Both THE FULL MONTY and TOOTSIE exhibit interesting patterns and paradoxes of comedy (and tragedy).  When analyzing five scenes from each film we are able to draw interesting conclusions.  Let's take a look.

Five memorable scenes from THE FULL MONTY are: 1) auditioning for a final stripper, 2) breaking the nomes, 3) getting caught by the cops, 4) the fat guy tackling the thin guy, and  5) the final show.  While watching THE FULL MONTY I had the disadvantage of screening it for the first time alone.  However, since comedy is based on the horror or "tragedy" of reality, there still are scenes which emanate in my consciousness.  In all the scenes I have chosen there is a bitter horror that rings true which somewhat makes my selections not funny.  They are funnier to me now when looking back than when I was actually watching the film.  Paradoxically, the funniest and most memorable scenes in THE FULL MONTY are those in which there is no humor at all (an interesting paradox because "humor" meant black bile which was later found not to exist).  When they were auditioning for a stripper, the first guy was miserable.  You could see the defeat on his face as he took off his clothes in front of a room full of men.  Gaz tried to lighten the moment by inviting him to bring his kids in (since his was there), but the poor soul mumbled the bitter truth that "this was no place for kids."  When Gerald was interviewing, Gaz held up the nomes in the window which Gerald had already identified as precious to him.  Considering the importance of Gerald getting the job, it was sheer evil to distract him like that and actually break the nomes.  When they are caught be the cops, they don't want to admit what they were really doing, but they have become so obsessed with a means to the end of their misery, they ask the police to rewind the evidence so that they may further analyze their routine.  When Gaz tries to steal from the department store and calls Dave a "fat bastard," Dave tackles him and orders Gaz never to say that again.  Throughout the course of the movie, Dave exhibited a strong sensitivity to his size so it wasn't funny when his best friend called him a "fat bastard," but it was memorable.  And in the end, when they men finally do their act, Gaz chickens out, but his own little boy has to force him to go out on stage and remove all of his clothes so that his delinquent Dad will be able to raise enough money (the root of all evil) to just be able to see him.

Five memorable scenes in TOOTSIE are: 1) auditioning as a woman, 2) sleeping with Sandy, 3) when he tries to kiss Julie, 4) revealing his true identity on air, and 5) giving the ring back.  When Michael auditions as a woman, he is able to get the job.  The underlying statement here is that a woman is only good enough when she possesses the soul and spirit of a man.  Sandy catches Michael half nude tying on her clothes.  Rather than explain the truth he chooses to meddle with her emotions and sleep with her instead.  Michael reveals his true identity on air.  The frightening reality is that all of America, men and woman, would not rally and appreciate a woman until it was actually a man pretending to be one.  Julie tells Dorothy that she feels something special that she has felt with no other man, wishing Dorothy was a man.  Michael tries to kiss her, but she cannot reciprocate, because she still wants a man--one like Dorothy.  When Michael attempts to give the ring back to Les, he shoves it back to him -- "do it in the parking lot."  The bitter truth being that Les could not find the perfect woman until he found a man.  In the end we are left with the final paradox.  America accepted Dorothy as a woman because she had the soul of a man, and Michael said he became a better person only when he became a woman.  What a line.  I'm not a gender bender myself, but it does make one wonder if we would all be better people if we did switch roles for awhile to learn about the other side.  As a Swing and Salsa dancer, I actually do this with my partners and it works very well.

THE FULL MONTY and TOOTSIE exhibit many of the patterns and characteristics common in popular memorable comedy. In the USA.  TOOTSIE rings true to the notion that comedy is based on reversal.  Michael becomes Dorothy and learns about his own flaws as a man.  In THE FULL MONTY the men become strippers -- a occupation normally associated with women -- and learn what it's really like to be desperate and bare it all.  Both stories definitely ring true with seriousness.  Someone's sexuality is not exactly a laughing matter.  Many an offspring has been banished because of sexuality.  Cruelty in comedy rings true in the auditioning scene and the "fat bastard" scene of THE FULL MONTY.  And in TOOTSIE, when Michael returns the ring to Les and he can't even look at Michael.  We feel Les' pain.  In THE FULL MONTY the steel workers are weak because they are out of work and stripping may be a means of becoming functioning members of society.  In TOOTSIE, Michael is weak because he can't get work, so he pretends to be a woman -- another group in society envisioned as weak by the dominant ideology.  THE FULL MONTY utilizes the conventions of cliches and teams:  a fat one, skinny one, conservative, old guy, manic depressive, and I'm not sure how to classify the guy with endowment.  TOOTSIE manipulates the love and sex roles in comedy.  It's not funny when we realize people have fallen in love with an illusion of the opposite sex.  However, it was funny to watch the chase up until their moment of realization.  (The realization is not funny, but it is memorable).

The funniest and most memorable scenes in TOOTSIE and THE FULL MONTY, are the ones that don't contain humor.  Humor is cerebral.  To think about it usual invalidates the humor.  The humor is derived from the situation, so the same incident in a different setting might not be funny.  Things such as a tragic event usually ring true with the same emotion in any setting.  The remembrance of that incident will always yield the same feeling.  Comedies are tragedies with happy endings.  The humorous incidents occur in situations where we may easily disassociate ourselves from feeling.  The most memorable scenes in comedies are the most tragic.  A comedy can be filled with bone crushing rib ticklers, but the scenes we first remember are the ones where we did not laugh.  It is in this spectrum from horror to humor where we achieve ultimate drama or storytelling such as in the TV sit-com MASH where every episode could bring you to tears and then let you laugh it off.

— Christopher C. Odom