Editing Gremlins (section)

=== Background ===
''Gremlins'' was produced at a time when combining horror and comedy was becoming increasingly popular. According to Professor [[Noël Carroll]], ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', released the same weekend as ''Gremlins'', and the comic strip ''[[The Far Side]]'' also followed this trend. Carroll argued that there was now a new genre emphasizing sudden shifts between humorous and horrific scenes, drawing laughs with plot elements that have been traditionally used to scare.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Noël |date=Spring 1999 |title=Horror and Humor |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism: Aesthetics and Popular Culture |volume=57 |number=2 |page=145|doi=10.1111/1540_6245.jaac57.2.0145 }}</ref>

The notion of gremlins was first conceived during the 1920s when mechanical failures in [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] aircraft were jokingly blamed on the small monsters. The term "gremlins" also entered popular culture as children's author and RAF pilot [[Roald Dahl]] published a book called ''[[The Gremlins]]'' in 1943, based on the mischievous creatures.{{sfn|Bilstein|2001|p=318}} [[Walt Disney]] considered making a film of it. A [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoon of the era, ''[[Falling Hare]]'', shows Bugs battling a gremlin on an airplane. Joe Dante had read ''The Gremlins'' and said that the book was of some influence on his film. In 1983, Dante publicly distanced his work from earlier films, explaining, "Our gremlins are somewhat different—they're sort of green, and they have big mouths, and they smile a lot and they do incredibly, really nasty things to people and enjoy it all the while".<ref name="Featurette">{{cite AV media |people=[[Joe Dante|Dante, Joe]], [[Steven Spielberg|Spielberg, Steven]] |date=2002 |title=Gremlins: Behind the Scenes |medium=DVD |publisher=Warner Home Video}}</ref><ref name="DVD">{{cite AV media |people=[[Joe Dante|Dante, Joe]] |date=2002 |title=Steven Spielberg presents ''Gremlins'' Special edition audio commentary |medium=DVD |publisher=Warner Home Video}}</ref>