Sounding Funny - Sound and Comedy Cinema - Mark Evans

Sounding Funny - Sound and Comedy Cinema - Mark Evans

Sounding Funny: the importance of hearing (as well as seeing) the joke

Sounding Funny - Sound and Comedy Cinema - Mark Evans

Liz Giuffre [+-]
University of Technology, Sydney
Dr Liz Giuffre is a Senior Lecturer in Communication at the University of Technology Sydney. She also regularly works in the national independent arts press as a journalist and commentator, including work as the regular contributing editor for Metro magazine, a regular contributor to Critical Studies in Television, and columnist for The Conversation.
Mark Evans [+-]
University of Technology Sydney
Professor Mark Evans is Head of the School of Communication at the University of Technology Sydney. He is Series Editor for Genre, Music and Sound. Recent books include Sounding Funny: Comedy, Cinema and Music (with Phillip Hayward) and Moves, Movies and Music: The Sound of Dance Films (with Mary Fogarty), and The New Music Industries: Disruption and Discovery (co-authored with Hughes, Morrow and Keith), published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Description

Comedy is a genre that many commentators and practitioners find how to analyze. It is as if there is something immeasurable about the genre – somehow its range or affect is so subjective that it defies sustained exploration and documentation. Here we seek to explore how comedy on screen works and why its composition has been such a puzzle – suggesting that an important element in the comedic address is often not acknowledged- the role of sound in creating and confirming genre. This chapter serves as an introduction to the collection of case study essays to follow as well as a provocation for further study – calling future researchers to remember that just one sound, the sound of laughter, often creates and confirms comedy’s very presence. We outline some key types of film comedy address here and provide frameworks to recognize them, as well as suggesting areas of inquiry still left as yet unattended. The authors argue that as with all film sound analysis, those interested in comedy should remember the importance of hearing, as well as seeing, the elements that contribute to the art form’s affect.

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Citation

Giuffre, Liz; Evans, Mark. Sounding Funny: the importance of hearing (as well as seeing) the joke. Sounding Funny - Sound and Comedy Cinema. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 1-13 Jan 2016. ISBN 9781845536749. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=24486. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.24486. Jan 2016

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