Monday, May 20, 2013

Shakespeare Wrote the Best Romantic Comedies

Shakespeare.  Everyone thinks Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, the Globe Theater, stuffy old language and boring English classes.

It may or may not be news to you, but Shakespeare's comedies were basically these hilarious, low-brow humor, complicated romantic comedies like you see commercials for on television now.  The nurse in Romeo & Juliet practically only says things that have a double entendre, and the trope "comedy of errors"? A Comedy of Errors was one of Shakespeare's plays.

There's a reason modern adaptations of Shakespeare plays like She's the Man (Twelfth Night) are so popular.  He's hilarious.

I think Midsummer Night's Dream takes the cake though.  Four teens, two boys and two girls, get lost in a forest, magic gets involved, and we get shenanigans.  There are fairies and a really bad acting troupe It starts out that both of the boys like Hermia, and Helena likes the boy who Hermia doesn't.  But then, due to Puck's mistake, the boys then like the girls who don't like them back.  Then, both of the boys like Helena!  Then finally, both boys like the girls who like them back and everyone is happy and the four get a triple wedding with the Duke and his betrothed, and everyone watches a parody of Romeo & Juliet.  Everyone is happy.  The end.

Can we have a modern Midsummer Night's Dream?  That is pretty much the only romantic comedy I would actually want to see.  Get on that, Hollywood.

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