The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, directed by Preston Sturges, is often considered to be of the “screwball comedy” genre. Often considered, however, may not be enough. The genre of screwball comedy is hard to put a finger on, because it so well blends the styles of many other genres, including the romantic comedy and the slapstick comedy. As the internet phantom describes it, “Screwball comedies combine the lunacy and ridiculousness of farce with the comic violence and hare-brained action of slapstick comedy, and the sophisticated and witty dialogue of the romantic comedy. All these elements are generally delivered at break-neck speed.”

This definition may be better understood through Steve Neale’s concept of verisimilitude. Neale’s verisimilitude offers that the condition of most films, which is quickly recognizable to the audience (“Genres do not consist only of films: they consist also, and equally, of specific systems of expectation and hypothesis that spectators bring with them to the cinema and that interact with films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”) is in no way a direct connection to reality, but a “very similar” approximation that the audience is comfortable with and accepts as reality within the context of the genre that they are appreciating. “The relation is here established between the work and a scattered discourse that in part belongs to each of the individuals of a society but of which none may claim ownership; in other words, to public opinion. The latter is of course not ‘reality’ but merely a further discourse, independent of the work.” Slapstick comedy, for example, is completely dependent on physical comedy. The “funny” in the film relies wholly on outlandish physical contact between people and/or objects.

This is present in The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (when William Demarest breaks glass or runs into a tree), but it is not the only component of the film. The audience expects to see romance (within the reality of screwball comedy), and they care about this romance. Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton’s characters matter to us. We want them to end up together. We expect this in this genre, and consequently pine for them to get together. The audience is not as concerned with this in slapstick comedy. Neither are they concerned with physical comedy in a romantic comedy. These are not the realities they expect, and thus The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek embodies the screwball comedy.

Every film genre has a set of "rules" that it must follow in order to be classified as such. These "rules" are a set of expectations that an audience has based on previous examples of the genre. It is expected that a science fiction film will involve some element that is beyond the norms of everyday life, whether it be aliens, time travel, robots, or the clashing of two different realities. If such elements aren't there, then it is impossible to claim it is science fiction. Comedy can be defined as a genre that exists solely to make people laugh. It's rules are varied and complex, necessitating the creation of sub-genres. There are many such sub-genres including black comedies, sketch comedy, parody, slapstick, romantic comedy, and screwball comedy. Each of these sub-genres have their own expectations and "rules."

Screwball comedy came into existence during the Great Depression. It was a way to create laughs and good times while staying true to a new system of standards that were put in place by those who believed that film was subverting the morality of America. The "rules" of this kind of comedy were varied and sometimes overlapped with other sub-genres of comedy. I will use the film Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) as an example to show a couple of the "rules" of screwball comedy and how they compare to other forms of comedy.

One of the hallmarks of screwball comedy is romance. Unlike a romantic comedy that contains a romance that ends on some kind of sentimental note, the romance in screwball comedy is full of bizarre and incredible travails. In screwball comedy, the romance takes a back seat to the humor whereas a romantic comedy is exactly the opposite. In Miracle of Morgan's Creek, the romance between Norval and Trudy that is at the center of the plot, but the film's focus is entirely on the crazy antics that surround this romance. The laughs are what the film is all about, not some kind of rooting for a climactic kiss.

Another facet of screwball comedy is an element of physical comedy. There are all sorts of moments that involve pratfalls and comedic violence. This is an element that is shared with slapstick, but in screwball comedy the physical comedy is only a part of a much larger comedic canvas. Often, such moments also include witty dialogue or psychologically comedic moments that are interspersed with the physical gags. There is a scene where Norval is trying to get a screen door open, but ends up just walking through it. It is a wonderfully, physical joke, but it is setup by the dialog and psychological intimidation of Trudy's father only moments before.

There are many more “rules” that screwball comedy follows. Many of them overlap with other forms of comedy, but it is by combining them that this form becomes unique. Like any other genre, screwball comedy follows the “rules” that audiences expect, and, though it’s a “dead” genre, is still enjoyed tremendously today.

"Screwball comedy" is a commonly used term, and while it is generally
thrown out to any comedy that seems somewhat off the wall, its genre is much more specific and important. Screwball comedy is a perfect
example of Neale's concept of genre as a process as opposed to a
simple repetition. Screwball comedy is not only reliant on the hybridization of other genres before it, but has greatly contributed to more contemporary comedic genres.

