Rappaport describes some of the historic personal sources of the humor of Sennett and Chaplin—their photographic tricks, changes of pace and rhythm, and some of the many symbolic meanings of the costumes, situations, and actions in their films. Chaplin's humor asserts a grandiose superiority to and independence of the dangers and restrictions of reality. Perhaps the sense of resignation and apathy in current films reflects social dangers too imminent to be laughed away.