The first Comedy films date back to 1923. An early film within this genre was Safety Last starring Harold Lloyd. Between the 1930s and the 1940s wacky characters became the main source of comedy films. These films included timeless gags, pathos and clever visual effects. This subgenre became known as Parody films. An early film within this genre was Duck Soup, filmed in 1933. The Parody film subgenre, in turn gave rise to the personification of animals in films, known as Animal Comedy. One of the most important early films within this genre are Francis, The Mule-1949, which were a series of movies about a talking mule.
