Sympathetic Humor: Feminizing American Feature Comedy

In the 1910s, American film comedy underwent a dramatic transformation driven by the rise of the feature film and Hollywood’s efforts to attract female audiences. Megan Boyd illuminates the role of women in the shaping the success of comedy’s adaptation to features and the influence of their presumed tastes on screen comedy beyond the silent era.

As women rejected a range of comedic approaches, studios pivoted to a kind of affiliative comedy that encouraged filmgoers to laugh with characters rather than at them. Producers cast young stars as likeable protagonists in humorous stories that often led to romance, personal growth, and career success. Boyd traces how this shift revised portrayals of femininity and masculinity, courtship, marriage, race, and social class.

Original and rich in detail, Sympathetic Humor draws on a wealth of fresh archival research to reveal the pivotal role of female viewers in the evolution of film comedy.