I feel mindless comedies make you relax – there are times when I come from shooting and watch comedy shows; they really change my mood.
Even in my comedies, I don’t take anger as a joke. I think anger and laughter are very close to each other, when you think about it. One of the things I like about a character: I always think it’s fascinating when a character can turn on a dime and go from one emotion to another. I like watching that.
Yeah, romantic comedies are the hardest movies to make. Maybe one works a year.
In the best traditions of American comedy, from its beginnings through the crash-bang comedies of the 1990s and 2000s, Leslie Nielsen skewered the otherwise proper, did it with mischievous delight and convulsed audiences mercilessly.
I don’t know how one can differentiate between comedies. A burger is a burger and though it may taste differently in different food joints, the fact remains that it is still a burger. It’s the same with comedies.
Most of the comedies I’ve done have been rather farcical and extravagant.
In terms of the romantic kind of lead, I just never enjoy those movies very much. Maybe they’ll come to interest me more as I get older. I doubt it, but maybe. Romantic comedies tend to be, for me, an oxymoron.
I’ve always loved the ’40s romantic comedies and the idea of those mistaken identities and lovers’ misunderstandings.
All these movies are observational comedies. I see somebody, maybe a dry cleaner, and notice how they are. Maybe I’ll decide to turn a person with those traits into a studio chief.
I do more films than television, and in Mexico, they are more situational comedies – not the typical telenovela.
My real name is Madeleine Wickham, under which I write dramas with an edge of humour. As Sophie Kinsella it’s fast, all-out comedies, such as the ‘Shopaholic’ series.
Comedies always need to be provocative and catch your attention in a way that dramas don’t have to.
I don’t actually believe in the genre of comedy. Sometimes when I watch comedies, I can’t see the soul of the show. I want to be able to laugh and cry. That is where the magic is. I’m trying to get to that place.
I love romantic comedies. I have a deep respect for them. I think they’re really difficult to write and write well.
Comedies don’t get nominated for Oscars. It doesn’t happen. So when we set out to do a movie, it’s not what we’re thinking about.
You probably can’t name more than a handful of comedies that would qualify for Best Picture. I can think of a lot of comedy screenplays; Woody Allen has had numerous nominations for his screenplays. But most comedies are calculated. They tend to pander. They’re not about anything important.
If you’re making comedies, they have to have a fun and a rhythm to them.
In a lot of comedies, they kind of take all the problems away from the women. They give her great clothes, great hair; she almost always owns an artisanal shop, like a cheese shop in Manhattan.
I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult to watch comedies that rely too heavily on embarrassment; the vicarious reaction to this is too unpleasant.
I don’t think anybody in my graduating class would have figured that I would be doing full-on single-camera comedies or sitcoms, or anything like that, but it certainly has been a part of my career.
The thing that is incredibly helpful is that we screen the movies and we ask the audience if they like it or not and we ask a lot of questions and do testing on the movies. For comedies, at least, it’s very helpful. If they’re not laughing and they don’t say that they loved it, then I have screwed up.
There’s certain people you want to see in comedies; there’s certain people you just want to see in dramas. Not that there aren’t individuals who do both, but it’s not everyone.
Some of the best comedies now are led by women who are very involved: ‘Parks and Recreation.’ ‘Veep’s’ incredible. I love ‘Girls.’
I still that that movie-goers like the experience of leaving their homes and going to have a communal experience, especially in comedies or interactive things where you can get an audience reaction to.
Comedy is all about rhythm and context, and there’s all types of comedies, and it’s about finding that right brand, that consistency in tone.
I think I would say ‘The King’s Speech’ is surprisingly funny, in fact the audiences in London, Toronto, LA, New York commented there’s more laughter in this film than in most comedies, while it is also a moving tear-jerker with an uplifting ending.
I was very influenced by the musicals and romantic comedies of the 1930s. I admired Gene Harlow and such, which probably explains why, since the end of my marriage, I’ve dated nothing but a succession of blondes.
You know, I grew up on romantic comedies, and it’s hard to find a new way to tell that story.
Like leggings, comedies created by women came into vogue in the late 1980s, exploded in the early ’90s, went mainstream in the mid-’90s, and were shoved into the back of the closet around 1997.
It’s a fantastic mirror to us to engage with art, to engage with paintings that are about tragedy, to go see Shakespearean comedies, to read a Greek play… We have always investigated the lightness and darkness of the human soul, in all these forms. So why not do it on television?
I’m no way one of those comedians who want to do drama. I really do love comedies. I hope to go back to it.
‘The Office’ is less a comedy than so many other ‘comedies’ that have been on the air. It’s really about the balance between what is real and what is comic.
I think there are opportunities for women in comedies – how zany is up to them.
I like romantic comedies, as it is a fun and light thing to get involved with.
A lot of comedies are based on the reaction shot. You have one person doing something stupid and one person is generally the straight man, and the laughs generally come on the reaction of the straight man to the funny thing the other person has done.
I love romantic comedies so much.
I love being manipulated by what I see. I love weepies and romantic comedies where you’re reaching for the Kleenex at the right moment.
Certain films should only be watched at 40,000 feet. Like, certain comedies and certain, uh, emotionally charged movies.
I love comedies. I love watching them. I think I’ve always been afraid of being on them a little bit.
I was offered a lot of supporting crazy parts in comedies because that’s all I had done.
Most comedies are really hard to write, or to watch, because you kind of generally know what’s coming.
I liked doing comedies, but as I got older I was better suited to do Westerns. Because I think it becomes unattractive for an older fellow trying to look young, falling in love with attractive girls in those kinds of situations.
I’ll continue to make the typical Adam Sandler comedies.
I tend to play strong characters and people just assume that I would want to play romantic comedies, which I would love to do, but there are other women that do it so great and they maybe couldn’t do what I do, play the kind of characters that I play.
I have a lot more fun making comedies because there’s a levity on the set, and I find it difficult to go to work and, you know, cry for 12 hours.
I don’t claim that our TV comedies are highbrow in anyway, but I think there’s a basis to them, and that’s why they’re more popular than other TV comedies. There’s a basis of truth in them, a gut feeling.
And even Moonstruck – for some reason the audience were just in the mood for a very romantic film, because it’s one of the few romantic comedies to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
I think I would do a much better job if I had a chance to do things that were edgier than I get to do in comedies.
Channel 4 always do really great stuff; they do great comedies.
Many of the comedies I had made in Sweden were slightly based on semi-autobiographical experiences, so adapting novels was a very different experience.
I like really stupid comedies.
Sometimes I look at music as like movies. And so I feel like you can have your comedies, and you can have your dramas, and you can have your romances or whatever.
I don’t mind playing Nazis, but I’ll only play them in comedies. I wouldn’t play a serious Nazi.
I enjoy romantic comedies in general. I like them when they’re bad, I like when they’re good.
My grandmother introduced me to musicals and Fred Astaire and Cary Grant and all the American comedies and classics.
I’ve been watching ‘The Cosby Show’ and ‘Roseanne’ a lot right now, and those work so well because they’re not, like, jokey comedies; they are coming from real characters. We want our show to be like that. A family show.
All the plays I do are comedies. I love listening to people laugh. I couldn’t do the dramas like ‘All My Sons.’
I have worked in comedies and romance genre, so I wanted a change. I wanted to do some tough work.
I did a couple comedies to balance myself as an actor and balance how audiences see Donnie Yen as an actor, and I would even say as a celebrity or icon, to some fans. I want to show that I’m not Terminator.
People like us who are on their last leg can only understand comedies.
