Film genre
Romantic comedy
(also known as
romcom
or
rom-com
) is a subgenre of
comedy
and
romance fiction
, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how
true love
is able to surmount most obstacles.
[1]
In a typical romantic comedy, the two lovers tend to be young, likeable, and seemingly meant for each other, yet they are kept apart by some complicating circumstance (e.g., class differences, parental interference, a previous girlfriend or boyfriend) until, surmounting all obstacles, they are finally united. A fairy-tale-style happy ending is a typical feature.
[2]
Description
[
edit
]
The basic plot of a
romantic
comedy
is that two characters
meet
, part ways due to an argument or other obstacle, then ultimately realize their love for one another and reunite. Sometimes the two leads meet and become involved initially, then must confront challenges to their union. Sometimes they are hesitant to become romantically involved because they believe they do not like each other. After all, one of them already has a partner, or because of social pressures. However, the screenwriters leave clues that suggest that the characters are attracted to each other and that they would be a good love match. The characters often split or seek time apart in order to sort out their emotions or deal with external obstacles to their being together, which they eventually overcome.
While the two protagonists are separated, one or both of them usually realizes that they love the other person. Then, one party makes some extravagant effort (sometimes called a
grand gesture
) to find the other person and declare their love. This is not always the case, as sometimes there is a remarkable coincidental encounter where the two meet again. Alternatively, one plans a sweet romantic gesture to show that they still care. Then, perhaps with some comic friction or awkwardness, they declare their love for each other, and the
film ends on a happy note
. Even though it is implied that they live happily ever after, it does not always state what that happy ending will be. The couple does not necessarily get married or even live together for it to be a "happily ever after". The conclusion of a romantic comedy is meant to affirm the primary importance of the love relationship in its protagonists' lives, even if they physically separate in the end (e.g.,
Shakespeare in Love
,
Roman Holiday
).
[3]
Most of the time the ending gives the audience a sense that if it is true love, it will always prevail no matter what is thrown in the way.
There are many variations on this basic plotline. Sometimes, instead of the two lead characters ending up in each other's arms, another love match will be made between one of the principal characters and a secondary character (e.g.,
My Best Friend's Wedding
and
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
). Alternatively, the film may be a rumination on the impossibility of love, as in
Woody Allen
's film
Annie Hall
.
The basic format of a romantic comedy film can be found in much earlier sources, such as
Shakespeare
plays like
Much Ado About Nothing
and
A Midsummer Night's Dream
.
Evolution and subgenres
[
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]
Over the years, romantic comedies have slowly been becoming more popular to both men and women. They have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory. This territory explores more
subgenres
and more complex topics. These films still follow the typical plot of "a light and humorous movie, play, etc., whose central plot is a happy love story"
[4]
but with more complexity. These are a few ways romantic comedies are adding more subtlety and complexity into the genre. Two ways they are adding to the complexity are through the general obstacles that come between the couple and the general morals that the characters feel throughout the entire film.
Extreme circumstances
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]
Some romantic comedies have adopted extreme or strange circumstances for the main characters, as in
Warm Bodies
where the protagonist is a zombie who falls in love with a human girl after eating her boyfriend. The effect of their love towards each other is that it starts spreading to the other zombies and even starts to cure them. With the zombie cure, the two main characters can now be together since they do not have that barrier between them anymore.
[5]
Another strange set of circumstances is in
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
where the two protagonists are building a relationship while trying to make a
porno
together. Both these films take the typical story arc and then add strange circumstances to add
originality
.
Flipping conventions
[
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]
Other romantic comedies flip the standard conventions of the romantic comedy genre. In films like
500 Days of Summer
, the two main interests do not end up together, leaving the protagonist somewhat distraught. Other films like
Adam
have the two main interests end up separated but still content and pursuing other goals and love interests.
Reversing gender roles
[
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]
Some romantic comedies use reversal of gender roles to add comedic effect.
[6]
These films contain characters who possess qualities that diverge from the gender role that society has imposed upon them, as seen in
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
in which the male protagonist is especially in touch with his emotions, and
Made of Honor
in which the female bridesmaids are shown in a negative and somewhat masculine light in order to advance the likability of the male lead.
[7]
Serious elements
[
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]
Other remakes of romantic comedies involve similar elements, but explore more adult themes such as marriage, responsibility, or even disability. Two films by
Judd Apatow
,
This Is 40
and
Knocked Up
, deal with these issues.
This Is 40
chronicles the mid-life crisis of a couple entering their 40s, and
Knocked Up
addresses unintended pregnancy and the ensuing assuming of responsibility.
Silver Linings Playbook
deals with
mental illness
and the courage to start a new relationship.
All of these go against the
stereotype
of what romantic comedy has become as a genre. Yet the genre of romantic comedy is simply a
structure
, and all of these elements do not negate the fact that these films are still romantic comedies.
Contrived romantic encounters: the "meet cute"
[
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]
One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the entertainment factor in a contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances, which film critics such as
Roger Ebert
[8]
or the Associated Press'
Christy Lemire
[9]
have called a "
meet-cute
" situation. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create a humorous sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting an initial
clash of personalities
or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, or by introducing a comical misunderstanding or mistaken identity situation. Sometimes the term is used without a hyphen (a "meet cute"), or as a verb ("to meet cute").
Roger Ebert describes the "concept of a Meet Cute" as "when
boy meets girl
in a cute way." As an example, he cites "The Meet Cute in
Lost and Found
[which] has
Jackson
and
Segal
running their cars into each other in Switzerland. Once recovered, they Meet Cute again when they run into each other while on skis. Eventually,... they fall in love."
