There aren’t many comedy movies which use historical settings, but ones that do can have a timeless appeal. Comedy often works best when it feels timely and relevant, so the large majority of comedy movies focus on contemporary stories. Historical comedies offer something different, however, such as the opportunity to laugh at the past, and the chance to deconstruct the lofty pretensions of historical dramas.
While mostperiod movies are judged on their historical accuracy, comedies usually have different motives. Since they don’t profess to present an accurate depiction of the past, historical comedies have license to go off the rails, and inaccuracy and anachronism can often be part of the joke. While historical comedies are rarely accurate, they can still shine a light on some surprising truths about how people relate to the past, and how other movies give historical periods a quasi-mythological sheen.
Spike Lee’sBlacKkKlansmanwas his funniest movie in decades, returning to the laugh-out-loud style of early hits likeDo the Right Thing. However,BlacKkKlansmanseems more grounded in some ways, largely because the unbelievable story of a Black police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan is based on a real case. John David Washington delivers one of his most charismatic performances to date as the police officer, while Adam Driver plays his accomplice in the department.
Washington and Driver strike up a wonderful chemistry.BlacKkKlansmanlooks like a buddy cop movie, but the dynamic between the two main characters is fueled by their impish glee at getting away with a long con, which lends the movie the atmosphere of a caper.Spike Lee usesBlacKkKlansmanto underline that racial hatred in American society is as rife as ever.Just as Ron Stallworth is disturbed to discover the inner workings of a thriving Klan in the 1970s, Lee closes the movie with a harrowing montage that shows how more recent events indicate that racism is alive and well.
Monty Python’s moviesall take an irreverent stance as they deconstruct societal norms and assumptions.The Life of Brianskewers religious orthodoxy, andThe Meaning of Lifetears down just about every aspect of modern life from the cradle to the grave.Monty Python and the Holy Grailis a farcical comedy that questions the reverence with which people approach history, and it examines the smudged line between history, legend and pure myth.
Part of the joke is that it’s just as likely to be true as any other Hollywood representation of the past.
Monty Python and the Holy Grailis a gleefully inaccurate portrayal of the Middle Ages, but part of the joke is that it’s just as likely to be true as any other Hollywood representation of the past. Within this framework, the Pythons take turns playing a carousel of contemptible nitwits and absurd, overblown stereotypes, and many of their funniest characters can be seen on King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail.
At one point in Taika Waititi’s World War II comedyJojo Rabbit,a Gestapo officer compliments a young child on his blind fanaticism. Herein lies the thrust of Waititi’s political satire. By using a child with a head full of daydreams as his main character, he exposes the immature lunacy of fascist ideologies. Only someone as detached from the real world as Jojo should believe that an autocrat can solve all their problems. Jojo sees Adolf Hitler as a figure akin to Superman, andJojo Rabbit’s scriptis full of hilarious dramatic irony as he ties himself in knots to defend this fantasy.
Waitit uses the setting to create a timeless satire of how political ineptitude and indifference can tear any society apart.
Taika Waititi has proudly stated that he did no research for his portrayal of Hitler. This is partly because his Hitler is only an imaginary version that exists within Jojo’s mind, but also becauseJojo Rabbitwould have no use for a realistic depiction of the dictator. By making Hitler a petty, silly loser, Waititi is able to draw attention away from the specifics of the era and create a more timeless satire of how political ineptitude and indifference can tear any society apart.
The Death of Stalinopens with the miniature farce of a radio station forced to repeat a concert so that they can record it for Joseph Stalin, filling the seats with random passers-by for acoustical purposes and waking a conductor in the middle of the night. This bizarre episode is just one of many true stories Armando Iannucci copied and pasted into his script to highlight the absurdity of Soviet life during Stalin’s reign.In some cases, Iannucci had to tone down the real history, for fear that his audience would think it was too far-fetched and implausible.
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The Death of Stalinlooks at the power struggle that unfolded in the days and weeks after Stalin died without naming a successor. The ensemble cast includes plenty of comedic heavy-hitters, such as Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin and Jason Isaacs, who puts a hilarious spin on his talent for playing villains. WhileThe Death of Stalintakes plenty of creative license, a surprising amount of the story is strangely true.
Yorgos Lanthimos' moviesall share the director’s singular style, with plenty of flat, emotionless characters and strangely animalistic fits of sex and violence.The Favouritebalances Lanthimos' comedy with his dark characterization better than his other movies, creating a story that is simultaneously hilarious and gut-wrenchingly tragic. Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, with Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as two cousins vying to be her court favourite in the early 18th century.
