I just went looking through the Subtext storyforms for ‘Start’ and ‘Stop’ comedies, and it’s surprising how well that lines up. Start comedies feel a lot more ‘pleasant’ than Stop comedies.
In fact, a lot (maybe not all) of the Stop comedies involve high-stakes, dramatic or dangerous scenarios (the gangsters could kill the guys in Some Like It Hot), whereas the Start comedies are pretty gentle (There’s Something About Mary is just about guys competing for the love of a woman, and Paddington 2 is downright delightful).
Never would have thought to look at it like that.