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Romantic comedy movies are often known by the abbreviations romcoms or rom coms. But no matter what you call them, you can count of the plot centering around a guy and girl who meet, fall in love, and then encounter some manner of relationship-threatening difficulty. In most cases, they wind up together in the end, but you will find the rare romantic comedy movie where the guy doesn’t get the girl.

The following article lists some of my favorite romantic comedy movies produced over the years. Since I’m a guy, I don’t rush out to see everything starring Jennifer Lopez or one of the Sex and the City gals, so I’m hoping this list will provide some alternatives not normally encountered on your average trip to Netflix or the local video store.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) – Mia Farrow plays a lonely New Jersey housewife living through the Great Depression. To pass the time and escape from her tedious existence, she goes to the movies regularly. Imagine her surprise when a hunky on-screen character (Jeff Daniels) breaks the fourth wall and starts speaking directly to her.

Intolerable Cruelty (2003) – The Coen brothers try their hand at making a screwball comedy in this film starring George Clooney as a cynical divorce attorney and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a money-hungry divorcee. Sparks fly, and the supporting cast includes Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cedric the Entertainer.

Milk Money (1994) – Melanie Griffith stars as a prostitute named “V” who gives three pre-teen boys a ride home and ends up hiding out in a tree house. There’s an immediate attraction between the kind-hearted V and a widower science teacher (Ed Harris), but they’ll have to overcome her rather unfriendly pimp (Casey Siemaszko) before true love can win out.

Ball of Fire (1941) – A group of professors (including Gary Cooper) live in isolation while compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. Due to a freak set of circumstances, they end up taking in a burlesque performer named “Sugarpuss” O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), and she teaches them all a few new tricks. Meanwhile, she’s being pursued by her mobster boyfriend.

Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) – Fed up with heterosexual relationships that go nowhere, a Jewish copyeditor named Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) replies to a personal ad placed by a bisexual art gallery owner (Heather Juergensen). As their relationship deepens, they face a number of challenges, including Jessica’s reluctance to reveal her relationship to her family.

One Fine Day (1996) – Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney star as single parents who are late to drop their kids off for a school field trip. Both have hectic schedules planned, and they decide to work together to get through the day. Their relationship starts off rocky, but can anyone resist that George Clooney smile for long?

Pat and Mike (1952) – Katharine Hepburn is a promising female athlete, but her fiance always ends up distracting her. When she hires a sports promoter (Spencer Tracy) to assist her, the pair slowly develop an attraction to one another. But can their budding relationship weather an ill-tempered boxer and scores of mobsters?

The Heartbreak Kid (1972) – Voted by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 funniest films ever made, the film stars Charles Grodin as a Jewish sporting goods salesman who leaves his new bride to pursue a blonde coed (Cybill Shepherd) he meets on his honeymoon. Eddie Albert received an Oscar nomination for his role as Shepherd’s over-protective father.

Continental Divide (1981) – The last film made by actor/comedian John Belushi, Continental Divide casts him in the role of a big city newspaper reporter who heads into the Rockies after a story he was working on got him badly beaten by a pair of corrupt cops. There, he meets a spirited researched named Dr. Nell Porter (Blair Brown), and a romance slowly begins to simmer between the bickering duo.

The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963) – Glenn Ford plays a widower trying to raise young son Eddie (Ron Howard). Eddie wants his father to be happy, and so he’s always trying to fix him up with various women, with less than successful results. Shirley Jones and Stella Stevens co-star, and the film would inspire the television series starring Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz.

That concludes my look at some excellent romantic comedy movies you may be unfamiliar with. There are plenty more where that came from, however, and modern-day filmmakers like Judd Apatow have certainly put their own stamp on the genre. So no matter what the era, you’re guaranteed to have plenty of rom com goodness to choose from.

Comedy movie started long back in the 1900. The first movie to be produced was by Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope of his assistant Fred Ott in Record of a Sneeze. This could also be considered the first to show comedy aspect of the movie.

Comedy films began to appear more during the era of silent films, prior to the 1930s. These comedy movies were originally based on visual humor. The prominent figure that we all know as Charlie Chaplin was one of the famous clown-style actors of the silent era. It was through Charlie Chaplin that the Hollywood comedy movies became famous and soon came the Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.

