MOVEMENT IN COMEDY EG THE HORSE'S MOUTH, IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, THE MARX BROTHERS

Painter Gully Jimson as played by Alec Guinness, the antagonist/protagonist of THE HORSE’S MOUTH, is in constant motion.  Whether it’s due to sudden artistic inspiration, the necessities of survival such as finding food or shelter or simply running away from someone he doesn’t want to see, the humor of this character lies not just in Guinness’s stoop shouldered grunting, almost primal characterization but in his almost perpetual motion.

  
The best film comedies, the most successful at being funny, are those without many slow moments-too much conversation, romantic scenes etc. The perfect example of this is The Marx Brothers’ films in which the brilliant seemingly free form absurdity runs headlong into dumb musical numbers that bring everything to a screeching halt.  The correct response to a musical number is like the end of DUCK SOUP when Margaret Dumont starts to sing the Freedonia national anthem and they pelt her with fruit.

 IT’S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD, one of my favorite comedies, has duel storylines all filled with movement and action (and when I say movement and action I don’t necessarily mean the physical I also mean rapid fire conversation like The Marxs’ films or the screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40’s THE AWFUL TRUTH or MY FAVORITE WIFE or HIS GIRL FRIDAY.).  MAD has an all-star cast and each one is at his tip top best, fully on as they execute their individual pratfalls whether they be verbal or physical.

Modern comedies are often based around the stand-up comic or as starring vehicles for performers from sketch comedy shows like SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.  The end result is usually repetitive, brain dead, and doesn’t have any life.

Life is movement and comedy is an amplification of life and should also maintain an amplification of movement.  At the end of THE HORSE’S MOUTH, Gully Jimson gets in his boat and escapes from the chaos down the river and out to sea.  At the end of IT’S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD Ethel Merman slips on a banana peel and falls to the ground and everyone present laugh at her (except for son Dick Shawn).