In his essay "Questions of Genre," Steve Neale describes film genre as a process: "[G]enres are, nevertheless, best understood as processes. These processes may, for sure, be dominated by repetition, but they are also marked fundamentally by difference, variation, and change" (165). This concept opens the door for many genre hybridizations to exist. Screwball comedy is really a unique combination of distinct comic signifiers. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) contains elements of slapstick for example. The multiple scenes where Const. Kockenlocker (William Demarest) attempts to kick his daughter Emmy (Diana Lynn) would be a good representation of slapstick comedy. The purely physical and exaggerated manner in which Const. Kockenlocker falls down represents slapstick humor, but the film is not purely slapstick comedy. Slapstick comedy rarely exhibits wit in dialogue, and the fast-paced jokes throughout The Miracle of Morgan's Creek are very out of character for slapstick comedy, which exhibits only base physical comedy. Famous for altering conventions, Screwball comedy, however, is also partially characterized by slapstick comedy. Const. Kockenlocker's comic inability to simply kick his daughter, hurting himself in the process, relays her superiority and an inversion of the regular father/daughter convention. The physical comedy is used to make a statement not characteristic of slapstick on its own.

Modern comedy often relies on Screwball comedy as a piece of the new budding comic genres. The final act of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is unforgettable with the tremendous number of crazed actions and plot twists occurring all at once; eventually the problem introduced as the inciting incident, Trudy's (Betty Hutton) marriage and pregnancy, is actually the solution to all the problems created from it. In this case, her 'miracle' six sons drive the governor to smoothing over the image of the two troubled parents. A more modern comedy, such as Mixed Nuts (Nora Ephron, 1994), uses a similar technique, but updates it as well. In this case, the movie does not so much build up to a hectic climax, but starts in this vein and continues to escalate from there. The inciting incident does end up correcting the problems of the protagonist, but plot point one is very delayed in this film due to its large cast. Mixed Nuts would never have existed without Screwball comedy, but it is not strictly Screwball comedy. The film is its own mix of genres much like Screwball comedy that contains the elements of many genres before it.

According to Altman’s article, one of the key problems with the study of film genre, and theory of genre, is the schism involved in how we are suppose to define what belongs to what genre. One school of thought relies on a syntactic approach to film, while the other school of thought approaches film through a semantic type of formula. This is especially true for subgenres such as the Pennsylvania western, slasher horror film, or the screwball comedy. To solve this problem of deciding whether or not a film such as the screwball comedy is truly a comedy, or something independent, Altman proposes that the best way to find out is perform both the syntactic and semantic formulas (185). Altman’s formula proposes that for a sub-genre [such as the Screwball Comedy] to exist, the sub-genre must have evolved from a previous genre’s syntactic form, while also showing that the sub-genre is distinguishable enough from the genre it evolved from the semantic form of the genre. According to Altman’s formula, the Screwball Comedy is successful enough to be considered its own genre—different enough from other comedies.

In screwball comedy films such as The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, the style and structure of the film is clear enough to see that it is syntactically a Romantic Comedy. The main lead male character meets the lead female character and is immediately in love with that lead female character. The lead female character is at first not really in love with the male character. Conflict in the film is caused by a misunderstanding between the two characters, and by the end of the film the two characters end up being together. This is the basic syntactical form of the Romantic Comedy. The Screwball Comedy follows the same syntactical form; however, semantically the film takes a complete twist by removing the miscommunication between the lead male and female and replacing it with another form of comedic conflict— playing on words. This slight change in comedic conflict allows the screwball comedy to be considered its own separate type of comedy, clearly different from any other comedy such as the Romantic Comedy. The Screwball evolved from the Romantic, according to Altman’s theoretical concept or formula on how to define what a genre is.

Steve Neale defines verisimilitude as the “what is appropriate” quality that is found within genres. This appropriateness defines what the relationship between the film and the genre will consist of. With the discussion of screwball comedy, certain elements make the appropriate requisite in that these elements must appear for the formula to work.

In The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, a key representational moment of screwball-ness appears in a transition scene featuring an old married couple. This scene plays on the screwball style relationship of man and woman in a three pronged way. “Norval’s in some kind of trouble with the Kockenlocker girl”—this is an expected response to the present hysteria of the film. His wife retorts, “I don’t believe it”—a completely typical objection with the concept of “Norval” in mind. He replies “no one asked you to.” This final statement (delivered with Shakespearean quickness) throws a wrench, a screwball, into the machinery of the whole conversation. The first two establishing elements are required (appropriate) to produce the final screwball element.

A different type of comedy will have different rules for its punch line moments. In Old School (Todd Phillips, 2003), a literal "college-boy comedy," the moments of humor appear differently than in screwball. In one scene, Will Ferrell’s character comes to the door with a blow up sex doll right as Luke Wilson’s character is having a conversation with his love interest. This moment is funny because of the tension created by the dynamic between Ferrell’s on-screen appearance with the doll and the seemingly offendable woman. The whole situation is funny, but not unexpected, as in the screwball sense. If this were a moment of screwball humor, the conversation between Wilson and his love interest would be the object of focus. In this case, the appropriate type of humor has to do with sexual tension rather than a witty exchange between two opposites.

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Last update: 10/23/2004