Comedy movies started long back in the 1900s. The first movie to be produced was by Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope. This could also be considered the first to show the comic aspect of a movie. Comedy films began to appear more during the era of silent films, prior to the 1930s. These comedy movies were originally based on visual humor. The prominent figure that we all know as Charlie Chaplin was one of the famous clown-style actors of the silent era. It was through Charlie Chaplin that Hollywood comedy movies became famous. Soon came Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
Then in the 1920s came another trend, of animated cartoons. They were the most popular Hollywood comedy movies of the time. Several popular characters of that era were Felix the cat, Krazy Kat and Betty Boop. However, the popularity of these movies was hindered due to lack of sound and color.
By the end of 1920s, the Hollywood comedy industry showed a change brought about by the introduction of sound into movies. This allowed the industry to create dramatic new film styles and use verbal humor. Those films soon replaced silent movies. They used dialogues by comedians such as W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. Charlie Chaplin was the last comedian to have acted in a silent film, and his films during 1930s were without dialogue, although they did employ sound effects.
When the United States entered into World War II, Hollywood movies changed their course to themes related to conflicts and Hollywood comedy movies also inclined to military themes. The war era experienced a boom, when due to the restriction on traveling, nearly a quarter of the money spent was spent on movies.
In the 1950s, interest shifted to social situations or family-oriented comedies. During that period the number of Hollywood comedy films declined. The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies. In 1970, Hollywood comedy movies reflected the anti-war sentiment which was prevailing then. Amongst the leading figures of this time were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. They wrote, directed and appeared in their own movies.
In the 1980s, the gag based comedy Airplane, a spoof of the previous decade disaster film series, was released and Hollywood comedy movies followed suit for more of the same including Top Secret and the Naked Gun films. The popular comedians of that time included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Jim Carrey, the Canadian actor, came into Hollywood comedy movies in the late 1980s when he won a role in Damian Lee Canadian's skiing comedy, Copper Mountain.
The most popular Hollywood comedy movies were of John Hughes, which included Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the Home Alone series of 1990s. The latter focused more on a family audience. That showed a revival in comedy movies. Spoof comedy movies have remained popular till date.
Another development in Hollywood comedy movies was the use of gross humor, which is usually aimed at the younger audience, in films like, There's Something about Mary, American Pie and many more. This trend of gross movies continued with adult oriented comedies picking up the box office for some time more.
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