Or, did it ever really leave?
I was talking to some people a week or so ago about favorite sub-genres of comedy movies (I believe the conversation started with the proposition: Airplane, overrated or appropriately rated?) Anyway, I’ve always had a soft spot for the screwball comedy, which is the one kind of comedy universally associated with a specific era.
According to wikipedia, “while there is no authoritative list of the defining characteristics of the screwball comedy genre,” qualities most often associated include:
- farcical situations
- fast-paced, witty repartee
- a plot involving courtship and marriage or remarriage
- mistaken identities
- a character trying to keep an important fact a secret
- sometimes involves cross-dressing
- class issues in which the upper class is “brought down a peg”
The screwball comedy is forever linked to Arsenic and Old Lace, It Happened One Night, Some Like It Hot, or maybe most representative of the genre, Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell bantering their way through His Girl Friday. In other words, a largely ’40s trend with some pioneers in the 30s (It Happened One Night) and some throwbacks in the ’50s (Some Like It Hot).
But over the years, there have been so many “throwbacks” to the genre, that it’s sometimes hard to believe that the golden age ever ended. For my money, some of the best screwball comedies of all time came out in the late-70s, early-80s:
Tootsie
9 to 5
Kiss Me Goodbye
Seems Like Old Times
All of Me
The mid-late ’90s also had a mini-renaissance:
The Birdcage
Liar, Liar
My Best Friend’s Wedding
While you were Sleeping…
And of course, just about every ’90s sitcom featured the obligatory “How-can-I-get-the-tape-out-of-the-answering-machine-before-they-hear-the-message-I-wish-I-hadn’t-left” episode. Became the most tired trope of the ’90s sitcom and I laughed every time.
So I don’t know. I’m usually an easy sell on “bring back the golden age” arguments, but on this, I’m not sure it ever really left.
