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outcolder's review
2.0
I liked the beginning chapters which give a theoretical overview and history of comedy, and those are precisely the chapters that people looking for a "how to" book would probably find least interesting. Another plus is that Horton looks beyond the US to comedy films from Europe, and the bits about Czech and Yugoslavian cinema are great... but he seems to be missing the huge film industries of Mumbai and Hong Kong and also his African films are South African when there's fantastic comedy coming out of Nigeria. Horton's heart is with the more subversive comedies and his references to off-beat quasi-documentaries are terrific, but jamming everything into either "anarchistic" or "romantic" comedies gets monotonous. As the film and television analyses wore on, and then the last few chapters which are just the assignments sections from university courses he taught... precisely the bits that people looking for a "how to" book would find most interesting... I got more and more bored. I won't be doing his writing exercises or prompts. The appendices: lists of movies and TV shows to watch are cool, and apropos of nothing there's the menu from the big dinner in Big Night. All in all, it's a kooky read, but for every refreshingly kooky aspect, there's an obnoxiously kooky aspect. Obnoxiously kooky can work wonderfully in a film but it didn't work for me in this book.
misakattack's review
3.0
Just a boring read. It was 30% screenwriting help and 70% history lesson. It should really market itself as a book on the history of comedy entertainment (and now go write your own comedy, kids!). The screenwriting part was pretty helpful (and good enough for me to give this book two more stars than it deserves), but it still doesn't make up for the fact that I wasted my time reading the rest of it.
a_kindle_bookworm's review
This was a school book I read a few months ago but I forgot to include. I forget the actual date I read it so I'm just putting in today's date.
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