“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” — Mel Brooks
We take our comedy very seriously here at the BFI Reuben Library. If you’re looking for some background reading on the film you’re about to see, a contemporary newspaper review, or a script in order to hone your one-liners, we’re here to help. Here’s just a small sample of the most recent publications we have on our shelves, but there’s plenty more to be discovered, both in the library and online.
Learn about the history of comedy
- British comedy cinema, by I.Q Hunter and Laraine Porter
- A companion to film comedy, by Andrew Horton and Joanna E. Rapf
- Funny pictures: animation and comedy in studio-era Hollywood, by Daniel Goldmark and Charlie Keil
- Black comedians on black comedy: how African-Americans taught us to laugh, by Darryl Littleton
Silent Comedy
- Slapstick divas: the women of silent comedy, by Steve Massa
- Silent film comedy and American culture, by Alan Bilton
- Specters of slapstick & silent film comediennes, by Maggie Hennefeld
- Keeping quiet: visual comedy in the age of sound, by Julian Dutton
We have a range of critical analyses of comedians’ work
- The big bad book of Bill Murray: a critical appreciation of the world’s finest actor, by Robert Schnakenberg
- The search for Charlie Chaplin, by Kevin Brownlow
- Peter Sellers: a film history, by Michael Starr
Read about the lives of your favourite comedy personalities
- It’s good to be the king: the seriously funny life of Mel Brooks, by James Robert Parish
- Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball, by Stefan Kanfer
- Steve Coogan: Easily Distracted, by Steve Coogan
- Madeline Kahn: being the music: a life, by William V. Madison
Scripts
- Blackadder: the whole damn dynasty, by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
- Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (of Nazareth), by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin
- When Harry met Sally…, by Nora Ephron
- Withnail and I, by Bruce Robinson
Television
- Pretty/funny: women comedians and body politics, by Linda Mizejewski
- Beyond a joke: parody in English film and television comedy, by Neil Archer
- Saturday Night Live FAQ: everything left to know about television’s longest-running comedy, by Stephen Tropiano
Don’t have time to read a book? Try an article
The library has thousands of articles and newspaper cuttings, both physically and digitally. You can find vintage news articles about Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, Trading Places and Nine to Five through BFI Collections Search, or you can access our vast, international collection of film journals and magazines:
- Terrero, Nina (2016). “Inside the black comedy boom.” Entertainment Weekly, 15/04/2016, issue. 1410, p. 11-12
- Richards, Stuart (2016). “Divine dog shit: John Waters and disruptive Queer humour in films”. Senses of Cinema, Sept 2016, issue. 80, p. 1-20
- Walters, James (2008). “Making light of the dark: understanding the comedy of His Girl Friday”. Journal of Film and Video, Fall/Winter 2008, issue. 60, vol. 3-4, p. 90-102
Whatever your level of interest, the BFI Reuben Library holds one of the largest collections of written material about film, television and moving image in the world. We’re international in our focus and our collection dates back to pre-cinema. We can advise you on searching and accessing our collections during opening hours here at BFI Southbank, so do pop in and visit us during the Comedy Genius season.