Genre Conventions

Crime/ Comedy

Keir Jenkins

The conventions of Crime Comedy Films

• The conventions of crime comedy films involve:• Themes of violence• Character deaths• Trivializing of events otherwise considered serious• Illegal/ deviant behavior+ activities• Witty quips • Blatant knowledge gaps• Properties such as weapons

Themes of ViolenceViolence, along with many other subjects, is often trivialized in these films, to the point where an audience could be laughing as a character is being exposed to extreme physical harm. This is accomplished by multiple factors, including: the overall scenario of how the character ended up in this predicament, the location or manor in which it is happening, or any clever comments either character feels like saying when the violence is taking place.

An example of violence in these films is in the film snatch, where a character who has been blinded with a bag over his head manages to scape from the boot of a car, upon which he manages to be hit by another one.

Character Deaths• Characters dying is on of the

many aspects included in these films to be made into a joke, to the extent were these characters’ deaths are hardly noticed, or the audience just do not care too much. Once again, this is often due to the circumstances in which they die. An example of this is in the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Robert Downey Jr. kills a criminal by shooting him in the head, after he thought that the gun would not fire due to there only being one bullet in it.

Illegal/ Deviant Activities• As these films are crime films, there are often ways, mostly simple, to

show us this. This is often done by displaying illegal or deviant behavior and activities, such as violence, organised crime, or drug use. This is evident in the film Trainspotting, where in a good prortion of scenes, we can see the illegal consumption of heroin.

Witty Quips/Comedic Dialogue

• One way in which Crime/ Comedies make the serious events comedic is through dialogue. These can range from jokes to witty commentary could be used even in the middle of a fight. An example of this is in the film The Big Lebowski: The main character is asked “Where’s the money, Lebowski?” Whilst having his head repeatedly dunked into a toilet, to which he replies “It’s down there somewhere, let me take another look.”

“Where’s the

money, Lebowski?” “It’s down there somewhere, let me take another look.”

Knowledge Gaps

• A lot of the time, knowledge gaps are used to bring a sense of irony and ‘close call’ situations, such as two characters passing each other in a corridor but not realising who they are. This creates a feeling of tension in the scenes, but it is usually delivered in a comedic manor, almost as if to say “it’s rather funny how close those two came to each other when x is searching for y.”

Properties• The most easily

recognizable properties in a crime film are those which are related to violence, drug use, or perhaps outside their usual surroundings in relation to comedy. Properties such as guns and drug paraphernalia are found in Pulp Fiction.