@tonkywoo…yep Ghost was clever is allowing bits of comedy without reducing the genre. Patrick Swayze singing “‘enry the 8th”, the elevator scene, the bank scene with Whoopi and Swayze were moments where Swayze was also allowed to have fun…it made sense and didn’t take away from the tone. cheers HP

I agree with your basic argument here.

BUT…

Again and again films seem to mix genre and benefit from it. Goodfellas was not a comedy, nor was Ghost, nor Aliens but they made us laugh. However, I believe that in all of these, the comedy was compartmentalised. In Ghost only Whoopi Goldberg was ever allowed to be funny and in Aliens only Bill Paxton. In Goodfellas, it could only ever be funny when talking about the eccentricities of the mob.

So, could one say – “Stick to genre, but you can balance it out with value added ‘texture agents’ so long as they are compartmentalised character-wise or story-wise”??