1. Screwball Comedy

2. Why “screwball”?
There’s a pitch in baseball called a screwball, which was perfected by a pitcher named Carl Hubbell back in the 1930s. It’s a pitch…that sort of flutters and drops, goes in different directions, and behaves in unexpected ways… Screwball comedy was unconventional, went in different directions, and behaved in unexpected ways… ”
Andrew Bergman,“We're in the Money: Depression America and Its Films”

3. Farce (the basis of screwball)
improbable situations
exaggerated characters [RC characters are realistic]
fast-paced plot
disguise and mistaken identity
physical humor (slapstick)
verbal humor
High: Sophisticated wordplay
Low: sexual innuendo
ends with an elaborate chase scene [RCs usually slow down at the end]
(e.g. Death at a Funeral, The Hangover)

4. Screwball adds to farce…
Battle of the sexes
Not romantic in a traditional sense
Mismatched and often hostile to each other
“It’s a sex comedy without the sex.”
Andrew Sarris
Rapid fire dialogue
Overlapping, witty and cruel

5. Themes of SCs Inversion Often about class
Cross-dressing; the rich slumming; the poor acting rich (Pygmalion); women being smarter and more powerful than men
Often about class
Rich portrayed as idle, pampered & weak
It’s easier for a poor person to act wealthy than vice versa

6. Screwball attitude
Though they often ended with a wedding, they were disrespectful toward societal values about business, small town life, government, and marriage.

7. Screwball v. Romantic
Screwball comedies are often cynical, while romantic comedies are sentimental
SCs emphasize silliness and physical comedy; RomComs emphasize drama and love
In SCs the obstacle is often internal; in RCs the obstacle is often external
SCs treat the final joining as a formality; in RCs the love is declared in a grand romantic gesture

8. Modern screwball comedies
A Fish Called Wanda
Flirting With Disaster
Intolerable Cruelty
I ♥ Huckabees
Leatherheads
What Happens in Vegas
The Proposal
Mr. and Mrs. Smith

9. For what it’s worth…
…the characters of Han Solo and Princess Leia in the film Star Wars have been described as "a classic screwball comedy pair.”
"Star Wars," Brian Libby, Salon.com, May 28, 2002