Intertextuality and “adult” humour in children’s film

Although intertextual jokes directed toward an adult audience have become ubiquitous in children’s films in twenty-first-century Western cinema, there is an inherent conflict that arises from their use. Utilizing a number of case studies from the recent history of children’s cinema, this chapter will explore the ways in which the push and pull between a film’s deference to a general audience of children or an audience of informed adults plays out on screen. By looking closely at the formal aspects of these jokes and their positioning in their movies’ narratives, the chapter describes the ways in which filmmaking techniques participate in and facilitate this double coding, often directing jokes toward particular audiences while ensuring continuity for others. Ultimately, it identifies three different strategies for including such that have been deployed to prioritize different segments of the audience.