Then in the 1920s came another trend of animated cartoons. They were the most popular Hollywood comedy movies of the time. The several popular characters of that era were Felix the cat, Krazy Kat and Betty Boop. However, the popularity of these movies was hindered due to lack of sound and color.

The end of 1920s, the Hollywood comedy industry marked a change brought about by the introduction of sound into the movies. This has allowed the industry to create dramatic new film styles and use verbal humor. These films were soon replacing silent movies. These films used dialogue of comedians such as the W.C Fields and the Marx Brothers. Charlie Chaplin was the last comedian to have acted in the silent films, and his films during 1930s were devoid of dialogue, although they did employ sound effects.

When the United States entered into World War II, Hollywood movies changed its course to themes related to the conflicts and Hollywood comedy movies portrayed more on military themes. The war era experienced a boom, where restrictions on the traveling made nearly a quarter of the money spent was on attending movies.

In the 1950s, the interest shifted where the TV became the focus of adult social situations on family oriented comedies. During this time the release of Hollywood comedy films declined. The 1960s saw an increasing number of broad, star-packed comedies. In 1970 Hollywood comedy movies reflected the anti-war sentiment, which was prevailing then. Amongst the leading figure of this time were Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. They wrote, directed and appeared in their hilariously funny and witty movies.

In the 1980s the gag based comedy Airplane, a spoof of the previous decade disaster film series was released and Hollywood comedy movies paved its way for more of the same including Top Secret and the Naked Gun film. The popular comedian of this time included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Jim Carrey, the Canadian actor and a comedian came into Hollywood comedy movies in the late 1980s where he won the role in Damian Lee Canadian skiing comedy, Copper Mountain.

The most popular Hollywood comedy movies were of John Hughes, which includes Ferris Buellers Day Off and Home Alone series of 1990s. The later films focused more to family audience, this was a revival in comedy movies. The spoof comedy movies remain popular till date.

Another development in the Hollywood comedy movies was the use of gross-out humor, which is usually, aimed at younger audience in films like, There is Something about Mary, American Pie and many more. This trend of gross-out movies continued with adult oriented comedies picking up the box office till date.

Review of Steven Colbert’s Comedy Central Colbert Report interview of James Fowler, author of “Connected:The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives” discusses the impact of networks present and past. Fowler emphasized that humans have always had social networks. Mankind is social by nature. The point is that they have existed since the beginning of humanity long before the buzz about Twitter and Facebook!

These networks are alive in reality today anywhere that people interact; i.e., church, work, school, neighborhoods, friend circles, etc. These are the true and traditional social networks. As time passes and the needs and means by which people communicate change, so do the media that society chooses to utilize.

Communication and society have come a long way. Personal communication earlier was limited to personal contact including physical gestures as well as verbal communications. Mankind’s methods of communicating are constantly changing. Early long distance communication was achieved by sending runners with messages by foot or horse, smoke or light signals, and maybe even yodeling! With the industrial revolution, the world saw a dynamic changes in communication with the advent of the railroad, telegraph, radio, automobile, telephone and then broadcast television. As communication changes, so does our awareness and the nature of our interactions!

We have come a long way. Or have we?

We currently are at a point in history where high speed internet, satellite, broadband, 4G Network are the norm. Information is exchanged at near light speed! The means by which society communicates in today’s digitally driven, immediate Google gratification, Facebook, and Twitter fueled society has dramatically changed! Technology and social media will continue to change as science and technology move forward at rapidly increasing rates!

The author’s discussion infers that the networks in which we participate in online have a direct and predictable relation with our reality. Fowler asserts that “The Law of Association” holds true and that the people we associate with, online and offline, are quite similar.

He emphasizes great value of the actual humanity factor associated with actual social networks and the reality of day to day life. He seems to appreciate sites like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. Yet encourages us to take advantage of actual friendships beyond the realm of the virtual, online world. In his interview he conveys the significance and dynamic change of social networks and how we relate to them in an easy to understand and engaging fashion. Where do you fit in?

James Fowler’s book is highly acclaimed in review and has been named Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review and featured in a cover story by The New York Times Magazine.