Word: comically
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...Biscuit is a security guard for the New Kids. He is, Scott swears, "a huge guy who, it turns out, is a great artist. All the fans know him. He's going to be in the New Kids cartoon series, he's going to be in the New Kids comic books. So it's built in. People are going to think I'm a genius. But it doesn't take a genius to see what the marketing potential is." There must, inevitably, be a Biscuit T shirt. Perhaps even a Biscuit biscuit. Maybe Bart Simpson could be persuaded...
While Marshall and the film's writers have consciously drawn themes from Hitchcock, they are not above taking liberties with them, and provide Arachnophobia with welcome comic relief. Marshall's wit (he co-wrote Blazing Saddles) is evident in his direction of a series of suspense-ridden false alarms. He keeps the audience off-balance by allowing it at times to come away with a laugh when expecting another gruesome killing. A typical example is the shower scene, an obvious allusion to Psycho, which comes to a far more humourous conclusion than Hitchcock's version...
...also offers a delicious send-up of the contemporary passion for exotic culinary experiences and an equally wicked satire of the grander pretenses of cinema scholarship. The latter is an occupation that director Bergman, who has a Ph.D. in cultural history, narrowly escaped by turning to more self-consciously comic forms (he wrote The In-Laws and the play Social Security...
...this, and Bert Parks in a sombrero, warbling Tequila. Pretty rich. And though it's hard to say if old Bert knows he's being funny, the other actors do know, and joyously strut their best comic stuff. As Carmine's nephew, who arranges his meeting with Clark, Bruno Kirby redefines the combined bluster, sleaze and obsequiousness of the typical New York City fringe dweller. Maximilian Schell is in high, black humor as a madly galloping gourmet chef (you don't want to think too hard about his plans for that dragon). And Paul Benedict's pomposity, pretentiousness and venality...
...bride-to-be Betsy, in bed beside his wife, played by the hilarious Madeline Kahn. He is having a nightmare, and wakes clutching her in fear. Hopper's frequent flights of fancy are whimsically depicted in the film, and Alda is a master of whimsy. But Alda's comic touch is surest when Hopper's line between fact and fantasy blurs...