Sleeper

“Sleeper” was directed by Woody Allen in 1973. Woody Allen is well known for his slapstick comedy, and this movie is full of that. It used satire, sarcasm, and down right crude humor to create a film filled with laughs. Using Woody’s personality, and the vaudeville humor widely popular in the twenties, a comedy was created. It’s through it’s close quality to the humor of the twenties, and more modern humor closer to today’s that this can be achieved. 

This film’s dialogue is filled with sarcasm, and crude humor. It uses humor similar to that of today’s. Where the more inappropriate the joke the better. Often Woody makes references to sex. Right off the bat there are crude jokes. Also the popular vaudeville humor is seen frequently throughout. The movie begins with Woody having little control over his body, falling around the room in a humorous way. There are many occasions where Woody is being thrown about, whether it be because of a “stupid cheap Japanese jet pack” or a space suit filled with air. Humans for some odd reason have always enjoyed watching people hurt themselves. To this day this painful humor is still popular. Satire is also a widely popular form of humor. People love hearing jokes about their lives, and what’s popular in it. Whether it’s a joke about a state, the government, or someone famous poking fun at them is always a good laugh. Many jokes are told throughout making fun of New Jersey, a state still often made fun of. Also there are a plethora of jokes about the political system in both the “future” he is in, and about that of the past. The film revolves highly around making fun of things that were popular in the seventies. In the beginning they are asking about who the different people on the picture were, and as he answered it was one joke after another about people highly known in history. Self deprecating is another form of comedy that Woody likes to throw in there. It’s always enjoyable to watch someone make jokes about themselves, but at the same time having the next joke be about how sexy they think they are. This movie gets across the idea of a dystopian society while still being lighthearted. Unlike a lot of dystopian movies, it’s humorous. This society is highly ruled by technology, and one leader praised by all. Everyone is brainwashed into living their lives in one way, boring and emotionless. There is even a machine to create orgasms. This form of a dystopian society is popular, and also the perfect setting for slapstick comedy. People filled with humor and sarcasm wouldn’t do well in a society that is boring, so there isn’t a more perfect setting to put a character played by Woody Allen in. The movie is filmed also in a lighthearted way, with lots of color and lighting, it’s apparent that the mood is not supposed to be menacing. It’s also very fast paced which is used in many comedies to keep the audience attentive while also keeping the time between one joke to another short. It’s an all around comical and enjoyable movie.