This course will study the active engagement that film comedy can inspire: offering political critique (Dr. Strangelove), compelling social change and action (The Great Dictator), pointing to the absurd but real terms of a horrific situation (Life is Beautiful), pleasurably distracting an audience from greater social woes (screwball comedies), stimulating faith in cinematic and romantic magic (romantic comedy), and more. How might film comedy sometimes be more critical of politics or society than a biting drama or rhetorical documentary? How can laughter be seductive? To what extent can a film’s triggering our sense of humor captivate our senses and pique our interest, and why? To what extent does a film’s ability to make us laugh compare with films that make us cry, or feel sad, or wax nostalgic? What’s the affective significance of laughter, and how can cinematic style create a laughing spectator? Drawing from classical, psychoanalytic, philosophical, and aesthetic theories of laughter, comedy, and film style, we will study the pleasurable sensation, rhetorical weight, and social affect that comedic form can yield. Studying both the gravity and levity of film comedy will ideally sharpen our senses of humor.