Sherlock Jr. Analysis

The type comedy that is displayed within Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. is slap-stick comedy; it is a form of a comedy that relies more on physical humor rather than comedy that has modern references that is presented within contemporary comedy. I can relate back to my early exposure to slap-stick comedy with some of the older Three Stooges segments such as their famous disputes between Moe, Larry, and Curly which would then result in physical violence between the three characters; this type of comedy does not make the audience ‘think’ it is simply there to make them laugh. Where contemporary comedy will have an audience think about modern issues or references.  Material that could be used for this type comedy now in days would be the NSA leak such as a father could say, “I like knowing my government is spending resources to look at text messages I send to my daughter asking when is she coming home from school.”

Some examples that can be used to defend Keaton’s modernity, self-reflexivity, evolution of the comedy medium, and cinematography are such as with the scene when Keaton’s character sleeps with a translucent version of himself separates from his physical body. His self-reflexivity is involved with him being able to quickly adapt to any physical situation that is presented in front of him; such as when Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. persona was driving the car after rescuing the love interest they were heading towards a lake the assembly of the car underneath slides off however when he presses both the front and back brakes where they then to use the frame of the car as a makeshift boat within the lake.