Why do funny movies make us laugh? In this thoughtful essay, by turns stimulating and meditative, distinguished filmmaker and Yale professor Michael Roemer shares his musings on what causes us to chortle, snort, and guffaw when we watch antics onscreen or onstage. Roemer keeps us chuckling as he dissects punchy one-liners, Shakespearean plays, and everything in-between. Incorporating theories from such great thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Charles Baudelaire, Henri-Louis Bergson, and Soren Kierkegaard with the work of classic comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, Roemer examines the purpose of comedy in our lives and in society. Shocked But Connected provides a serious reflection on a lighthearted subject.

Michael Roemer is professor of film and American studies at Yale University. His first film, A Touch of the Times, was the first feature produced at an American college. Nothing But a Man, a double prize winner at the Venice Film Festival, was selected by the Library of Congress as a distinguished American film. The Plot against Harry, shown at the Cannes and New York Film Festivals in 1990, was distributed theatrically in the United States and Europe. Vengeance Is Mine and Pilgrim, Farewell were invited to the Venice and Berlin Festivals and were widely seen on television, as was Roemer's prize-winning documentary, Dying. Roemer is also the author of Telling Stories, Shocked But Connected, numerous essays, andthree previous volumes of screenplays.

Preface
Chapter 1: Surprised
Chapter 2: Freud
Chapter 3: Different and Scary
Chapter 4: Disconnected
Chapter 5: Bergson and High Comedy
Chapter 6: Blind and Helpless but Alive
Chapter 7: Childhood
Chapter 8: Making It Real
Chapter 9: Annie Hall
Chapter 10: Free but Connected