ABSTRACT
Musical comedy is born in such trouble and looks forward to deliverance. Musical comedy transports the audience from the rivers of Babylon and lifts them to new heights of delight, even to the hills of Austria, which are alive with The Sound of Music. Thus musical comedies awaken the nostalgia for that sublime spot, over the rainbow or someplace in 19th-century St. Louis. The musical comedy is best characterized as a sub-genre of joy and bliss, whether on 42nd Street or Singin' in the Rain. Even the work-oriented apostle James recommends the ancient virtue of hilaritas: "Is anyone cheerful. Let him sing praise". Such a recommendation leads to the sub-genre of musical comedy films, where the music is infectious and the laughter contagious. Riffing derives from a musical exercise of jazz, a spontaneous improvisational turn in which musicians run wildly through unbridled notes. In film comedy, riffing can be seen as a sort of "goofing" or "miscellaneous bits.
