentiethCentury'' |
| 67 | * ''Theatre/YouCantTakeItWithYou'' |
| 68 | [[/index]] |
| 69 | |
| 70 | !!Later and modern examples of screwball comedy include: |
| 71 | [[index]] |
| 72 | * ''Film/AfterHours'' and ''Film/SomethingWild'' can be seen as darkly [[PostModernism postmodern]] '80s variations of the genre. |
| 73 | * ''Film/Arthur1981'' is about equal parts Creator/PGWodehouse pastiche and screwball pastiche: With the help of a ServileSnarker valet, a FunPersonified LonelyRichKid being pushed into a stuffy ArrangedMarriage finds true love with a working-class woman who loves him for himself. |
| 74 | * ''Film/BennyAndJoon'': A subversion where both people in the romance are loony, and the straight man whose life is turned upside down is Benny, Joon’s brother. |
| 75 | * ''Film/DateNight'' |
| 76 | * ''Film/DinnerForSchmucks'' |
| 77 | * ''Film/DueDate'' |
| 78 | * ''Film/TheHangover'' |
| 79 | * ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' is a non-romantic version, in which uptight, nervous Harold gets broken out of his shell by laid-back Kumar; in other words, if the standard screwball comedy is a parody of the romantic comedy, this one is a parody of a BromanticComedy. [[Film/BringingUpBaby Also, there's a big cat and everything]]. |
| 80 | * ''Film/{{Housesitter}}'' |
| 81 | * ''Film/TheHudsuckerProxy'': Another homage, written and directed by Creator/TheCoenBrothers. |
| 82 | * ''Film/IWasAMaleWarBride'' |
| 83 | * ''Film/KissMeStupid'' |
| 84 | * ''Film/MansFavoriteSport'' |
| 85 | * ''Film/{{Monkey Business|1952}}'': the Creator/CaryGrant/Creator/MarilynMonroe one, not the Creator/MarxBrothers one. |
| 86 | * ''Film/MissPettigrewLivesForADay'': A modern {{pastiche}} of the genre. |
| 87 | * ''Film/OneTwoThree'' |
| 88 | * ''Film/{{Oscar|1991}}'' |
| 89 | * ''Film/PineappleExpress'' |
| 90 | * ''Film/TheProposal'': An uptight woman pretends that she is going to marry her relaxed male assistant. |
| 91 | * ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' and its [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShowLetsDoTheTimeWarpAgain remake]] feature a straight-laced couple being seduced by a transsexual, alien scientist. |
| 92 | * ''Film/RunawayBride'' |
| 93 | * ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'' |
| 94 | * ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' |
| 95 | * ''Film/ASongIsBorn'': A 1948 remake of ''Ball of Fire''. |
| 96 | * ''Film/SpringDreams'': A Japanese version of the format from 1960, with a blustering oaf of a dad, three addle-minded children with complicated love lives, a secretary who makes an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove, bumbling mobsters... |
| 97 | * ''Film/SwitchingChannels'': A remake of ''Film/HisGirlFriday'' (which was a remake of ''Film/TheFrontPage1931''). |
| 98 | * ''Film/UnfaithfullyYours'' |
| 99 | * ''Film/WhatsUpDoc'': Creator/PeterBogdanovich's {{homage}} to the genre. |
| 100 | * ''Film/WhosThatGirl'' draws heavily from the genre, right down to to the big cat riffing ''Bringing Up Baby'' 20 years before ''Harold and Kumar''. |
| 101 | [[/index]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | * ''Film/ThePatsy'' is a 1928 silent comedy starring Creator/MarionDavies that can be regarded as a sort of very early prototype for the genre. |
| 104 | * ''Ticktock'', a ''horror novel'' by Creator/DeanKoontz, is deliberately written as a Screwball Comedy. |
| 105 | * ''Series/DharmaAndGreg'' is a TV {{sitcom}} version. |
| 106 | * ''Literature/MyDarkAndFearsomeQueen'' combines Screwball and BlackComedy with fantasy adventure. |
| 107 | * ''ComicBook/StrangersInParadise'' |
| 108 | * Creator/JohnBelushi co-wrote an unproduced screenplay called ''Noble Rot'', a GenreThrowback to the Screwball Comedies of TheThirties. |
| 109 | * The manga and its anime adaptation ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' by Creator/RumikoTakahashi features a college student infatuated with a sweet-tempered, yet widowed boarding house manager, while having to put up with the madcap tenants. It's like if Creator/HowardHawks created a manga turned into an anime. |
| 110 | * ''Series/GimmeGimmeGimme'' is a non-romantic example (mostly because the male character is homosexual) but has many moments of the two main characters having to BreakTheHaughty out of the other. The male character is a snobbish middle-class struggling actor, and the female character is an under-class ugly FagHag, and the two of them fight over attractive men. |
| 111 | * ''Series/SchittsCreek'' updates many of the tropes from classic screwball comedy, especially in the unfolding romances of CloudCuckoolander Alexis and David and the class-comedy that comes from the Roses' fish-out-of-water antics. One key update is allowing pansexual and flamboyant David to be a protagonist, rather than just a CampGay side character whose sexuality goes unnamed. David's romance with Patrick, in fact, has all the hallmarks of the genre with David breaking the more uptight Patrick out of his shell and much comic bickering between them. There's even an onscreen ShoutOut to the genre when Moira gives David a pep talk in the voice of a 1930s screwball heroine. |
| 112 | -->'''Moira:''' Ah say, don't be a dewdropper. Throw some concealer under those peepers, make like a swell and go put on the ritz. |
| 113 |
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