- published: 08 Jul 2012
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Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone or cantankerous voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor. This delivery is also called dry wit when the intent, but not the presentation, is humorous, blunt, oblique, sarcastic or apparently unintentional.
The term "deadpan" first emerged as an adjective or adverb in the 1920s, as a compound word combining "dead" and "pan" (a slang term for the face). The oldest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary comes from the New York Times (1928), which defines the term as "playing a rôle with expressionless face". A good example of this usage is in a scene from the 1934 film "The Gay Bride" in which a gangster tells a man on the other end of a phone conversation to "Give it a dead pan," (with the emphasis on "pan") so that the man doesn't inadvertently alert anyone else in the room as to the importance of what the gangster is about to say. The usage of deadpan as a verb ('to speak, act, or utter in a deadpan manner; to maintain a dead pan') is recorded at least as far back as 1942.
Actors: Karyn Yee (actress), Karyn Yee (director), Karyn Yee (writer), Karyn Yee (producer), Chris Page (editor), Chris Page (writer), Chris Page (director), Will MacDonald (actor), Richard Walker (composer), Kylie Fauchelle (actor), Jenny Harrison (actress), Rob Frangnito (actor),
Genres: Drama, Short,Actors: Sherilyn Fenn (actress), Paul Bartel (actor), Pierre David (producer), Kenneth Tobey (actor), David Hewlett (actor), Holly Dorff (actress), Donald P. Borchers (producer), David Johansen (actor), Gary Schwartz (actor), Betty Pecha Madden (costume designer), Whip Hubley (actor), James Gavin Bedford (editor), Toby Forlenza (miscellaneous crew), Ray Zimmerman (miscellaneous crew), Russell Clark (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: Right after Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California, in 1955, a toy salesman in town for a convention brings his wife with him so they can both go to Disneyland. They stay at a rundown place called the Sunset Motel nearby. Soon the wife is having an affair with a man staying at the motel. The husband hires a psychotic criminal to spy on them, the wife and her lover plan to murder the husband, and the voyeuristic motel manager is spying on everybody.
Keywords: 1950s, amnesia, black-comedy, blackmail, brunette, desire, directorial-debut, female-lead, femme-fatale, husband-wife-relationshipActors: Tom Dugan (actor), A.S. 'Pop' Byron (actor), Edgar Dearing (actor), Henry Armetta (actor), Eddie Baker (actor), James Burke (actor), William Arnold (actor), Vince Barnett (actor), Russ Clark (actor), Matthew Betz (actor), Ed Brady (actor), Max Davidson (actor), George Davis (actor), J. Gunnis Davis (actor), Dick Elliott (actor),
Genres: Comedy, Drama,Actors: Ruth Hiatt (actress), Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer (actor), Bess Flowers (actress), Jerry Tucker (actor), Charlie Hall (actor), Scotty Beckett (actor), Matthew 'Stymie' Beard (actor), Billie 'Buckwheat' Thomas (actor), Ernie Alexander (actor), Jack 'Tiny' Lipson (actor), George 'Spanky' McFarland (actor), Robert McKenzie (actor), James C. Morton (actor), Tom Herbert (actor), May Wallace (actress),
Plot: Spanky's mother is convinced that he is the most talented child entered in the talent contest. Spanky, however, wishes his mother would stop pushing him to perform. He arranges for his friends to sit in the front row and "ruin" his performance. But backstage Spanky meets Marianne, a little girl whose mother is depending on the prize money. When Marianne freezes onstage with stage fright, Spanky must find a way to overcome his own sabotage and win the prize, so he can give it to Marianne.
Keywords: amateur-contest, amateur-night, armor, boy, children, dress-ripped-off, girl, given-the-hook, gladiator-costume, heckling