romantic comedy

File:Kathryn Grayson in Seven Sweethearts.jpg in Seven Sweethearts (1942), a musical romantic comedy film]]

Comedies, rooted in the fertility rites and satyr plays of ancient Greece, have often incorporated sexual or social elements.{{cite web |title=comedy |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199546091.001.0001/acref-9780199546091-e-2649. |access-date=2 July 2022 |website=World Encyclopedia |publisher=Philip's}}{{cite book |last1=Bermel |first1=Albert |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198601746.001.0001/acref-9780198601746-e-867 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance |date=January 2005 |website= |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860174-6 |access-date=2 July 2022}}

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."Cited in Answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/romantic-comedy-1 Accessed June 20, 2011

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. They were previously referred to as the heroic adventures of medieval chivalric romance. Those adventures traditionally focused on a knight's feats on behalf of a lady, so the modern themes of love were quickly woven into them, as in Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart.C.S Lewis, The Allegory of Love, p 19 {{ISBN|0-19-281220-3}}

File:Philadelphia Story 13.jpg, considered a pinnacle of romantic comedy.]]

The contemporary romantic comedy genre was shaped by 18th-century Restoration comedy and 19th-century romantic melodrama.{{cite book |last1=Kuhn |first1=Annette |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198832096.001.0001/acref-9780198832096-e-0593 |title=A Dictionary of Film Studies |last2=Westwell |first2=Guy |date=25 June 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-883209-6 |chapter=romantic comedy |access-date=10 July 2022 |url-access=subscription}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Baldick |first1=Chris |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-971 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms |date=23 July 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-871544-3 |chapter=Restoration comedy |access-date=10 July 2022 |url-access=subscription}} 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.{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199245437.001.0001/acref-9780199245437-e-436 |title=An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-924543-7 |chapter=melodrama |access-date=10 July 2022 |url-access=subscription}}

In the 20th century, as Hollywood grew, the romantic comedy in America mirrored other aspects of society in its rapid changes, developing many sub-genres through the decades. We can see this through the screwball comedy in response to the censorship of the Hays Code in the 1920s–1930s,{{cite web |last1=Gehring |first1=Wes D. |title=Defining Screwball |url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=157123451&site=eds-live&scope=site |access-date=10 July 2022 |website=USA Today}} 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.

{{more citations needed section|date=October 2024}}

File:Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell in The Seven Year Itch trailer 2.JPG and Tom Ewell in the Seven Year Itch (1955) trailer]]

Over the years, romantic comedies have slowly been becoming more popular with both men and women.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} They have begun to spread out of their conventional and traditional structure into other territory and to explore 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"{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/romantic+comedy|title=Romantic comedy – Define Romantic comedy at Dictionary.com|work=Dictionary.com}} but with more complexity.

Some romantic comedies have adopted special 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 a barrier between them anymore.{{cite web |first=Bill |last=Johnson |title=The Art of the Romantic Comedy |url=http://www.storyispromise.com/wromance.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306101425/http://www.storyispromise.com/wromance.htm |archive-date=6 March 2012 |access-date=13 February 2019 |work=A Story is a Promise}} 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 pornographic film together. Both these films take the typical story arc and then add strange circumstances to add originality.

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 to end up separated but still content and pursue other goals and love interests.

Image:The apartment trailer 1.JPG has come to be regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, appearing in lists by the American Film Institute and Sight and Sound magazine. In 1994, it was one of 25 films selected for inclusion to the Library of Congress National Film Registry.{{Cite news|date=1994-11-15|title=25 Films Added to National Registry|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/15/movies/25-films-added-to-national-registry.html|access-date=2020-05-18|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-05-18}}]]

Some romantic comedies use reversal of gender roles to add comedic effect.The Big romance of Something Wild?: romantic comedy today 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. It can also be seen in Made of Honor, in which the female bridesmaids are shown in a negative and somewhat masculine light to advance the likability of the male lead.Guys Are the New Girls

Other remakes of romantic comedies involve similar elements, but they 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.

{{Main|Meet cute}}

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{{cite web |quote=She has a Meet-Cute (three, actually) with Prince Charmont (Hugh Dancy) |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Ella Enchanted |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040409/REVIEWS/404090304/1023 |date=18 April 2004 |access-date=13 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040907034225/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20040409%2FREVIEWS%2F404090304%2F1023 |archive-date=7 September 2004 |work=RogerEbert.com |url-status=live }} or the Associated Press's Christy Lemire{{cite news|date=Jun 1, 2011|title=Review: McGregor, Plummer delight in 'Beginners'|work=Deseret News|publisher=Deseret|url=https://www.deseret.com/2011/6/1/20195497/review-mcgregor-plummer-delight-in-beginners#in-this-film-publicity-image-released-by-focus-features-christopher-plummer-is-shown-in-a-scene-from-beginners|access-date=December 26, 2021}} have called a "meet-cute" situation. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create a 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."{{cite web |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19790628/REVIEWS/906280301/1023 |title=Lost and Found |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=28 June 1979 |work=RogerEbert.com |access-date=13 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060803055827/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19790628%2FREVIEWS%2F906280301%2F1023 |archive-date=3 August 2006 |url-status=live }}

In many romantic comedies, the potential couple comprises 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.

• Bromantic comedy
• Chick flick
• Screwball comedy
• Sex comedy
• Sitcom
• List of romantic comedy films
• List of romantic comedy television series

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/RomanticComedy.php Romantic Comedy Movies] – worldwide movies from the 1940s to upcoming releases, with box office performance from The Numbers
• [http://www.the-numbers.com/market/Genres/RomanticComedy.php Market Performance of Romantic Comedies] – U.S. movies box office performance from The Numbers

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