Now a trope is best described a conceptual figure of speech, a pattern used in story telling, character archetypes, and world building. When I say trope in this instance it is used more to describe the characters and settings. The movie plays on these expectations you have as a viewer to twist it to a more lighthearted version of itself. It takes these characters of the cackling mad scientist, and the spooky laboratory and then proceeds to poke fun at those ideas and characters.
There is the obvious slapstick humor helping to draw a more jovial air to the movie, but if you dig deeper you will find that almost every character is a parody of the role they played in the original Frankenstein, not just the tropes they embody. The Igor, who in the original was meant to be instilling a sense of uneasy through the mild body horror of his image, is played off as a weird old man with a lisp and googly eyes. The monster previously an unspeakable monstrosity of anger and destruction is now just a confused man with an 'abnormal' brain. Possibly the writer playing into his views on mental illness, but that is for another time.
One major trope the copying of the entire formula of the original Frankenstein. Funny enough, they actually used a lot of the same props in Young Frankenstein that were featured in the first one. But after the opening to set the stage, it almost follows to a T the original events in a more comedic way. They dig up a body, find a brain, reanimate the creature, experience this new life, he escapes and terrorizes the townsfolk. That list can be used as a large generalization for both movies, though certainly large differences were had. One large difference is that by the end the previously creepy and strange monster is lovable and funny, one thing you could not say with most monsters that tend to appear on the silver screen.
The reason I come to compare the two movies is the idea that I mentioned at the beginning: comedy is the antithesis of horror. Though it is not that hard to reach that point or reversing said horror. The use of tropes and seeing them as such is enough to feel a disconnect from the fear originally associated with monsters and creepy people of this movie. Adding in amazing writing and funny actors then you get a recipe for success in the comedy world. It is not as if Young Frankenstein was intended to be scary, quite the opposite obviously. But, being able to take a classic horror film and turn it into one of the top grossing comedy movies of it's time is certainly something to be admired. I highly recommend anyone who has not seen this masterpiece to do so, a work of art and probably my most favorite parody piece of all time.
I wrote my last post on Gene Wilder as well, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, he is really such an amazing actor in his facial expression and his ability to take a role and really turn it into almost an extreme form. I do however have to disagree that horror is the opposite of comedy. I feel that some times, more than even I care to admit, comedy is laughing at what we fear in a social context. For example: walking down the street and slipping on a banana peel; this would be terribly embarrassing in every day life but as Charlie Chaplin shows us in several of his movies it is a riot to watch.
ReplyDeleteIn your post you explained how tropes were used to change the "horror" aspects of the characters and story into more of a comedic version by making fun of them or parodying them. So in this case, these tropes, or maybe the way these tropes were brought up in the film, practically changed the genre of the film. I'm sure this concept has been used similarly, many times before in order to make fun of or parody a popular film or film style of the times. I never have really thought to deeply analyze a parody piece before. Is it possible? Is it meant to be analyzed or just meant to make you analyze the themes and concepts it is parodying?
ReplyDeleteJared Islas
My dad considers this movie to be one of his favorites from his past, and even though I have not seen it personally, I now think I might take a look at it. It is interesting to look at satirical movies from the past and look at how it compares to satirical movies from today. A movie that is sort of like these from the 2000's would be the scary movie series with the comedians who recreate scary scenes from movies but make jokes about some absurd things found into todays horror movies. Frankenstein itself was terrifying for it time, but as time moves on the idea of fear changes, and sometimes our fears can become things we laugh at later on.
ReplyDelete-Carter
Alex:
ReplyDeleteI think there is something there in regards toa link between humor and horror. They both tend to reflect our insecurities and our aspirations. They both serve an evolutionary and social function. It is an interesting thing to analyze in relation to film. These stories often depend on a healthy blend of both comedy and fear to engage audiences.
I like your post! I think you did a good job of summarizing the movie and I also like that you included a general definition of 'tropes' and also how you plan on using it. It was helpful to the understanding of the article. Parodies are an interesting thing to evaluate and I think you did it well. You saw that different characters embody horror tropes and how it plays out. I like that you introduced your summary and theme at the beginning and then restated it at the end; you did a good job of summing things up.
ReplyDelete- Bailey West