"The Successful Façade: The Powers of Postmodernism within the Comedy" by Abigail Muller
 

Document Type

Other

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

The comedy has always been an incredibly versatile genre: although it certainly contains rote story formulas meant to provide lighthearted entertainment, the comedy can also reveal interesting perspectives pertaining to darker underlying issues, allowing audiences to process these hypocrisies as from behind a screen of safety. Such is the case of the movies The King of Comedy (1982), Wag the Dog (1997), Bowfinger (1999), and Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), all of which can be classified as comedic escapades yet fail to conceal their corrupted underbellies from a prying viewer. The four films, despite occurring in wildly different worlds and containing unrelated plots, are linked through a singular common denominator: each movie’s characters are implicit in a successful façade, one that allows them to abandon basic moral principles in favor of the achievement of a material goal.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

Copyright © 2024 Abigail Muller

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