judgment and results in a product that is so
unbalanced that much of the illusion is destroyed. In fact, comedy
relief is a difficult element to gain. It should always be purely
incidental, unforced, arising from some major situation, and so
creating the desired contrast. When it is obviously sought after and
introduced without regard for its suitability it is not comedy relief
but comedy-out-of-place."

Since this, like the over-use of the close-up, is something for which
directors are largely responsible, it is the photoplaywright's duty to
help by being very careful about how he himself writes in comedy
intended to "light up" tense, serious, dramatic action.

No matter what class of humorous photoplay you may be writing, you
must keep in mind what we enlarged upon in Chapter XVI: Nothing is
funny that offends against good taste, or that, in any way, causes
pain to any number of the spectators. Comedy, to be worthy of
appreciation, must always be good-natured. National types as
caricatured by many comedians with the aid of eccentric costumes and
weird make-ups are usually as far from being real national types as
one could well imagine. Humor must have more than mere extravagance or
caricature for its basis. Even in farce and in musical comedy, as well
as in vaudeville, the once familiar green-whiskered Irishman, the
Frenchman who is all shrugging shoulders and absurd gestures, the
negro who walks as if he were trying to take two steps backward for
every one forward, and whose most noticeable facial feature is an
enormous mouth, and the "Busy Izzy" type of Jew, who when not getting
robbed himself, or being otherwise abused, is doing his best to
defraud others, are gradually going out of fashion. And in the
photoplay, which is now seen by all classes of people and is for all
the people, racial characteristics must be treated in at least a
fairly accurate manner, _and always good-naturedly_. Six or seven
years ago, more than half the comedies produced were based upon a
chase, or else depended largely upon slap-stick humor to raise a
laugh. Not a few of them had as their chief comedy-incident an act of
downright cruelty to some animal, or even to some human being. Today,
when manufacturers are vying with each other to produce better,
cleaner, and more universally enjoyable pictures, the script that
violates Censorship rules or studio ethics by including any of the
foregoing undesirable subjects stands but little show o