The story of Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill has been the subject of some debate among historians.
The story of Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill has been the subject of some debate among historians. While the consensus among experts is that rumors of any sexual relations were politically motivated, Lanthimos makes this a key feature ofThe Favourite.Whether he believes the rumors is unclear, but he certainly seeks to draw parallels between the political game of cloak-and-dagger between the two cousins and primitive sexual jealousy. This is just one way thatLanthimos bucks the trends of stuffy period dramas.
The Banshees of Inisherintakes place during the Irish Civil War, but the setting is a remote island off the mainland, removed from the fighting in more ways than one. Though the sounds of cannon fire can sometimes be heard echoing over the water, the characters inThe Banshees of Inisherindon’t pay much attention to the political turmoil that engulfs the rest of the country. However, the plot has often been described as an allegory for the Civil War.
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The Banshees of Inisherinfollows two friends who suddenly stop talking after one decides to end their friendship out of the blue. In some ways, this reflects the way that the Irish Civil War turned friends against one another, and there are plenty of subtle hints that suggest that the two main characters represent the two sides of the conflict. Despite this heavy subject matter, Martin McDonagh uses his talent for hilarious dialogue to get plenty of laughs.
Some Like It Hotstars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians who disguise themselves as women to avoid detection by the mob. To add some more danger and a little throwback charm to the movie, the story takes place in the prohibition era. This sets up plenty of great jokes about the future, Al Capone-style gangsters and the emergence of jazz.Some Like It Hotgets most of its historical comedy out of the way before the story leaves Chicago.Most of the movie could just as easily have taken place in 1959.
Like many classicOld Hollywood comedies,Some Like It Hotis admired for its rapid-fire dialogue, with Curtis and Lemmon combining to create a frenzy of witty banter.Some Like It Hotis funny when the two men struggle to pass themselves off as women, and it’s even funnier when they start to play the part a little too well.Some Like It Hotis credited with putting the final nail in the coffin of the Hays Code, so it’s only fitting that it’s set in a pre-Code era with free-flowing alcohol, men in drag and a dash of violence.
Not only isThe Nice Guysa throwback to the 1970s, it also feels like a throwback to an earlier era of comedy movies. In an era when the comedy genre is either being consumed by action or leaning into dark tragicomic drama,The Nice Guysproudly treats its more serious elements as secondary. There is no fight scene or disturbing mystery inThe Nice Guysthat can’t be immediately undercut by a childish squeal by Ryan Gosling or a gruff shrug by Russell Crowe.
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The retro charm is so central to the appeal ofThe Nice Guysthat it seems to imagine it taking place in the modern day, andthe technological limitations of the 1970s make the investigation delightfully tediousfor the two detectives. Gosling and Crowe are surprisingly perfect together, makingThe Nice Guysone of thebest recent comedy movies, even though Crowe in particular isn’t known for comedy roles.
Like so many of Woody Allen’s comedies,Bullets Over Broadwayis about a struggling writer who thinks he’s more talented than he really is. 10 or 20 years earlier, Allen probably would have played David himself, but John Cusack delivers a brilliant performance. The story takes place in the 1920s, as David reluctantly casts a mobster’s girlfriend in his play to secure funding.
Bullets Over Broadwayuses the intensity of the gangster genre as little more than a backdrop for one man’s crisis of confidence.
Bullets Over Broadwaypays tribute to the art of theater, and all the frenzied rehearsals, rewrites and insecurity that come with putting on a show. It heightens the tension with the inclusion of the mob, anda violent gangster movie plays out in the backgroundas David worries about his artistic credibility.Bullets Over Broadwayuses the intensity of the gangster genre as little more than a backdrop for one man’s crisis of confidence.
Many of thebest Coen brothers moviesfocus on specific regions of the United States.Fargotakes place in the frigid north,Raising Arizonafocuses on the deserts of the west, andO Brother, Where Art Thouis a southern tale. It’s also one of the Coen brothers' historical movies, unfolding in 1937.O Brother, Where Art Thoutakes in some of the cultural tropes of the time, with chain gangs, old folk music and a Klan rally.
While this portrayal isn’t necessarily historically accurate, what it says about the mysterious nature of the past rings true.
O Brother, Where Art Thouis inspired byTheOdyssey,but the Coen brothers take a very loose interpretation of the story. Still, some elements of fable seep into the story, lending 1930s Missouri a mythical quality. Unknown creatures seem to lurk around every corner, some of which are friends and some of which are foes. While this portrayal isn’t necessarily historically accurate, what it says about the mysterious nature of the past rings true.
