ET3 (EDITED)

      Everybody loves comedy and wants to be entertained and comedians have solidified their position as one of the major sources of entertainment. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in my opinion, are the pioneers of comedy, each carrying with them a persona which identifies them with just one look.

      

     Mr Charlie Chaplin! Through watching his films, I realized that both him and Buster Keaton moved in such a way that became part of their persona. In order to make people laugh without any dialogue whatsoever, he managed to have so much emotion and personality shining through his face, it’s like he amplified his reactions to compensate for the absence of dialogue. For example,  whenever he was scared- such as the scene in ‘the Cure’ where he was witnessing the muscular man giving massages, the audience were able to witness fear in his face. As I watched the films, and other clips from Youtube, I noticed that these comedians have similar ways of facing challenging situations, they just pick themselves up. Charlie Chaplin somehow gives me the personification of someone who is clumsy, you can see it by how he walks and how his hands are positioned outwards in air as he spins around and around looking for his way, like during the swirling door scene, or when he fell into the well filled with the magic water. Buster Keaton on the other hand, gives me the impression of a hero! I say this because, in the General, he lands himself in a position where it just fits, for example- he landed himself in the home of the enemy who captured his girlfriend and managed to save her, and in terms of how he makes people laugh, it is by 'succeeding by accident’. Comedians in the General and in Chaplin films alike tend to make a fool of themselves and on an actor’s standpoint, he completely takes on a persona and confidently makes a fool of himself and people like to watch other people being unafraid of sometimes losing their dignity in a society where image is deemed as SUCH an important thing. A quotation from Chairman Rey; ‘A play (movie) begins when a world in an uneasy state of equilibrium is broken into by an event’. For example, in The Cure; the organized high class society was interrupted by an event (Chaplin) who shook things up. In reality, people are so conformed with rules that they need an output to just let loose and people find serenity in watching someone do that.  

         I’m a girl, and being female, I love all things romantic. Watching the Cure, Charlie Chaplin shows females his side of being a gentlemen, doing things for a lady- like how he only drank the yucky water mainly due to her asking him to. The way he moves and the expression on his face tells a lot,such as his embarrassment, his shyness, his interest, he shows it incredibly through his body movements and facial expression. Again, he amplifies his movements and expressions more than a normal person would in reality in order to compensate for the absence of sound. At times, CC’s movement somewhat resemble a lot of feminine characteristics as well and he isn’t as masculine as the other men in The Cure. Buster Keaton’s love for his woman was incredibly cute to say the least, he exhibits an emotion that I didn’t see in chaplin- which was nervousness. He even kept a picture of her in his train!!! The way he moves when he goes to her house, or ; OH MY FAVOURITE PART was when he sat on the train and wanted to cuddle with her but found it difficult as the soldiers kept coming in and out. Then, when he went to the opposite side to kiss her while using the other hand to salute -yes, it was extremely funny. They deal with things in a different way that other, normal people would. They provide this funny medium of imagination for the audience to think outside the box when coming up with a solution to their problems. They somewhat give inspiration for the audience and optimism in facing what reality throws at them esp when people are at their lowest. Another reason why people watch comedies.

       They are alike in terms of how themselves as actors, take on a persona that is so different from who they are in reality and bring life to it. For both of them, it can be seen clearly through The cure and The General, that they both practiced and rehearsed tremendously and they both portrayed a different persona in full- right from the way they looked, moved and expressed. They both dealt with things in a jovial manner or rather not jovial- more of a optimistic manner, as you rarely see them sad. One similarity that I noticed is that whenever they’re doing something, at times they look as if they’re doing it for their own satisfaction, in Malay we call it ‘syok sendiri’ basically means, entertaining yourself and by entertaining themselves, they are in turn entertaining those watching them. I would say they’re different in how their shows are made, The General was so much longer compared to The Cure and had more of a broader storyline.

    I was more interested in watching Charlie Chaplin. To a certain extent, I personally feel that good comedy should only be for a short time, the show should be structured in a way that it wouldn’t be too long and neither would it be too short. Charlie Chaplin was stronger in terms of how he made sure that whatever he felt was clearly shown just by looking at his face. I thought that the way Chaplin dressed and how he moved was much funnier compared to Buster Keaton as well.

"Failure is unimportant. it takes courage to make a fool of yourself'- Charlie Chaplin

i just feel related to this quote because like I said in the beginning, people watch comedy because it's nice to finally see someone unafraid of being laughed at, someone who doesn't care about what other people think and someone who can also laugh at himself. I guess, this somehow gives people hope and courage to be themselves