ABSTRACT
The German word uber refers to any property or attitude that has excessively specific or extreme characteristics. This chapter explores the idea of a screenwriter's approach to the comedy film genre as an uber genre because of the definite attributes that differentiate specific kinds of comedy. Crime, biography, war, romance and nearly all film genres can be paired with drama-therefore making it one of the uber genres. It explains that the analysis and breaking down of the comedy genre with this idea in mind will be beneficial to the screenwriter interested in constructing a film narrative in the specific genre. When sound was introduced into films in the late 1920s, overt comedy films added broad, aggressive, sometimes cruel verbal humor; broad comedies soon employed physical and verbal slapstick-the verbal element doing its part to elicit pain, embarrassment, humiliation and frustration. One of the main components of overt comedy is slapstick.
