Between Old and New: Comedy Stereotypes and Tropes in Recent Commercial Romanian Cinema
Between Old and New: Comedy Stereotypes and Tropes in Recent Commercial Romanian Cinema

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses gender, sexual, ethnic and age related stereotypes used in three recent Romanian films, representative for commercially successful cinema. These films, which dominate the Romanian box office, distributed by major online platforms like Netflix, are indicating a mutation in popular culture changing cinema practices. While exploiting “old” stereotypes about age, race, gender and sexuality, the makers of these commercially appreciated films are contributing to the creation of imaginary structure with potential negative impact. Placed in a wider context, such narratives carrying strong elements of racism and sexism, coupled with other forms of discrimination, are exploitative representations which cultivate a shallow and reductive vision of society, one in which belittling social and gender categories is made acceptable. While such “old” comedic mechanisms, in which age, conflicts of generations or class, gender, race or ethnicity, and other individual or collective differences are stimulating humor, these movies also induce a specific form of visual and narrative representation which can be connected to more noxious forms of discrimination that have political consequences. The main corpus of interpretation is based on three of the most successful box office productions—Mentorii (2025), directed by Adrian Tapciuc, a television director making his debut in cinema, Căsătoria (2024), the directorial debut of comedian Mihai Bendeac; and Vecina (2025), produced by popular influencer and stand-up comedian turned filmmaker, Mircea Bravo. Using as reference point previously successful films, which the authors considers to indicate a shift in Romanian film industry, the paper discusses the role of influencers and stand-up comedians in this trend. The interpretation, based on content and narrative analysis of stereotypical representations, uses the distinctions between “Old Comedy” and “New Comedy” in the history of drama. Together with the Greimasian model of the semiotic quadrangle, the author analyses the production of racist and gendered tropes and their inner mechanisms. From ancient comedy to modern humor, these mechanisms which attract audiences by means of narrative and visual stereotypes, are changing our contemporary society, having strong political meanings.

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