MovieChat Forums > The Navigator (1924) Discussion > How to Kill a Comedy

How to Kill a Comedy

posted 13 years ago by Grendel1950
4 replies | jump to latest

When I was in graduate school (about 1975) I took a class in Literary Comedy. The prof brought in a reel-to-reel copy of "The Navigator" as an example of excellent comedy construction. The entire class roared in all the right places, and at the end we all applauded. Then we began to dissect the film and examine the classic comedic devices. We watched it a second time to validate our discussion. This time, we all smiled approvingly at our scholarship, but nobody laughed. At anything. And it wasn't because we had just seen the picture; we had taken all the fun out of it with our examination. I think Buster would have been flattered by our first reaction, and disappointed by our second. I know I was.

[–] HarveyManfredinStJohn 13 years ago

I know what you mean, but in my opinion, dissecting it in a scholarly way enhances appreciation of the medium, and in turn, the overall enjoyment of it. Almost warrants multiple viewings, ya know?

Buster Keaton made me quit smoking.

[–] novastar_6 13 years ago

Sherlock Jr. got a real dissection done to it, there's a Cambridge Film book ALL about Sherlock Jr., every chapter talks about the boy and the man, sex and the phallus, the real detective and the assistant, etc., it's a VERY fun read, as I was reading it I was thinking 'I have to see this again!' And there was one chapter where it's compared to The Playhouse, Speak Easily, and two other of his silent shorts but I can't remember which ones, but reading through that before seeing those films, I laughed myself sick at it all.

[–] oh_no_mrbill 10 years ago

You just articulated the reason why I think film school is so highly overrated.

[–] TheChamCham 9 years ago

I agree.

I enjoyed everything until the ending and then I felt like they ran out of film.

"I say ! Open this door at once! We're British !"