BUI301F2022/Verbal Humor

Narrative

1. “Stanley Cavell: "the comedy of remarriage" (from Pursuits of Happiness)
   • “...the couple as separated in the initial stages, only to be reunited by the end of the film after discovering that they still love each other"
2. "...the couple experiencing love at first sight yet being unable to be together, due to factors beyond their control.
3. "...unrequited love.
4. "...the couple who are at war with each other from the start”

Tropes

• “mistaken identity, disguise and masquerade, intimate tete-a-tetes (often meals), public humiliation, brides bolting from the altar, a race against time, confiding in friends and the 'meet-cute'."
  • What are our films' "meets cute" and how are they "prophetic"?

The screwball heroine

• “crazy and unpredictable, she is capable of throwing a man's life into complete chaos, and has excessive energies and exuberance. In this respect she is a threat to society and needs to be contained by the restraints of marriage."
  • How is the threat of the independent woman contained? Is that containment what you take away from The Lady Eve or Always?

• 

  Always Be My Maybe

Texts & resources

• Claire Mortimer, Romantic Comedy (New York: Routledge, 2010).