Similarities Between Duck Soup And Dr Strangelove

Strangelove also uses props, but much more subtly in order to reflect the dangers in preventing a nuclear war. The props are not used for pure comedic effect, they are simply used to highlight absurdities. In the first scene on the B-52 jet carrying the nuclear bombs, the military personnel are reading Playboy and playing cards. These are not necessarily the actions that should be occurring on a plane carrying nuclear, humanity-destroying bombs. Therefore, the props in the slapstick comedies were simply used for comedic effect while the props in dark comedies started to have more meaning and significance regarding the theme in their uses. Despite the comedic differences in Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove, many of the comedic conventions, such as the importance of dialogue, have not drastically changed. As Stanley Kubrick once proclaimed, “If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered” (Sperb). Dialogue is so critical in the comedy genre as the character’s wit, irony, and sarcasm in their speech helps to deliver moments that induce laughter from the audience. In Duck Soup, Groucho Marx utilizes an abundance of puns to caricature the perceived lunacy of government officials at the time. While his character Rufus Firefly tries to woo the wealthy Ms. Teasdale, Rufus tells her that he …show more content…
Strangelove exemplifies the dangers of mutually assured destruction and criticizes its so-called safeguards while Duck Soup caricatures the negligence of government officials and their selfish interests during the times of the Depression. Some of each film’s respective conventions may be utilized the same way and some may be utilized differently; however, both comedic performances highlight important issues in a light-hearted way to captivate the audience, provide an escape from stress, and highlight the faults and dangers of an incapable government in a lively manner that is easier for the audience to