Red is Not Funny?
Sep/04/2007 11:27 Filed under:
Color
No. I'm not talking about the Red One camera... I'm talking about the
color red. Specifically, the psychology of the color
red.
In a blog post discussing the use of the color red in film titles and posters, JTylerHelms.com makes the point that use of the color Red in movie promotional materials is the color of the doomed comedy. In the comments of that posting two criticisms of his survey of unfunny comedy posters ring true...
The red in Airplane is muted by the liberal use of blue in the background. Thank You For Smoking uses red as irony, both in its structure as a Lucky Strike package and its opposition to the normal red "No Smoking" signs scattered around our public squares. Clearly, red is a minority color amongst my favorite comedies - but it does have its place.
Now let's glance at my 8 worst rated comedies:
Given the low sample size, I'd say unfunny comedies are statistically as likely to use red as funny comedies. Though it might be fair to say funny comedies seem to use red more deliberately.
Red may indeed be unfunny (and you may think I don't have much of a sense of humor) - unfortunately, looking to movie posters doesn't seem to be the best way to confirm that thesis.
- pi
In a blog post discussing the use of the color red in film titles and posters, JTylerHelms.com makes the point that use of the color Red in movie promotional materials is the color of the doomed comedy. In the comments of that posting two criticisms of his survey of unfunny comedy posters ring true...
- His survey of movie posters suffer from selection bias.
- Some funny movies do make garish use of the color Red.
The red in Airplane is muted by the liberal use of blue in the background. Thank You For Smoking uses red as irony, both in its structure as a Lucky Strike package and its opposition to the normal red "No Smoking" signs scattered around our public squares. Clearly, red is a minority color amongst my favorite comedies - but it does have its place.
Now let's glance at my 8 worst rated comedies:
Given the low sample size, I'd say unfunny comedies are statistically as likely to use red as funny comedies. Though it might be fair to say funny comedies seem to use red more deliberately.
Red may indeed be unfunny (and you may think I don't have much of a sense of humor) - unfortunately, looking to movie posters doesn't seem to be the best way to confirm that thesis.
- pi
