The University of New Mexico

Film in Comedy
Professor James Daniel Stone
Ivan Camilo Giraldo
!ril of "#$%
Our Friends of Misery.
The suffering, failure, and humiliation are key aspects of the comedy genre. And the purpose of this
following lines its to explore whats beneath that , the primary cause of Why in film comedy those
subject are reiterated constantly . Perhaps one of the most important Books ever written regarding
comedy and it conceptual implications, is the famous Book of laughter , or the second Part of the
Poetics by the greek philosopher Aristotle , however it got lost at some point in the history of the
Middle age, and its content got banned forever to mankind.Anyhow the first part of it , does endure to
our time , and in there there are slight glimpses of what the author thought about comedy. In those
short lines that he briefly speaks about comedy , it's implied that the main difference between tragedy
and comedy its that while the first one focus on the best of men , underlining their qualities and virtues
such as bravery , strength , fairness and equanimity (Aquilles or Ulises for example), the second genre
focus on the worst of them , and all the opposite traits of the acclaimed virtues of the tragedy
heroes ; The Cowardly , the weak , the dishonorable , liars and such is the subject often portrayed
here.
But one could argue that those concepts are out of date , being the fact that this thoughts were written
in ancient times and that those theories would only apply to comedies like the ones written by
Aristofanes or such , and could continue his objection saying that the world has changed and therefore
, todays audiences won't find that funny no more , and if someone gives that argument , perhaps a
very efficient way to prove it's fallacy would be just to cast in the Farellys brothers masterpiece
Kingpin, for this movie presents all of those concepts in a nutshell and in essence portrays all of
those characteristics , and shows how those same concepts in comedy remain still valid nowadays
Kingpin presents us with the narrative structure of the hero's rise and fall, but unlike movies with the
same structure such as Raging Bull , in KingPing we only see a slight glimpse of his rise , and the
major portion of the movie is placed in his fall , trying to go up again . From first the moment we see
this kid full of promising future and success in life , losing it all and going straight from the life of a
winner to live in the abject and obscure world of outcasts and losers. Even in the first shots of the
movie we see this little kid bumps into a fence and fall , a very funny moment , that might perhaps
symbolize what life has prepared for the hero, Roy Munson, a face plant in the mud. The detriment that
the main character here has to go through it's not only a physical one , being the most obvious the
dismember of his hand , his balding , and fattening, but also a psychological , he pass from being a kid
full of principles and ethics , to a man who has no problem stealing food from a baby and taking away
the wheel chair of a handicapped.
Another key element of this movie , its the characters that surround Munson , for most of them are in
one way or another pathetic and miserable themselves, Perhaps one of the most notorious is Ishmael ,
the hero's main companion of his journey , he out stands because he also gets dragged from a place of
virtue and honor , to the the muddy waters of mundane corruption, in which he slowly starts to drown.
Quickly turning his life of s!irit&ality ' comm&nity hel!in( and a)stinence ' into a one f&ll of
Gambling , drinking , drug's, conning and prostitution. In short , the movie Kingpin 8888it's definitely
a masterpiece , capable of proving Aristotle's theory of how can the lowest of men can be turned into a
laughter matter.

Following the thoughts of the ancient philosopher , if comedy itself derives from the lowest of mankind
and the flaws in character , then what piece of the cake can be expected for the comedians ? . For is
proven that misery per se can be the subject of comedy , its also know that in recurrent occasions , The
character of the comedian itself its miserable and decadent. There is a conception about comedians
implying that in the bottom they are really sad people , for its usually accepted among comedians that
lots of their material used when performing , actually comes from painful personal experiences .
Famous is the the archetype of the sad clown, and that image arrives to the mind when one think of
such individuals : Funny to their peers and audience , yet sad persons inside , the smile often serving
for the merely purpose of entertainment a smoke screen to hide their true feelings. And beside those
there are yet others perhaps even more miserable that are funny and laughable even without
pretending to be so.
