The American Love Story through the Ages

... The American Love Story through the Ages Too often people wrongly pigeonhole screwball as any comedy with zany components, from films with personality comedians such as the Marx Brothers to the wacky modern comedy styling's of Jim Carrey. Wes Gehring says, "To clarify the nature and role of screwball comedy, the films of the genre can be examined for five key characteristics of the aforementioned comic antihero: abundant leisure time, childlike nature, basic male frustration (especially in relationship to women), a general propensity for physical comedy, and a proclivity for parody and satire," (Gehring, p.29). In addition to Gehring's assertions, the screwball comedy genre can be characterized by a questioning of conventional marriage, mockery of authority and the rich, and lack of rational discourse through our comic antihero protagonist. However, screwball comedies are often confused with populist and romantic comedies. While this confusion is understandable, the genres are, in

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