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A comedy routine should make us laugh.

Hollywood film stars of the 1920’s and ‘30s wrote the book on comedy.

Most learned their craft during the silent film era.

Charlie Chaplin in "The Immigrant" (1917).

And in the ‘30s,

they found that, when you added sound, the art of making people laugh hadn’t really changed.

There are some basic rules.

Left: Henry Bergman, Eric Campbell, James T. Kelly, Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance in "The Rink" (1916). Right: Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler in "Tillie's Punctured Romance" (1914).

The best knew that, often, words aren’t required.

A raised eyebrow or a shrug of the shoulders can bring down the house.

Left: Viola Richard, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel and Noah Young in "Do Detectives Think?" (1927). Right: Bebe Daniels and Harold Lloyd in "Young Mr. Jazz" (1919).

Threats of violence are funny if only they are ridiculous.

Tommy Bond, Leonard Kibrick, George "Spanky" MxFarland, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer in "Auto Antics" (1939).

And the ‘bad guys’ can’t look powerful.

They should be depicted as they often are in real life: as pompous gas bags who are ‘full of themselves.’

Left: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and Ted Edwards in "Fatty and Mabel's Simple Life" (1915). Right: Jimmy Durante and Buster Keaton in "What -- No Beer?" (1933).

Absurd always works.

Buster Keaton in "One Week" (1920).

And nothing endears a comedian to his audience more than when he becomes his own, unwitting victim.

People will laugh at the joke but they will also identify with it.

Everybody has moments when they become their own worst enemy.

Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel in "The Music Box" (1932).

The same goes for slapstick.

We all fall down and get smacked.

Harold Lloyd, Earl Mohan and "Snub" Pollard in "Luke, the Candy Cut-Up" (1916).

So when a comedian does it in an exaggerated way, we can relate.

Buster Keaton and Phyllis Barry in "What--No Beer?" (1933).

Have these rules changed?

I don’t think so.

Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard as "The Three Stooges."

Good comedy reveals the commonality of people.

In so many ways, we are alike.

Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball, “I Love Lucy” (1952).

We laugh at antics that we, too, have engaged in on a lesser scale.

So, we laugh at ourselves in a way that doesn’t hurt.

Johnny Carson and Betty White, "The Johnny Carson Show" (1981).

And, at the end of the comedy routine, we feel good.

We’ve been shown a slice of life.

Dona Drake, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope in "Road to Morocco" (1942).

Even with all of our differences, we all sit in the same boat.

Some of us row. Some of us pray. Some of us sit and shiver in the cold.

But we all yearn for the safety of the shore.

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I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

Film photos from IMDB.