Comedies that deal with serious issues

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  • Comedies that deal with serious issues

    I'm working on a comedy that deals with some serious issues (eg. menopause, divorce) but I'm beginning to wonder just how far I can push the comedy before it becomes bad taste / genre confused. The style of comedy I'm writing starts out fairly conservative, but becomes increasingly screwball / absurd as the story progresses (think monkeys ransacking an office)

    All the comedies that come to mind have serious undercurrents, but tend to either tone down the comedy to suit the gravity of the serious stuff, or tackle the serious stuff lightly as a vehicle for the comedy.

    Can anyone think of any laugh-out-loud comedies that successfully deal with serious emotions / situations? I'm stuck!

  • #2
    Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

    The Break-up. Toned down the comedy and got all serious. Epic failure as far as I'm concerned. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be. I wanted it to be over.

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    • #3
      Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

      Hawks (1988) with Timothy Dalton & Anthony Edwards springs to mind.

      Lots of laughs combined with a great deal of squirming on your seat.
      TimeStorm & Blurred Vision Book info & blog: https://stormingtime.com//

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      • #4
        Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

        I don't think you could get more "difficult" than Happiness. I'd have to say that, while that film was disturbing and confronting, it dealt with the issue of paedafilia in a wholly original way. And, incredibly, it made me laugh.

        So I guess the bar is already pretty high there. Or low, depending on how you view it.
        sigpic

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        • #5
          Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

          Movies:
          Broadcast News
          Crimes and Misdemeanors
          Parenthood
          Marvin's Room


          TV:
          Weeds
          The Big C

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          • #6
            Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

            Your opening scene needs to establish the tone. So look at Garden State. The first thing we see is our protag's dream where the plane is crashing but he's zen. So right away we get the idea that this is a tad off, this world he lives in. He wakes up to a completely bare, white room and immediately we find out that his mom is dead. We're not sad about the mom because the scene is about how HE doesn't seem sad about his mom and we're now interested in how weird and empty he seems. We buy the rest of the situations he's put in because right off the bat we know what to expect.
            Chicks Who Script podcast

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            • #7
              Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

              Originally posted by Mr Scribble View Post

              Can anyone think of any laugh-out-loud comedies that successfully deal with serious emotions / situations? I'm stuck!

              "Balls Out"?
              TRIAL FORUMS

              ​
              ​

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              • #8
                Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                Knocked Up.
                "Take the thing you love, and make it your life"--Californication. [email protected]

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                • #9
                  Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                  Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. I'll get my hands on some of those titles and do some analysis.

                  Originally posted by clueless View Post
                  "Balls Out"?
                  Hmmm... tackling vaginosis was ambitious, but ultimately I think the humor really suffered as a result.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                    home for the holidays

                    most of woody allen's earlier pics.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                      What about the Farrelly Brothers. Some of their films have dealth with serious topics. Or atleast, topics that are serious to some people.

                      What about 'Stuck On You'? It's a very funny film dealing with a very serious (although generally quite rare) disability: Siamese Twins. It's extremely funny to us, probably not os much to someone who has to live with this or a family member of Siamese Twins.

                      In 'Dumb and Dumber' don't they take advantage of a blind child. I mean, how low can you get. But it is was funny.

                      Nothing really holds the Farrelly Brothers back. I think for them, the more serious a topic, the more humour they can squeeze out of it.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                        War of the Roses, Wag The Dog. And of course Dr Strangelove is laugh-out-loud funny about some pretty serious stuff. There will be plenty of others I'm too lazy to think of.
                        "Friends make the worst enemies." Frank Underwood

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                        • #13
                          Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                          Have you seen Four Lions? A film about suicide bombers, which features some ridiculously stupid characters but seems to make a serious point as well.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                            "I'm With Cancer" was on the Blacklist in 2009 (?) Very, very funny.
                            "People spend so much time focusing on rescuing the princess, they forget how much fun it is to fight the dragon."
                            - Simon Pegg & Nick Frost, DAVE

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                            • #15
                              Re: Comedies that deal with serious issues

                              "Life Is Beautiful"

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