Knocked Up: A Comparative Essay

Another difference between these two films is the relationship portrayed on screen. As discussed in Denby’s article in Common Culture, Knocked Up, and other contemporary comedies, portray a slacker versus striver relationship unlike Adam’s Rib, which is a screwball comedies. In Knocked Up, Ben is the stoner, Canadian, illegal immigrant who lives with __ other unemployed men. In contrast, Allison is put together, and works at E! Denby argues that Adam’s Rib contains more value over Knocked Up because Adam and Amanda are equals and challenge one another, but in Knocked Up, Ben and Allison do challenge one another. Ben and Allison challenge one another on every level, and they both are then changed for the better. They are changed for the better …show more content…
The description of a screwball comedy is “total disruption of a hero's ordered, unhassled life by a heroine. The hero and heroine, both antic characters united by romance, were usually of different social, sexual, and economic stratas, and thrown together in ridiculous, improbable, unlikely situations and comic misadventures. Ultimately, their antagonistic conflicts and class differences were happily resolved when they fell in love, were reconciled together, or married” (). This description sounds identical the plot of both Knocked Up and Adam’s Rib. Knocked Up is about two people from different social statuses who come together, have conflicts, and fall in love in reaction of an unlikely occurrence, which was the pregnancy. In Adam’s Rib, Adam is disturbed by his fellow wife attorney as the fight to win their case, but in the end reconcile. Although these two films were created in different time periods, one thing is for sure, Knocked Up and Adam’s Rib seem to follow the same romantic comedy formula. This formula consists of two people who meet, fall in love, have conflicts, and then resolve their conflicts and live happily ever after. If this aspect of Knocked Up is taken into account, how is Adam’s Rib a superior