Python & Pandas: How to query if a list-type column contains something?

Question

I have a dataframe, which contains info about movies. It has a column called genre, which contains a list of genres it belongs to. For example:

Answer 1

using sets

df.genre.map(set(['comedy']).issubset)

0     True
1     True
2    False
3    False
dtype: bool

---

df.genre[df.genre.map(set(['comedy']).issubset)]

0             [comedy, sci-fi]
1    [action, romance, comedy]
dtype: object

---

presented in a way I like better

comedy = set(['comedy'])
iscomedy = comedy.issubset
df[df.genre.map(iscomedy)]

more efficient

comedy = set(['comedy'])
iscomedy = comedy.issubset
df[[iscomedy(l) for l in df.genre.values.tolist()]]

using str in two passes
slow! and not perfectly accurate!

df[df.genre.str.join(' ').str.contains('comedy')]