Such its the case of most of the characters in the 1983 Film King of Comedy , by Martin Scorsese ,
this film itself portrays a lot of what had been mentioned up to this point. Lets us begin with the main
character of the movie , Rupert Pupkin , portrayed by Robert De Niro. Pupkin its an mid age
amateur comedian who is apparently unemployed and lives with his mother , he constantly daydreams
about getting to the top of the comedy scene and become the king of it , when it`s said that he
daydreams its literal , meaning he often hallucinates of fictitious situations and scenarios of when he
will be at the top of the entertainment industry . That itself denotes certain degree of mental illness but
to that it must be added that he is a social awkward and outcast who doesnt cope well with societys
protocols . Near the end of the film we get to see Pupkin act , which its actually funny opposed to
what is to be expected of his character. There we realize that most of its material contain a lot of
personal episodes from his life for example that he comes from a broken family , or how he was
beaten up by other kids when he was a kid, very dark and miserable stuff but he turns them into funny
anecdotes.
Pupkin is obsessed with the actual king of comedy , Jerry Langford , portrayed by perhaps one of the
most important comedy performers in the history of the United States. Jerry Lewis. Of course
Langford its kind of an alter ego to the figure of Jerry Lewis itself he is at the very top in the
industry ,for not only he is a wealthy realized man who owns a very successful television show in the
network prime time but also is a recognized celebrity who is constantly greeted cheerfully pedestrians
and had acquired himself a solid fan base who idolize him . After observing the parallel life's carried by
both Robert and Jerry one could think that Pupkin one its miserable and Langford its the complete
opposite , and that might be true at a first glance , however Scorcese deconstructs those characters in
more complex levels , a second examination might be needed to realize how Langford its also
miserable himself. Beyond what might look as a realized man , when we glance into his personal life
we realize he is a lonely man , who eats only with the company of his dog , who play golf by himself ,
no friends or family to be known , and above that the situation of fame he has achieved drives him to
the point where he is deprived from privacy. Famous people and their exposure to the public not only
detriment their privacy and personal affair , but also put in peril their integrity , Jhon Lennons life its a
clear example of that matter . Therefore Robert is forced to live in a hermetic bubble of which
isolates him from the rest of the world, whether trying to get to through a crazy mass of fans into the
safety of his limo or running from a deranged fan into the hermetic space of his office.
That Link us to the last of the character to be examined in this movie, played by Sandra Berhardt;
Masha. This is a very particular character of the film , and most of the peak comedy moments in the
film are due to her. However unlike the other two main characters , Marsha is not interested in a career
in comedy or entertainment , she is just a very mentally ill person , and unlike them , who hide their
misery behind a screen of joy she displays hers blatantly perhaps without realizing that her psychical
and mental condition denotes decadence in an utter level. In other words , she is funny without
wanting to be so , and perhaps that its something she does shares with Pupkin, that even when they
trie to be taken seriously , they are taken merely as for a funny joke , reason why they become
partners in crime and are lead to take extreme resolutions in order to achieve what they both long for ,
each one in a different way ; Jerry Langford.
The suffering , humiliation and desperation are an integral components in the comedy genre , for
those are recurrent themes and often the main character has to go through a living hell such as it was
in the never ending night of Paul Hackett in Scorcesses After-hours 1985 . In this movie we witness a
man who is presumably successful in life , carrying what seems to be a normal life , gaining decent
wage at an office job in manhattan . After a short glimpse of this we realize that this character is a bit
desperate for the opposite sex , in work he is distracted by a passing secretary , and later we discover
that in his life is the one of a loner ,that watches prerecorded Tv shows at home and go to coffee shops
to read books alone . His drives of distress and need towards the females pushes over the edge of the
abyss . When he meets an attractive stranger and accept her late at night invitation to her place , in
what he hopes would be an opportunity to have sex with a hot girl , eventually turns out to be one of
the most bizarre nights where his life is constantly in peril.
