Bromance, a word that blends the words "brother" and "romance", can be defined as a "close nonsexual friendship between men".[3][4] A bromantic comedy finds humor in reversing the formula of the typical "romantic comedy". In the filmKnocked Up, it is not the man and woman that have the romantic chemistry, but the two men. InI Love You, Man, it is not the man and woman (the bride and groom) of the story who fall in love, break up, and then are reunited romantically at the end—but the two male leads.[2] Bromantic comedy films present expressions of male intimacy, while humorously poking fun of the characters'fears of being homosexual.[5][6]
The "slovenly hipster" protagonists of the bromantic comedy usually are not mature and are lacking in ambition. They are "beta males" that are into porn and junk food, but they are forced to grow up when they discover "straight arrow" women, children and responsibility.[7] It is a story of "the dissolution of a male pack, the ending of a juvenile male bond," according to David Denby inThe New Yorker.[8]
Bromantic comedies contain the concept of a "code" between men: "bros before hos". The idea is that the bonds between men are more significant, stronger, deeper and based on mutual understanding, whereas the bonds between a man and a woman can be capricious, shallow and less satisfying.[5] There is often an element in the plot that allows the men to go off on their own, away from the women. Examples of this are the "man cave" ofI Love You, Man, or the "mancation" ofThe Hangover.[2][9]
According to film scholarTimothy Shary inMillennial Masculinity: Men in Contemporary American Cinema, a number of films in this genre, likeWedding Crashers, provide a surprising level of bisexuality for its male characters, and a place for more diversified male relationships to exist.[10]
Shakespeare's play,Love's Labour's Lost, provides, in its opening passage,[11] a comedic prototype for the idea of men agreeing to a "code" to sequester themselves and avoid romance with the opposite sex.[12][13]
Judd Apatow is a prominent director of the bromantic comedy genre. His filmsThe 40 Year Old Virgin (2005),[9][14] andKnocked Up (2007) paved the way for a surge of similar films that were released in the mid-late 2000s.[15] Films from this era found an audience for the comedic depiction of same-sex relationships, something to which male viewers could relate, but which had been overlooked by screenwriters.[16][17]
Aspects of "bromantic comedies", including male camaraderie, are found in Barry Levinson's 1982 filmDiner.[18] In that film, a group of six male friends struggle with growing up and finding their way in the real world, while they have each other to support them along the way. A similar situation occurs in the filmsKicking and Screaming (1995) andThe Hangover (2009).[18]
WithJohn Hamburg'sI Love You, Man the genre seems to have reached a particular apogee, as the film goes very far in its depiction of bromance, while receiving many excellent reviews.[19][20][21][22] In it,Paul Rudd stars as Peter Klaven, who is about to marry the love of his life, but he realizes that he doesn't have any male friends to serve as the best man at his wedding. Then he meetsJason Segel's character, Sydney, who is friendly and a great complement to Peter, but their bromance starts to impact the groom's relationship with his bride-to-be.
The genre has its critics who accuse it of political incorrectness and a variety of insensitivities,[6][24] but the films are satires, and in that sense, the exposing of social ills may be considered to have some potentially positive effect.[16][25] A primary comedic target of the bromantic comedy is the idea that there is a "code" of male behavior that may tend to impede men from relating in a realistic or natural way with both men and women. Using satire and ridicule the films expose the flimsy ideology and the fears that are the basis of such "codes".[26][27] However, social critic David Hartwell concludes that beneath a facade of progressive and liberating motivation, the bromantic comedy genre is ultimately guilty of "perpetuating the ideologies it is trying (or pretending) to critique."[28]
An element in the plot that allows the men to go off on their own, away from the women, for example, the "man cave" ofI Love You, Man, themales-only vacation ofThe Hangover, or the wedding activities involving the groomsmen inThe Wedding Ringer[2][9][29]
^abcAlberti, John (March 2013). "'I Love You, Man': Bromances, the Construction of Masculinity, and the Continuing Evolution of the Romantic Comedy".Quarterly Review of Film and Video.30 (2):159–172.doi:10.1080/10509208.2011.575658.S2CID192199146.
^Filippo, Maria San.The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television. Indiana University Press (2013)ISBN9780253008923. Page 225-226.
^Garfield, Robert.Breaking the Male Code: Unlocking the Power of Friendship. Gotham (2015)ISBN978-1592409044.
^DeAngelis, Michael. Radner, Hillary.Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television. "Grumpy Old Men; Bros Before Hos". Wayne State University Press (2014)ISBN9780814338995. Page 52.
^DeAngelis, Michael.Reading the Bromance. Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television. Wayne State University Press (2014)ISBN978-0814338988. According to DeAngelis, a difference between the "buddy film" and the "bromance" narrative is that "women are often treated misogynistically as loving yet controlling and annoying interferences whose demands must always be 'dealt with.'" And later DeAngelis describes this as a structure "central to bromance".
