David Duneman

Expository Writing

Joe Serio

3/31/13

Young Frankenstein

            I can not say I have seen any of the Frankenstein movies that Young Frankenstein is parodying, but I still found this film very humorous. This is probably because they added much more comedy in this movie other than parody. They have many aspects of comedy that make this movie a funny one. It uses many aspects of comedy such as: repetition, surprise, parody, exaggeration and many other devices that are humorous, and they are integrated into the Frankenstein story line.

            I have not seen any of the Frankenstein movies, besides Van Helsing, but from what I’ve heard Young Frankenstein parodies Frankenstein movies very well. I thought it was a good choice of the film makers to do Young Frankenstein in black and white. It gave the film an older feel like some of the old Frankenstein movies, which helped in the parodying aspect of the comedy. Gene Wilder is always fun to watch. Playing Dr. Frankenstein he is always drifting in and out of a German accent which was probably an intended comedic style. The other German accented character, Inga, has a rather hefty accent which at times can get a little hard to fully understand, which also ads an exaggeration aspect to the humor.

            Igor was a great part of this film. His character is rather oblivious to pretty much everything around him, and his outward facing eyes staple that into our brains. When Dr. Frankenstein tells Igor he could fix the hump on his back, Igor replies “What hump?” He is so oblivious to not even notice his own body. I think this plays in his part of being a servant.

            I thought this film was quite humorous but before I would watch it again I would have to check out some Frankenstein films first so I could understand some more of the parody in this movie.