Humor in cinema is like water in fertile ground; it flows through it and helps other elements grow. Everyone benefits from it. All the departments. The DP is happy to see their shot fit perfectly in a gag. The writing staff are happy to sneak in their favorite reference in a dialogue. The make-up department is happy to put a funny hat on their actor. And the sound designers can’t help but to use a Chaplin reference in a scene. Humor is very versatile in cinema. It might occupy a part of a scene, it might be the scene or rather it might be the film.  

From a certain point of view, cinema itself is humor — or rather, a satire on the world. As cinema grew in the early 1900s, its models drew on the traditions of the circus, as a film in the USA traveled along with nomadic artists and was used in the carnival context of the Great American Plains.  A visualization you may refer to is Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.  Even earlier, medieval carnivals shaped the taste and perception of those who would become cinema’s mass audience — art for everyone.  

THEORY 

Even on the surface, grotesque, magical, and humorous elements appear in the earliest films of Méliès and the Brighton School. Although it provides us with a good understanding of similarities between productions and the public of carnivals and films, the idea of this bond lies under the surface. Bakhtin in his explanation often refers to the carnivals:

“Carnival is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea embraces all the people. While carnival lasts, there is no other life outside it.” 
— Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. H. Iswolsky (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1968), p. 7.  

He makes it evident that the ‘world’ of carnivals is what makes it so tight to cinema. Grotesque vision of the world and complete upside-down experience of a new, created for a short time a ‘world’ where kings are peasants and vice versa.  

Another key study on this aspect was done by Edgar Morin:

“Cinema restores the magical vision of the world characteristic of archaic thought: the double and metamorphosis reappear through cinematic techniques.” 
— Edgar Morin, Le cinéma ou l’homme imaginaire (Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1956). 

Here, cinema — beneath its grotesque, comic, and magical situations — refers to the very essence of prehistoric human beings. These are the undersurface processes that render real the history of cinema tightly legated to humor.  

PRACTICE 

Having these in our luggage of knowledge, we should refer to the modern practical examples to reveal all that versatility of humor in cinema. One great example would be The Motorcycle Diaries (Walter Salles, 2004). Essentially, this road drama wouldn’t fall under your radar when the discussion is made about humor in cinema. However, it is a hysterical film. It uses a few different practices to convey to us the real drama of the film. Humor pushes action and makes passages seamless.  

1. Visual humor

As the journey proceeds, we encounter difficulties in the form of these visual gags that help us understand better the struggle of the characters. “Everything is going to fall off now !” – exclaims one of the main characters seconds before they both end up in a drainage ditch next to the road. Or another episode where a cut sends us with the character from the doorstep of his beloved to his tent outside. Great writing as well, as it underlines the financial difference between young Che Guevara and Chichina Ferreyra.  

2. Character-driven humor

Alberto’s sarcasm often takes center stage, revealing the interpretive layers of humor through his performance. A particularly moving scene shows him crying over his broken motorcycle before leaving it behind. This moment resonates deeply, marking a shift in the film toward a more documentary-like and contemplative tone. Because the film until then has been infused with humor, this scene works as a bittersweet yet ultimately funny moment of farewell, blending sentimentality with comic relief. 

3. Episode structure

Another way humor manifests is in episodes built entirely around a comedic situation—a gag stretched to a macro scale. Un example is the episode of two doctors arriving in a Chilean town and attending a dance evening with the wife of the mechanic. All the key elements of joke crafting are here: context, problem, resolving a problem, punchline. Just that this time it is spread for a few moments rather than it being a phrase joke.  

Such a diversity continues far beyond the subdivision of some of the possible gags of the certain film, be it a Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin or Kenneth Lonergan with the Manchester by the sea. A horrible example of a film for a humor discussion and still it is funny sometimes. Just next time in the cinema theatre, have a laugh and think of a writer or director who had put it in there.  

Smolkin Viktor

Fonts:

Estetica e Cinema – Daniela Angelucci
Gli atrezzi del narratore – Alessandro Perissinotto