I'm writing about two comedies for my British cinema class, Georgy Girl and Morgan, both 1966. I just wrote a sentence about the former movie that gave me pause:

"But rather than failing at being clever, I see the film as succeeding at the level of excess – it is too nonsensical, there is so much forced cheerfulness – so that it expresses, paradoxically, the film’s undercurrent of despair."

I'm writing about a comedy, and I just used the word "despair." The professor is going to think something's wrong with me. Scratch that. She's going to know.