Choose ONE of the following and please confine your answer to movies screened in class. Make sure to engage with readings. If you wish, you may refer to unassigned scholarly writing (be sure to cite all readings accurately and consistently). Make sure to back up your claims with cinematic evidence.

1. Discuss the work of comedy directors John Waters or the Farrelly Brothers. Focusing primarily on Serial Mom (if your subject is Waters) or Kingpin (if you choose to write about the Farrellys), identify what you consider to be the primary artistic concerns of the men behind the camera. Does their work reveal a particular outlook or worldview? Please make sure to reference and analyze at least one other movie by your director(s).

2. Killing and death are a leading concern of Serial Mom, Kind Hearts and Coronets, and Sightseers. Unlike slapstick comedies, which present the spectacle of injury, these movies ask us to contemplate the body’s annihilation. Is film comedy equipped to approach this particularly disturbing subject? What can be achieved by the comedic portrayal of death? Discuss these questions with reference to two or more of our films.

3. Fearsome, mentally unstable women are central characters in Serial Mom, Sightseers, and King of Comedy. How does female madness function in one or both of these comedy films?

4. Male suffering, failure, and humiliation are integral to Kingpin, King of Comedy, Sightseers, and This is Spinal Tap. Why does the film comedy repeatedly offer such spectacles? Discuss at least two of our movies in your answer.