Comedy Films of Malaysian Studio Era: A Social Culture Criticism

Abstract

Comedy often is a serious matter because it is based on works with comments upon and critiques on social and political issues that have the potential of being presented as serious. Meanwhile the cinema is a very powerful cultural practice and institution. The focus of this research rests on comedy film as an agency of criticism to society. Thus, this research is to examine the capability of comedy cinema as a medium of criticism. The insight developed of this research constructed through a qualitative research design. Focuses on the Malaysian cinema era of studio. It rests on the framework of comedy as critiques on social culture that has the potential of being presented as serious. The objective of the study is to analysed these comedy films capable of functioning in a significant role as social criticism. Regard to the finding, it showsthat comedy genre does to a degree which strongly influenced by socio-culture does serve as an ‘agency’ of meaning. Thus, critiques on social culture that has the potential of being presented as serious and is viewed as having the potential to criticise cultural discourses by underlining their status as fiction.