Answers given to study questions.

1. Does the film advance a theory about the purposes, structure, and
content of comedy? What is that theory? Does the film follow it's own
advice?

• Sullivan discovers how important comedy is as a healing power.
• The main character is convinced that the best way to help the poor is to make a film accurately depicting their condition.  What he finds out is the best way to help the poor is to make them laugh
• Comedy results when people try to be something they aren't.
• People don't want real life in films; they want comic relief from bad situations.
• Comedy is meant to distract the audience with laughter.  It's good to escape from the negativity of life.
• Laughter sometimes is all people have.  People can relate more to comedy than other movies.
• Comedy is supposed to make people laugh at things that are ridiculous.  People like to see othrs in ludicrous and extremely silly situations.
• Sometimes the best way to get across an important point or issue is through comedy because people get your message.
• The purpose of comedy is to poke fun at the upper middle class.
• "There is a great deal to be said for making people laugh."

• The dialogue . . . the speed of delivery, the clear diction, and the sharing of witty lines between all the characters.
• Some uses of language (puns--"gin" and "gin rummy";
• The physical comedy (timing was off, too drawn out)
• Sullivan got sent back to Hollywood every time he left.
• Sullivan having a servant help dress him like a bum. Sullivan choosing the coat that was seedy enough.
• The staff following Sullivan in the land yacht.
• The bus chase.
• The Chef in the kitchen
• The policeman in the chase who was splashed
• Sullivan in the car with the kid
• The scene in the noisy movie theater.
• The pool scene.
• When the two gentlemen asked where tramps board the train because they were so serious.
• Sullivan and the girl being driven in a limo to jump the train.
• Snobby hoboes on the train
• The guys laughing at the cartoon.
• The movie was not funny.

• The slapstick comedy.
• Political humor we missed because we don't know the history.
• References to films I missed because I haven't seen them.
• The pool scene.
• The Chef in the kitchen (offensive to African-Americans)(he's presented as a caricature)(his face covered in white pancake batter is offensive)
• The conversation between the cook, the doctor, and the other man.
• The physical humor lasted too long...to the point that the end of the scene was appreciated more than the actual action of chase itself.
• Movie viewing disturbances (too understated)
• When Sullivan and the lady were sleeping in the room with all the homeless people and one breathed on Sullivan.  It was gross.
• The man getting hit by the train was not funny, nor should it have been.
• The bus ride because it did not have all the special effects we expect.
• The eyes on the dead husband's picture kept changing.
• The girl's sarcasm toward Sullivan.
• When Sullivan and the girl are arrested for stealing the car.

• "How does the girl fit into the picture?"  "There's always a girl in the picture."
• "If ever a plot needed a twist, this one does.

• Sullivan keeps ending up back in his own world, either by accident or because he can't "rough it" in the real world.
• Falling into the pool
• Sneezing
• The changing faces on the dead husband's portrait
• Words and phrases (movies need "a little sex" in them)
• The film repeatedly shattered the main character's goal of destitution because his friends were constantly available to him, even when he didn't want them to be.
• Characters repeating each others' lines.