Leonardo DiCaprio meet Charlie Chaplin
One of the best comic sequences in movies during 2013 takes place in The Wolf of Wall Street. A recent NYT article titled “Humor, Locked and Loaded: ‘American Hustle’ and ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ as Brutal Comedies,” describes the sequence this way:
Belfort dupes people for a living, but here he’s also the fool — never more so than in an inspired 10-minute scene where he takes a handful of quaaludes with Azoff, reducing Belfort to a primitive state. His face is contorted, he’s drooling, his legs have grown so limp that crossing the street he looks like a fish trying to walk.
After mulling his options, Belfort (whose thoughts we hear in voice-over) says he will try to imitate his baby daughter Skylar and crawl, which he does feebly. “That kid makes it look so easy,” he says, bitterly. But there’s still more to come: When he reaches the car, Mr. DiCaprio flails his body in a circle, opening the door with his foot, failing to get on the seat.
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As the comedy builds, Belfort appears to devolve slowly. Once he drives home and opens the door and sees his friend is also unable to talk, they grunt at each other like preverbal beasts. It’s pure, delirious silliness that ends with Belfort beating his chest in pride like an ape.
The writer of the article (Jason Zinoman) references Jerry Lewis in The King of Comedy, but an LAT article — “The Evolution of Charlie Chaplin’s tramp” — provides a more apt comparison. Those of you who have seen The Wolf of Wall Street and recall the sequence detailed above, check out the sheer physical humor and slapstick in Chaplin’s performance in the short film Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914), the second appearance on screen of Chaplin’s character known as The Tramp:
Physical humor has had a longstanding and prominent place in Hollywood movies. With the growth of the international market, now representing over 70% of all box office revenues, we could be entering a new era for this type of comedy. Why? Because physical humor transcends dialogue and even most cultural differences. A pratfall where a character tumbles onto their ass is humorous no matter a viewer’s country of origin. Hell, this type of slapstick comedy even transcends time! Watch the Chaplin short. It’s still funny 100 years later!
Screenwriting takeaway: For those of us who write comedies, we should always be on the look out for scenes, set-ups and comic bits we can milk in terms of physical humor. Moreover movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street or American Hustle show this type of humor can work in dramas as well.
But remember: While The Tramp in Mabel’s Strange Predicament and Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street portray a pair of misfits, the physical humor in these movies reveals character — which is the best kind of comedy.
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