wk 2 film

Romantic Comedy Genre 2

Romantic Comedy Genre

Genre theory is a way to help one study films, and to classify films into different groups

so that viewers have an idea of what they will be watching before they even watch it. Genre is

like a glossary for movies. All films fall under at least one genre and most can be more narrowly

categorized into subgenres. For example, the romantic comedy genre can also overlap with

subgenres like the screwball comedy, teen comedy, or gross-out comedy (Goodykoontz &

Jacobs, 2014, table 4.1). This paper will focus on the romantic comedy genre, specifically the

screwball comedy, Knocked Up, to help movie viewers gain a better perpective on the elements

of this film, the specific conventions of this genre, as well as the how this film expands the

boundaries of romantic comedies. X

In her study of the romantic comedy genre, Katherina Glitre (2006) suggests that, “genre

expectations are based on convention—our mutal understanding that certain things happen in

certain ways in certain kinds of texts. Thus, one of our expectations when watching a romantic

comedy is that the film will end with the union of a couple,” (p. 10). This rings true for the

movie Knocked Up , which stars Seth Rogen as the obnoxious male protagonist, Ben, and

Katherine Heigl as Alison, the uptight, yet put-together female protagonist. Ben is a slob who

smokes marijuana and finds nude scenes in movies indexes them on a website he runs with his

friends. Alison is a beautiful television producer who has her life together and is looking to move

up in her career. When Ben and Alison meet at a nightclub, they end up intoxicated, and spend

the night together. After that night, Alison finds out she is pregnant and she informs Ben. They

both test out a relationship, but decide they are too different, so they split up. Ben ends up getting

his life together and Alison realizes she misses him and cannot raise their baby on her own. In

the end, they come back together before their baby is born. X This movie incorporates elements Romantic Comedy Genre 5

References

Denby, David. (2007, July 23). A Fine Romance. The New Yorker. Retrieved from

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/07/23/a-fine-romance

Glitre, K. (2006). Hollywood Romantic Comedy : States of the Union, 1934-1965. Manchester, GBR: Manchester University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic

version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ 1. In this paragraph, the author clearly states the objective of the romantic comedy genre, identifies its

conventions, and describes how this film meets that objective by using those conventions.

2. Here, the author could better describe the conventions of the screwball comedy and how the film joins those

conventions with the conventions of the romantic comedy.

3. In this paragraph, the author clearly states the objective of the romantic comedy genre, identifies its

conventions, and describes how this film meets that objective by using those conventions.

4. Here, the author could better describe the conventions of the screwball comedy and how the film joins those

conventions with the conventions of the romantic comedy

5. This is an excellent use of an outside source to support the argument that Knocked Up breaks the mold of the

genre.

6. This is a strong insight into the changing tastes of audiences and how effective films anticipate, often

presciently, the stories audiences want to see.