ET 3: Charlie and Buster

         Everybody loves comedy, in this time, be it Adam Sandler or even Rowan Atkinson, everyone as an audience wants to be entertained and comedians have solidified their position as one of the major sources of entertainment. People watch comedy mainly to laugh- well that’s me, or even to cry- due to excessive laughing and just to provide temporary escape from the world. For me personally, I don’t go for comedies because I want to watch a character lose their dignity or suffer, I go because I want to laugh, laughter causes the body to produce endorphins and that’s what makes people happy, you just somehow get a more positive outlook on life after you laugh and when life sucks, you need that extra push to make you laugh, or even smile. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in my opinion, are the pioneers of comedy, the first, such as Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon, one can say that Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were the first to bring laughs? No? they both carried with them a persona, an image which became something that identified them, something that just screamed their name every time your saw it- like their clothes etc.

        Mr Charlie Chaplin! One of the most famous from the silent era- the only one I’ve heard about before film class. I’m going to be completely honest though, I didn’t find him extremely funny, I mean he was indeed funny, but not THAT hilarious. I must say he carried this persona, one that stood out because it was different, starting from his facial expressions; In order to make people laugh without any dialogue whatsoever, he managed to have so much emotion and personality shining through his face, whenever he was scared- such as the scene in ‘the Cure’ where he was witnessing the muscular man giving massages was extremely funny, I loved that part. There was just so much being said just by looking at his face, and his whole persona came as a package, from the way he walked, which was in this dopey sort of way, where one of his legs just move far apart from each other, this compared to the way Buster Keaton walks, where he puts his legs relatively closer together.

   If I could compare one comedic persona from this time to these two legends, I would say Rowan Atkinson reminds me so much of them. He carries the persona of Mr Bean, right up to the way he dresses and the way he moves. As I watched the films, and other clips from youtube, I noticed that these comedians have pretty much similar ways of facing challenging situations, they just pick themselves up. And for me, that’s what makes it funny, it’s seeing how farce- where they get inflicted by physical pain and still get up and move normally. Again, it just keeps reminding me of Mr Bean and how his stupidity just makes people laugh. 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'. I find that entertaining. Even in the clip above, the hat scene in the carriage was funny. I say this because, 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. I guess people like to watch other people being unafraid of sometimes losing their dignity.

         I’m a girl, and being female, I love all things romantic. Once again, I can't help but to mention Mr Bean whenever I think of Charlie chaplin and buster keaton, they’re just so much alike. 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. Buster Keaton’s love for his woman was incredibly cute to say the least, 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 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 actually for various reasons. 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. For me, I was wide awake during Charlie Chaplin but as the Buster Keaton film went on, I lost my interest during certain parts. I felt that 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.


    I googled a few of Chaplin's famous quotes and fell in love with on of them almost instantly;


"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