Hollywood Comedy Movies - (practical jokes) From Charlie Chaplin To Jim Carrie

October 1st, 2008 admin Posted in comedy |

By Victor Epand

Comedy movies started long back in the 1900s. The first movie to be produced was by Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope. This could also be considered the first to show the comic aspect of a movie. Comedy films began to appear more during the era of silent films, prior to the 1930s. These comedy movies were originally based on visual humor. The prominent figure that we all know as Charlie Chaplin was one of the famous clown-style actors of the silent era. It was through Charlie Chaplin that Hollywood comedy movies became famous. Soon came Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

Then in the 1920s came another trend, of animated cartoons. They were the most popular Hollywood comedy movies of the time. Several popular characters of that era were Felix the cat, Krazy Kat and Betty Boop. However, the popularity of these movies was hindered due to lack of sound and color.

By the end of 1920s, the Hollywood comedy industry showed a change brought about by the introduction of sound into movies. This allowed the industry to create dramatic new film styles and use verbal humor. Those films soon replaced silent movies. They used dialogues by comedians such as W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Charlie Chaplin was the last comedian to have acted in a silent film, and his films during 1930s were without dialogue, although they did employ sound effects.

When the United States entered into World War II, Hollywood movies changed their course to themes related to conflicts and Hollywood comedy movies also inclined to military themes. The war era experienced a boom, when due to the restriction on traveling, nearly a quarter of the money spent was spent on movies.

In the 1950s, interest shifted to social situations or family-oriented comedies. During that period the number of Hollywood comedy films declined. The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies. In 1970, Hollywood comedy movies reflected the anti-war sentiment which was prevailing then. Amongst the leading figures of this time were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. They wrote, directed and appeared in their own movies.

In the 1980s, the gag based comedy Airplane, a spoof of the previous decade disaster film series, was released and Hollywood comedy movies followed suit for more of the same including Top Secret and the Naked Gun films. The popular comedians of that time included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Jim Carrey, the Canadian actor, came into Hollywood comedy movies in the late 1980s when he won a role in Damian Lee Canadian’s skiing comedy, Copper Mountain.

The most popular Hollywood comedy movies were of John Hughes, which included Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Home Alone series of 1990s. The latter focused more on a family audience. That showed a revival in comedy movies. Spoof comedy movies have remained popular till date.

Another development in Hollywood comedy movies was the use of gross humor, which is usually aimed at the younger audience, in films like, There’s Something about Mary, American Pie and many more. This trend of gross movies continued with adult oriented comedies picking up the box office for some time more.

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Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos. You can find the best marketplace for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos at these sites for used DVDs, used movies, comedy movies, popular comedy movies, and used car stereos.

Psych - USA Network’s Latest Comedy Series
By Christopher Buckley

Psych is the latest comedy to come out of America and is certainly very unique and original.

You have probably heard the slogan of the show, “fake psychic, real detectives”. It is therefore no secret that the show is about a guy, Shawn Spencer, who pretends to be a psychic and yet is working as a detective.

In fact, it is Shawn’s eidetic memory (also known as photographic or total recall) which allows him to recognize clues and make deductions that others cannot and the result is that everyone is marvelled to the extent that they would believe him to be a psychic. This basic premise of the show allows for a lot of material and sets the tone as one of playful deceit.

The cast are an eclectic bunch with James Roday, despite being a relative unknown, playing the lead character, Shawn Spencer.

More well known to viewers are Dule Hill, who plays Shawn’s best friend (Charlie Young from The West Wing) and Corbin Bernsen of LA Law fame who plays Shawn’s father.

Shawn, whilst being the son of a policeman, is a haphazard grown-up kid who has never held down a decent job for a significant period of time. He is somewhat reminiscent, in my opinion, of a Jim Carrey character who has taken his medicine!

Gus is a pharmaceutical sales rep and the perfect antithesis to Shawn’s hyperactivity. Naturally cautious, this can be to the detriment of his sense of adventure. It remains to be seen at this early stage of the series whether Gus will play a large part in the series or take a back seat to Shawn.

Henry Spencer, Shawn’s father, is a retired former cop who was highly respected in the force. Somewhat estranged from his son for specific reasons unknown, we can expect to see development in father and son’s relationship through the series.

The show is set in Santa Barbara, California but is actually shot in Vancouver, Canada. Whilst some eagle eyed viewers can easily spot the difference, most cannot.

Released only in the USA to date and having premiered on July 7th 2006, the show goes out at 10pm Friday night, Eastern time.

It is actually more accurate to call Psych a dramedy or comedy drama. There are no laughter lines and no slapstick and an evolution of a real story line. If you haven’t yet seen it, I suggest visiting USA Network’s site for a free viewing of the pilot - you’ll be glued for the rest of the series!

Christopher Buckley is owner of psychfan.com, a regularly updated psych fansite. Visit psychfan.com

Video Sharing Sites Other Than YouTube
By Tyler James Ellison

Although the big sites may be attractive, sometimes the smaller ones can be a good choice too. Any of the sites previously talked about would be an excellent alternative for your video uploads. With sites like YouTube that receives a hundred million hits a day, it is easy for your video content to get lost in huge number of daily uploads. Smaller sites sometimes offer better viewer-ship since your recently uploaded video stays in the list longer.

Almost anyone you talk to has an idea of what YouTube is. DailyMotion is another site that most tech savvy people know by name. They are the big players in the world of online video sharing. With the explosive growth that site like YouTube have fueled when it comes to video, other sites are popping up that allow for video sharing. This article will take a look at some of those other sites.

If you like the look and feel of sites like YouTube and Dailymotion there are two others that also allow for the same type of video uploads. Sharkle is one site that follows along the same lines as the video giants. The site has an easy to use interface and makes it easy to create communities with people you know to share your videos. Sharkle also has some interesting features such as their ad mixer and contests.

The other, YouTube-like site that I will talk about today is SelfCastTv. The site is listed as beta, but it does have a nice clean interface and an interesting way of organizing the user’s videos. The channel feature on SelfCastTv makes it easy to categorize your videos. It also makes it easier to find the types of videos you like to watch. Either site can be a great choice if your new to the world of online video, because with a smaller user base your videos don’t get lost in the mix.

If blogging is more along the lines of what you like to do there are two other video sites that cater more to video bloggers. Flukiest is one of the best video blogging sites. More than video blogging it is really a social networking site. Flukiest is the first social networking site that caters to people who want an easy way to share photos or video. ZippyVideos is another website that focuses as much on community as it does video.

The site seems to be the smallest of the websites that we have talked about so far, but small sometimes has it’s advantages too. If you tend to use online video as your way of journaling or blogging one of the community focused sites can be an excellent choice.

The other two sites worth mentioning are Vmix and ShortBrainTV. Vmix, although it has some features like those found on the other sites listed here, tends to cater more to a business audience. They do have user submitted video, but their focus is on business solutions. That isn’t surprising really, since Vmix was started by some of the big names in the media industy. ShortBrainTV (formerly known as bliptv) caters to the creative types. ShortBrain is a collection of online amateur and professionally produced short movies and animations. Whatever your tastes or intentions, there are a lot of great sites on the internet for those wanting to share their videos.

For funny online videos, spend some minutes at Videyos.com and share it with your friends.

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