Screwball Comedies in 1930s

Combine outrageous scenarios with slapstick humor, then add witty, fast-paced dialogue and light romantic situations and you have that wonderful cinematic treasure called the screwball comedy — or as film critic Andrew Sarris describes it, “a sex comedy without the sex.” The basic elements of the screwball comedy were not particularly new; director Ernst Lubitsch had made sophisticated comedies such as 1932’s Trouble in Paradise and slapstick was integral to the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, while Hollywood already had tough-talking blondes like Mae West and Broadway had light comedies by Noel Coward.

What made screwballs a completely new genre was the combination of these elements against the backdrop of three events in Hollywood history: the transition to sound in film, stricter enforcement of the Production Code and the Great Depression.

http://www.moviefanfare.com/screwball-comedies-of-the-1930s-40s-when-romance-met-mayhem/

***Everyone can use some laughers in any circumstances, but "slapstick humor" was especially popular during the Great Depression.  This "slapstick humor" brings smile to an audience because he no longer remembers his own predicament.  Movie is an extravagant pastime to Joads.  But Joads have their own unique way to make other laugh.  When Pa describes Ma as "sassy" and Ruthie giggles.  (169)  That kind of laughter is priceless.