I am a huge fan of absurdist/surrealist comedy in media. One of my favorite cartoons to watch when I was growing up was "Spongebob Squarepants" (at least the first three seasons, back when the show was in its prime and not the hollow, pathetic shell it is today). This show was one of the finest examples of absurdist comedy on television and what made me fall in love with the sub-genre. I love absurdist comedy because there are no real rules or limitations on the comedic possibilities available. You can use the wild, bizarre, and stupid nature of any concept and pull great comedic moments from them. When it comes to film, no movie embodies the absurdist spirit quite like "The Lego Movie". This animated film takes a seemingly dumb concept for a film and uses it to great comedic effect.

When I originally heard the concept for "The Lego Movie", while I was still willing to give the movie a fair chance like I do with all of the movies I watch, I thought it would turn out to be just another bad, lazy, pandering kids film that was only interested in being a glorified commercial (the film is based on, about, and named after real world toys). However, I started to have hope in the project when they announced that the film will be directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord. These two are masters of absurdist and satirical comedy and made their names with such self-aware comedies as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "21 Jump Street". Later, the first trailers came out and got me even more excited for the film. After watching the film in theaters, it became one of my favorite films of that year and the key to that success comes in the form of its comedic style.

There are several aspects that make "The Lego Movie" great. It has well written characters that are performed by various voice talents, such as Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman, and Charlie Day. The film has a hilarious story that starts out by making fun of typical "Chosen One" or "Hero's Journey" story arcs that are often overused in film narrative then morphs into a surprisingly deep story about the importance of creativity. However, the best part of the film, in my opinion, was the comedy and just like Miller and Lord's other work it came through the visuals and sound. Some of the best absurdist jokes in the film are the ones that, due to the audiences' universal knowledge of certain action tropes, set up expectations and then wildly subvert them or exaggerate them for comedic effect.

For example, two of my favorite jokes in the film happen toward the beginning of the third act. The first one happens after all of the Master Builders and our hero Emmet (Chris Pratt) are captured by the evil corporate villain Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Lord Business locks the heroes up and turns the top of his hilariously high business tower into an imposing black monolith of a ship to take over all of the Lego worlds. As the ship begins to separate from the building Lego pieces of debris are falling, the room is shaking, the captured heroes are yelling in terror, and the music is so dramatic that it feels like this is an important point of drama for the characters. However, when it cuts to a long shot of the ship blasting off from the building, the music cuts of and the outside building is made of smaller Legos. We see the tower piece separate as it is pulled off by a little string and floats away while you here someone in the background making hilariously bad plane noises with their lips. It's also twice as funny when you realize that the background sky is crude construction paper.

The second scene comes after (spoiler warning) Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) is killed by Lord Business and returns as a spirit to give the Emmet advice. This is a trope in most adventure films, when the old mentor dies but can still give advise via ghostly projection (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf are a few examples). So does Vitruvius come back in a dramatic fashion to emphasize the emotional power of this scene... nope! Insteade he comes back looking like a stereotypical ghost (white sheet and eye holes), floats via a string attached to his back, makes stereotypical ghost moans (woooooo) as he moves, and is comically flailing around like the person on the other end of the string is moving him to much. While all of this happens, Vitruvius continues to give Emmet sage advice. Both of these scenes are funny because they are absurd subversions from expected tropes.

The roof scene is funny because it starts out epic and dramatic like a large scale blockbuster typically is, but then it quickly cuts to a cheap looking and sound shot of the ship taking off like its a child playing with toys (which is not only a clever hint at the reveal later in the film, but also a clever joke that reminds us that we are basically watching a large scale movie that's about simple play things). The ghost joke is funny because we often take scenes with the "ghost mentor" very seriously in adventure films, but here the joke puts emphasis on the ghost part and plays that up to it's comedic logical extreme. These are just a handful of the great visual gags present in "The Lego Movie". I just thought I would share these with you because they serve as a great example of how to use things such as visuals, audio, subverting expectation, and exaggeration for quality comedic effect.