[10]
In many romantic comedies, the potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three (
It Happened One Night
), who would not meet or talk under normal circumstances, and the meet cute's contrived situation provides the opportunity for these two people to meet.
Use of "meet cute" situations
[
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]
Certain movies are entirely driven by the meet-cute situation, and contrived circumstances throw the couple together for much of the screenplay. However, movies in which the contrived situation is the main feature, such as
Some Like It Hot
, rather than the romance being the main feature, are not considered "meet-cutes".
The use of the meet-cute is less marked in television series and novels, because these formats have more time to establish and develop romantic relationships. In situation comedies, relationships are static and meet-cute is not necessary, though flashbacks may recall one (
The Dick Van Dyke Show
,
Mad About You
) and lighter fare may require contrived romantic meetings.
The heyday of "meet cute" in films was during the
Great Depression
in the 1930s;
screwball comedy
films made heavy use of contrived romantic "meet cutes", perhaps because the more rigid
class consciousness
and class divisions of this period made cross-social class romances into tantalizing fantasies.
[
citation needed
]
History
[
edit
]
Comedies, rooted in the fertility rites and satyr plays of
ancient Greece
, have often incorporated sexual or social elements.
[11]
[12]
The
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
defines romantic comedy as "a general term for comedies that deal mainly with the follies and misunderstandings of young lovers, in a light?hearted and happily concluded manner which usually avoids serious satire". This reference states that the "best?known examples are Shakespeare's comedies of the late 1590s,
A Midsummer Night's Dream
,
Twelfth Night
, and
As You Like It
being the most purely romantic, while
Much Ado About Nothing
approaches the
comedy of manners
and
The Merchant of Venice
is closer to
tragicomedy
."
[13]
It was not until the development of the literary tradition of
romantic love
in the western European
medieval
period, though, that "romance" came to refer to "romantic love" situations, rather than the heroic adventures of medieval
Romance
. Those adventures traditionally focused on a knight's feats on behalf of a lady, and so the modern themes of love were quickly woven into them, as in
Chretien de Troyes
's
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
.
[14]
The contemporary romantic comedy genre was shaped by 18th-century
Restoration comedy
and 19th-century romantic
melodrama
.
[15]
Restoration comedies were typically comedies of manners that relied on knowledge of the complex social rules of high society, particularly related to navigating the marriage-market, an inherent feature of the plot in many of these plays, such as
William Wycherley
's
The Country Wife
.
[16]
While the melodramas of the Romantic period had little to do with comedy, they were hybrids incorporating elements of domestic and sentimental tragedies, pantomime "with an emphasis on gesture, on the body, and the thrill of the chase," and other genres of expression such as songs and folk tales.
[17]
In the 20th century, as Hollywood grew, the romantic comedy in America mirrored other aspects of society in its rapid changes, developing many subgenres through the decades, such as the
screwball comedy
in response to the censorship of the Hays Code in the 1920s?1930s,
[18]
the career woman comedy
(such as George Stevens'
Woman of the Year
, starring
Katharine Hepburn
and
Spencer Tracy
) post-WWII, and the
sex comedy
made popular by
Rock Hudson
and
Doris Day
in the 1950s?1960s.
[15]
See also
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Johnson, Bill.
"The Art of the Romantic Comedy"
. Archived from
the original
on 2012-09-10.
- ^
"Comedy and Tragedy"
.
- ^
Mernit, Billy.
Writing the Romantic Comedy
(
HarperCollins
, 2000)
- ^
"Romantic comedy ? Define Romantic comedy at Dictionary.com"
.
Dictionary.com
.
- ^
Johnson, Bill.
The Art of the Romantic Comedy
. Archived from
the original
on 6 March 2012
. Retrieved
13 February
2019
.
- ^
The Big romance of Something Wild?: romantic comedy today
- ^
Guys Are the New Girls
- ^
Ebert, Roger
(18 April 2004).
"Ella Enchanted"
.
RogerEbert.com
.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2004
. Retrieved
13 February
2019
.
She has a Meet-Cute (three, actually) with Prince Charmont (Hugh Dancy)
- ^
"Review: McGregor, Plummer delight in 'Beginners'
"
.
Deseret News
. Deseret. Jun 1, 2011
. Retrieved
December 26,
2021
.
- ^
Ebert, Roger
(28 June 1979).
"Lost and Found"
.
RogerEbert.com
.
Archived
from the original on 3 August 2006
. Retrieved
13 February
2019
.
- ^
"comedy"
.
World Encyclopedia
. Philip's
. Retrieved
2 July
2022
.
- ^
Bermel, Albert (January 2005).
comedy
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-860174-6
. Retrieved
2 July
2022
.
- ^
Cited in Answers.com
http://www.answers.com/topic/romantic-comedy-1
Accessed June 20, 2011
- ^
C.S Lewis,
The Allegory of Love
, p 19
ISBN
0-19-281220-3
- ^
a
b
Kuhn, Annette; Westwell, Guy (25 June 2020). "romantic comedy".
A Dictionary of Film Studies
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-883209-6
. Retrieved
10 July
2022
.
- ^
Baldick, Chris (23 July 2015). "Restoration comedy".
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-871544-3
. Retrieved
10 July
2022
.
- ^
"melodrama".
An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age
. Oxford University Press. 1999.
ISBN
978-0-19-924543-7
. Retrieved
10 July
2022
.
- ^
Gehring, Wes D.
"Defining Screwball"
.
USA Today
. Retrieved
10 July
2022
.
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