How did the The Great Depression influence the screwball era?

Question

How did it affect screwball comedy? why did screwball comedy end?

Answer 1

I never heard that there was a "screwball era." One of the best screwball comedies is "What's Up Doc?", starring Ryan O'Neil and Barbra Streisand, from 1973 or so.

However, during the Great Depression, people were looking for something to laugh at that was good clean fun, and screwball comedies filled that need. Films by Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and later Abbott and Costello were fun for the whole family and got laughs during a relatively somber time. People generally had modest education and were not particularly sophisticated, so silly comedies were widely entertaining.

There are still screwball comedies today, including the "Jackass" films and things like "Napoleon Dynamite." Of course, things are not as squeaky clean today as they were in 1937 but pratfalls are pratfalls.