Stars in Comedy

While dramatic movies may sweep the Academy Awards’ most prestigious awards, let’s face it – when people typically go to see a movie, they want to be entertained. While watching a series of seemingly disparate short stories connect into a rousing recourse against racism in a big city can be thought provoking, is it really enjoyable as watching a spoilt rich young man have to do his entire grade school and high school career all over again in a desperate bid to take over his father’s company? Conversely, what would you prefer to see – the heart wrenching court room drama between a couple that had adopted a child fighting against that child’s biological mother who had kicked a debilitating drug addiction and is ready to restart her life with her child or a comically inept musician pretending to be his roommate and showing a class of musically prodigious prep school kids how to ROCK? Regardless of your taste in movies, there’s something completely irresistible about comedies. While the best dramas can be divisive (in many cases that’s the point of the movie), a great comedy is a unifier. Although there are times when you want to watch a movie that engages you mentally and challenges your perceptions of the Middle East, there are also times when all you want to do is sit back and watch a movie about two lifelong bachelors indulging in a summer of crashing weddings.

Fantastic comedies are good for the whole family and are a great way to spend time with your friends or loved ones. It’s been said that laughter is the best medicine and if you’ve had a hard day, you can take solace in a comedy that will distract you from your problems and focus on what’s important – laughing. They say that comedy is a lesser art form in the movie world but if you look at the history of comedy, you will be able to see that comedy has its roots in Ancient Greek tragedies. A valuable device in storytelling, comedy is an underrated art form. The nice thing about comedy is the sheer versatility involved in the overall genre. There are many people that can’t get enough of blue collar comedy and the success of the blue collar comedy tour has shown how strong stand up comedy is these days. The popular channel comedy central has helped bolster stand up comedy with their comedy central presents specials that highlight the leading stand up comics of our time. There is also the increasingly political satire style of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, whose television shows, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have gained much popularity for their ability to poke fun at the absurdity of current affairs. A former colleague of theirs, Steve Carrell has gone on to star in the hit comedy show, The Office that showcases a creepily awkward style of comedy. Of course, most people don’t get their comedic kicks from the comedy clubs but rather from comedy films and comedy movies. The genre of comedy is responsible for producing some of the biggest movies of our time and for creating stars. While many actors and actresses that get their start in comedy often go on to focus on dramatic roles that give them more acclaim and lead to Oscars. At the 2007 Academy Awards, reigning funny men Will Ferrell and Jack Black lampooned this phenomenon in a comedy songs titled A Comedian at the Oscars in which Ferrell crooned over a spare piano, “A comedian at the Oscars is the saddest man of all, your movies may make millions but your name they’ll never call.”

However, it’s a common mistake to think that acting in a comedy is easier than in a drama. In many cases, actors that have done both swear that acting in a comedy is significantly harder because you only have one objective – to make the person watching the movie laugh. For this reason our writers have written a series of articles that will pay tribute to our stars of comedy. In a world that is obsessed with the personal lives of our stars, we are going to examine the core reasons why we like these funny men and women – their work. Of course, you’ll get a full biography of these hysterical people. If you are wondering who the hottest comic is, you can’t look any further than Dane Cook. For some reason people just can’t get enough of dane cook comedy and the man that masterminded a blistering marketing campaign with social networking sites like myspace continues his graduation from the comedy clubs to the advanced comedy of comedy films. Other fantastic stand up comics that could do a class on comedy instruction with their unique brand of racial humor are Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. While chris rock’s humor tends to be more blunt and outrageous, dave chappelle often tackles the same themes in an absurd but no less real manner.

A comic that is well know for his comedy films but has also released a number of popular comedy mp3 songs like The Hanukkah Song is former Saturday Night Live star Adam Sandler. The bonafide movie star could fill up a comedy channel with his numerous comedy clips. While Sandler relied on a unique brand of juvenile humor, Jim Carrey is a comic that practically perfected the art of physical comedy. Of course both of these stand up comic sensations turned occasional dramatic actor has followed the blueprint blazed by comedic legend and Academy Award winner Robin Williams. Although many people feel that robin williams comedy style is outdated, there is no way anybody can discredit how important the Mrs. Doubtfire star has been to comedy. In terms of the current kings of comedy films, you can look no further than a group of comics that have been dubbed the Fratback. In addition to Will Ferrell and Jack Black, this loose collection of actors include Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and Vince Vaughn. These actors have worked together numerous times in classic comedy movies like Zoolander, Starsky and Hutch, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball. Of course, comedy isn’t just the domain of males. While female actresses often find that good comic roles are hard to come by, some of today’s biggest female stars have found that comedy has been good to them. Jennifer Aniston scored a major hit in the comedy film The Break-Up that she co-starred in with her boyfriend of the time, Vince Vaughn. Cameron Diaz rocketed to fame on the strength of a couple of classic comedy movies - The Mask, There’s Something About Mary. While other actresses found that good comedic parts weren’t coming their way, Sandra Bullock went out of her way to craft Miss Congeniality, a highly successful comedy that would showcase her physical comedy skills.