The Comedies of Nihilism: The Representation of Tragedy on Screen

2017 | Film & TV

This book presents close-readings of seven post-millennial comedy films: Up in the Air, Tropic Thunder, JCVD, Winnebago Man, The Trotsky, Be Kind Rewind, and Hamlet 2. It is a sequel to Stanley Cavell's 1981 treatment of the comedy genre, Pursuits of Happiness, where he examines seven comedies of Hollywood's "Golden Age". In taking stock of what has happened to comedy since Cavell's landmark study, this book puts forward the idea that comedies, once centred on the conventional "happy ending," are no longer interested in detailing the steps to any ending we might call happy. Instead, the agenda of most culturally serious comedies today is to "spoof" and make all that is fair foul. But to what end? Khan argues that the seven films presented here risk a type of cultural nihilism-spoofing for the sake of spoofing and nothing else. This study shows that comedy has less and less to do with happiness, and is more focused on the grotesque. The films analysed represent hyper-realized forms of comic irony and move towards what the theatre knows as tragedy, or a tragic vision.

Amir Khan (Author)