Screwball Comedy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

No, this doesn't mean what you think.

The Screwball Comedy has a pretty precise definition: a comedy film—usually in black and white, although some were made in color—in which an uptight, repressed, or otherwise stiff character gets broken out of his or her shell by being romantically pursued by a Cloudcuckoolander (or a similar character type). It does not just mean "zany comedy." The Producers, say, is not a screwball comedy, although it is screwy, ballsy, and very funny. It is characterized by fast-paced repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage and showing the struggle between economic classes.

In other words, a Parody of a Romantic Comedy.


Classic screwball comedy examples include (period 1934-1944)

Later and modern examples of screwball comedy include: