Spring 2027

Film Comedy

Film Comedy explores the comedy genre by examining theories of humor in film, introducing conceptual tools for critical appreciation, and investigating subgenres across popular film traditions.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Nimish Sarin

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Megan Boyd

Students completed reading assignments as homework during Megan Boyd's instruction.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain what makes a comedy a comedy

  • Draw pertinent distinctions among different forms and techniques of comedy

  • Summarize key theories of humor and evaluate their pros, cons, and overlaps

  • Discern formal, narrative, and rhetorical variables shaping particular comedic works

  • Identify social and ethical values and pitfalls of humor and comedy

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
COMARTS 300

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
DIS 601Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 602Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 603Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 604Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 605Classroom Instruction0 / 200

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Megan Boyd

Megan Boyd taught the course with great lectures and discussions, creating a respectful and supportive environment for students.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.30 GPA, 64.4% A/AB (n=90 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.41 GPA, 83.8% A/AB (n=80 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.46 GPA, 76.1% A/AB (n=71 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Megan Boyd

Students completed reading assignments as homework during Megan Boyd's instruction.

Past student reviews · Megan Boyd

Megan Boyd was described as willing to work with students, contributing to a positive learning experience.

Topics

  • Theories of humor in film
  • Subgenres and tendencies in popular film comedy
  • Forms and techniques of comedy
  • Social and ethical dimensions of humor

Skills

  • Critical appreciation and analysis of film comedy using conceptual tools
  • Summarizing and evaluating key theories of humor
  • Discerning formal, narrative, and rhetorical variables in comedic works
  • Identifying social and ethical values and pitfalls of humor

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

4 earlier forecasts · 0.13 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
COMARTS 300 · Spring 2027

Film Comedy

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:250:024875",
    "course_id": "COMARTS 300",
    "course_uid": "course_d1e3780c9fb63c59459be9db",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "024875",
    "source_subject_id": "250",
    "title": "Film Comedy",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c1f052aa09d15c095d5a6e2273cd76ed6e413ee290798611028eb80f68c0790e",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}