British Humor Going Global:on The Success Of British Comedy Films Since The1990s

Comedy film, an essential and enduring genre of cinema, has enjoyed a long history and tradition in Britain, and played a significant role in bonding British people, displaying British culture and tradition, national identity and image as well as social changes, and presenting ordinary people’s life and characteristics to the rest of the world with typical British humor. Since the1990s which witnessed intensifying globalization and Hollywood hegemony, British filmmakers have been prompted to produce more globally-appealing and market-oriented comedy films, many of which have achieved tremendous commercial success and international acclaim.The dissertation will focus on two representative subgenres of commercially successful comedy films from the1990s:urban middle-class romantic comedy and feel-good working-class community comedy, explore what national identity, image and social changes were reflected in these films, and discuss what efforts the government and film industry have made to bring British comedy and humor onto the international stage. It argues that through the romantic comedy’s presentation of traditionally well-mannered English gentleman, pastoral beauty, ceremony and ritual, and a modern privileged white middle-class image in the globalized age and community comedy’s reflection on a decline of traditional industry and masculinity crisis, through the innovation of comedy styles in film presentation like a reference to Hollywood romantic comedy and the commercialization of working-class image, and through the cooperation with Hollywood in film production and distribution, British comedy films since the1990s successfully went global.