I think Alex is on to a good point about comedy and sounds. Like when we watched that video on the Hopper piece and how it related to smell, sensory linkage is a very important connection to emotions and feelings. Emotions can be triggered by many things, but the power by which they are called upon or evoked has a lot to do with the five senses. Smell, touch, sound, sight, and taste are powerful triggers and I want to focus this post on humor and sound.
I am personally not a big fan of slapstick humor, but if the right, or sometimes the overtly wrong, sound effect is used then I cannot help but find myself laughing at it. The television show Wet, Hot, American Summer does this very well in my opinion. In this cult classic movie turned TV show, they used a generic sound effect of crashing plates for every moment that needs a crashing sound effect and even some that don't. If someone drops a plate the generic plate crashing sound effect will be played, if someone punches someone the face the generic plate crashing sound effect will be played, if someone trips over their own feet the sound effect will sound. The sound effect is funny because it is so generic that it isn't very believable in the first place and the shows plays off of that joke even more by using it when it is completely unnecessary. For some reason many cult classics like Wet, Hot, American Summer have a mastery of being able to make fun of the fact they are a movie without coming right out and saying it and the small joke of the wrong sound effect being used is a perfect example.
Another way humor and sound work together to me is through the funny voices comedians use. When someone like Will Ferrel or Adam Sandler goes into their classic "funny voice", I automatically begin to laugh because not only is the voice funny, but I am expecting a funny joke to follow from the comedic pros.
And don't forget David Letterman and his classic use of the plate breaking sound effect, which was no doubt influential for many of these players. Chaplin certainly recognized the importance of sound, and that's no doubt why he was nervous about adding in extras like talking. He knew he had to handle it just right.
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