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CHAPTER LVI 273 3. It has been said that comedy proper is the most serious form of the humorous story, but here the word serious is to be taken only in a relative sense. If the plot is serious the play is some form of drama or comedy drama. In comedy the plot itself as well as the action must be light and amusing, but light does not mean trivial but suggests rather an absence of complication and labored effort to be humorous. The story must be complete, it must be backed by idea and it must be as cunningly contrived as the most pretentious drama though the plot should not be as intricate and involved lest the attention required to follow the thread of the story will detract too materially from the action. 4. In a properly developed drama every scene has a direct and im- portant bearing upon the advancement of the plot. The action tells the plot and so much of the plot that there is small chance for digres- sion. In comedy the action is almost equally important with plot. Not alone must the story be amusing, but the action telling the story must also be amusing. This requires a greater footage for the intro- duction of the essential by-play. If the plot is so ample that the foot- age barely suffices for the telling of the story tliere will be no room for enlivening action. 5. If you will read the .best humorous authors you will find that it is not the story alone but the amusing manner in which the story is told that gives you pleasure. In comedies of the stage the dialogue is as important as the plot. In photoplay action must replace words and the action itself must be amusing. 6. But action alone will not make for comedy. There was a time when the incident comedy marked the transition stage from the short length to the half reel. A scientist invented a potion that would cause persons to laugh or dance or sing or kiss each other. After the inven- tion of the producer gave out, these various persons got together and assaulted tlie scientist. In another form the leading character was called Mrs. Nosey or Mr. Buttinsky and went through a succession of scenes in which interference with the affairs of others invariably re- sulted in disaster. In the same class were the monomania stories in which the chief character made love to everyone, fought everyone, tried to fly or to imitate a submarine. 7. When incident alone failed to be amusing, tlirough repetition, the chase was introduced. Each victim gave pursuit until thirty to fifty persons pursued the leading character, over fences, up and down stairs, through and over all sorts of obstructions to the inevitable violent end. It was even permissible to kick a football out of the scene and make five hundred feet of film in which the football bounded through a suc- cession of scenes with a mob of ever-increasing size in pursuit. 8. The incident story is probably gone never to return, but the short chase as the terminal to a rough comedy is by no means extinct and may be revived every few years, provided that now some more definite and plausible reason is provided for the pursuit. 9. The very inanity of these pictures brought about the demand for