One have to admit that perhaps Paul Hackett its not pathetic himself , for if he was to be judged
fairly , the verdict can perfectly he reveal him as a average guy. His drive of need towards females its
something that only the most virtuous and temperate among men can control, and something common
among the rest , therefore he can be considered normal to a certain degree , also the fact that he tried
to grab an uncanny opportunity that presented for him , there its nothing wrong about that maybe
even the opposite , maybe one could say it was a brave move, and more pathetic would be not to risk
the hand and withdraw from that table. And if misery its the subject of comedy then what makes
Hackett miserable ?. the answer relays not in his actions per se , but in the cards that the fortune has
reserved to him. He is an unlucky man and no matter what he is thrown into self in series of situation
that escalate from bad to worst in a down spiral straight to hell . And that watching him trying to deal
desperately with those oblivious scenarios its what makes this movie so joyful .
Obtaining pleasure of watching other peoples suffering its a broad definition of sadism , and it seems
that as comedy spectators we are subdued to a certain amount of that . As both for the physical and
physiological pain that the characters in those films have to go through and experience, we as
audience seems to rejoice. A perfect example of the sadistic audience its MTV Jackass show , for in
this clips we are basically the witnesses of how a group of jackasses put their bodies into hard
punishments of all kinds . The variables of this chastises are very broad , and they go from the range
of electric shock to animal bitting nipples , ingesting of body disposals or getting mousetraps activated
in the most sensitive body parts. Add an endless variation of those series and you got yourself the
Jackass formula in a nutshell . But it became a huge phenomenon for this was a huge hit across the
world , getting numerous seasons on the Tv as well as long feature films , different copy cat versions
and spinoff of the show. There is definitely a component of sadism in there , and extrapolating the
sadism the audience was used to get in fiction titles , to an actual documentary or reality feel to it ,
exacerbated even more the feeling. For it not in the same level to watch Woody Harrelson getting
kicked in the groin , than to witness Steve-O in the same situation . For in the first case we know its
acted and in the later that its not and that fact itself elevates even higher the level of sadism of the
audience.
In short , all of this films deliver us suffering , distress and desperation in different levels being both
physical and mental. The misfortune of others can sometimes be a matter of laugh , and that might be
the reason that if some misfortunate person trips and fall in the cafeteria making a clumpy mess , the
odds are that most of the people there will break in laughter . However it depends on the severity of the
case for if someone witness an old lady fall in the street the odds are that they will try help her , but if
for some reason the person doesnt and instead laughs and rejoice about it , then he will become the
really miserable character in that fictitious scene, and perhaps , the lowness of his life and values can
serve him well to be the main character of a comedy , for this genre often portraits the lowest of men .
Comedy is, as we said it was, an imitation of persons who are inferior; not, however, going all the way to full
villainy, but imitating the ugly, of which the ludicrous is one part. The ludicrous, that is, is a failing or a piece of
ugliness which causes no pain or destruction; thus, to go on farther, the comic mask is something ugly and
distorted but painless. - Aristotle
The University of New Mexico
Film in Comedy
Professor James Daniel Stone
Ivan Camilo Giraldo
!ril of "#$%
The good the bad and the ugly of one day in Experiments in Cinema. V 9.72
This is be a very brief narration of my experience in the film festival named above , that was festival
held in Albuquerque new Mexico on april 2014, me and my friend attended the screening of sat 19.
The good :luckily a film that couldn't been showed on the Wednesday screening was showed that
day , it was solaristics by Peter Rose USA. About 10 minutes long , and without delivering a single
speaking word , this short film was outstanding , basically a lot of footage different places , in which
all takes the sun can be seen , from a park to the reflection of offices buildings or driving a car.
However The director manipulated in some way the sensor of the camera for it to displayed a black
void where to much luminance where emitted , therefore , the sun always appeared black. No sound
other than the diegetic of the footage made this film quit simple yet profound in different levels a fine
example of experimental cinema .
The bad : Ownerbuilt was the next film displayed that day . Contrary on its preceder this one was a
really though piece to digest. All overfilled with pretentious poetry and intellectual gibberish that
made me lose interest after the first 5 minutes. The most painful was its durations , 49 mins of this I say
this from a very subjective point since i think my friend really enjoyed it . But beyond all those flaws ,
it has to be recognized that the people behind this putted a lot of effort doing the rotoscoping visuals ,
and hopefully getting some personal torments out.
The ugly : The premise value of truth in the student discount was 0 . Apparently if you were not a
student for this really specific class , you where deprived of your status of student and the discount didn
t apply.