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Black comedy, also known as black humor or dark comedy, is a sub-genre of comedy and satire where topics and events that are usually treated seriously – death, mass murder, sickness, madness, terror, drug abuse, rape, war etc. – are treated in a humorous or satirical manner. Synonyms include dark humor, morbid humor, gallows humor and off-color humor.
Black comedy is similar to sick comedy, such as dead body jokes. However, in sick humor most of the humor comes from shock and revulsion; black humor usually includes an element of irony, or even fatalism. This particular brand of humor can be exemplified by a scene in the play Waiting for Godot: A man takes off his belt to hang himself, and his trousers fall down. Another example, "Suicide just isn't funny, no matter which way you slice it," is an effective satire at the way that suicide is treated in mainstream western culture, insinuating that attitudes towards suicide are even more morose or morbid than the act or mental condition leading to it.
In America, black comedy as a literary genre came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Writers such as Terry Southern, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison and Eric Nicol have written and published novels, stories and plays where profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner. An anthology edited by Bruce Jay Friedman, titled "Black Humour," assembles many examples of the genre.
The 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb presents one of the best-known examples of black comedy. The subject of the film is nuclear war and the extinction of life on Earth. Normally, dramas about nuclear war treat the subject with gravity and seriousness, creating suspense over the efforts to avoid a nuclear war. But Dr. Strangelove plays the subject for laughs; for example, in the film, the fail-safe procedures designed to prevent a nuclear war are precisely the systems that ensure that it will happen. The film Fail-Safe, produced simultaneously, tells a largely identical story with a distinctly grave tone; the film The Bed-Sitting Room, released six years later, treats post-nuclear English society in an even wilder comic approach.
Today, black comedy can be found in almost all forms of media.
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Literature
(Some of these have been adapted to television or film as well.)
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Films
A Bucket of Blood, directed by Roger Corman, is about a busboy who becomes a success in the art world after accidentally killing his landlady's cat and covering it up in clay to hide the evidence. When he is pressured to deliver similar work, people start mysteriously disappearing. Remade in 1995.
"American Pyscho", a rich yuppy working on the stock exchange, goes on a killing rampage. Storyline inlcuding homophobia and vanity.
Bad Santa is about a wretched, drunk, perverse thief who poses as a mall Santa Claus to rip off department stores.
The Big Lebowski, in which the shiftless "Dude" deals with bowling, nihilists, kidnapping, death, and having his favorite rug urinated on.
Brassed Off, about the brass band of a Yorkshire mining village, in the days when the mine closes. Those not familiar with the problems covered in the film often mistake it for a standard comedy film.
Brazil a comedic vision of a nightmarish 1984-like world of bureaucracy gone awry, featuring terrorism, torture, secrecy and paperwork.
Cannibal! The Musical, a comical take on the story of Alfred Packer, the first American convicted of cannibalism
Corpse Bride, a young man named Victor Van Dort finds himself accidentally married to a corpse, and is thrown headfirst into the Land of the Dead, which turns out to be much more colorful than the land of the living.
Dead Alive, about a man that has to keep his mother from eating people after she becomes a zombie.
Death To Smoochy, a corrupt former children's TV icon plots revenge against his fuzzy purple replacement.
Delicatessen, about a former circus performer who works at an apartment building with cannibalistic tenants.
Duplex, a couple move into a house and try to get their annoying elderly neighbor to die.
Eulogy, which follows a young woman (Zooey Deschanel) and her dysfunctional family in the days leading up to her grandfather's funeral.
Fargo, a debt-ridden car salesman hires incompetent criminals to kidnap his wife in order to get a ransom from his rich father-in-law.
Four Rooms, four vignettes centered around a hapless bell boy, involving witchcraft, a rotting corpse, and a severed finger.
Ghost World, two girls graduate high-school and take separate paths while sharing the same cynical view of the world.
Grosse Pointe Blank, about a hit man who returns to his hometown to attend his high school reunion.
Happiness deals unflinchingly with subjects designed to make audiences squirm (from suicide, rape and murder to pedophilia and childhood masturbation). The treatment of the subjects is blunt, but also gleefully absurdist.
Harold and Maude, in which an alienated young man obsessed with staged suicides and the funerals of strangers falls in love with a vivacious octogenarian.
The Hospital, the story of a chief of surgery who is trying to figure out why a number of hospital employees begin dying under strange circumstances.
Heathers, about a disaffected, jaded couple who start killing members of popular cliques at their high school.
Idiocracy; Private Joe Bowers (Wilson), the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program, set 1,000 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.
Jawbreaker three popular high school girls accidentally kill their best friend on her birthday, resulting in chaos
Keeping Mum a housekeeper kills the inhabitants of a small English village who are "doing the wrong thing".
Kissed a Canadian film (1996) by Lynne Stopkewich with Molly Parker and Peter Outerbridge.
The Ladykillers (1955) and (2004) versions; a criminal professor tries to perform a sophisticated robbery while fooling an old woman.
The Last Supper, about a group of liberal grad students who proceed to murder right-wing individuals they cannot reform.
Lolita - film version of the novel about a man obsessed with a young girl.
LolliLove, mockumentary about a wealthy, egotistical couple who believe they can change the lives of homeless people by giving them a lollipop with a life-affirming message on it - includes actual homeless people in the cast, and humor around the holocaust, bulimia, cleft palates, AIDS, and so on.
M*A*S*H, about the irreverent antics of army surgical hospital personnel during the Korean War.
Man Bites Dog, a disturbing mockumentary about a merciless hit man who takes a camera crew on a tour of his routine.
My Life With Morrissey chronicles the adventures of an off-kilter office girl whose life unravels when she meet her idol (British Rock Icon Morrissey) and set off on a journey of obsessive self-delusion.
Pib and Pog created by Aardman, set up like an childrens program; invloves too characters trying to harm eachother to a great extent.
Pretty Persuasion, in which a fifteen year old girl with a high IQ accuses her teacher of sexual abuse to rise to stardom.
The Player, a satirical look at a Hollywood studio executive who is blackmailed for murder by an unknown screenwriter.
The Royal Tenenbaums, in which a dysfunctional family of past-their-prime geniuses reunite for the first time in 23 years.
Ruthless People, in which a businessman makes several failed attempts to kill is wife, and then celebrates when an inept husband and wife team kidnap her.
Serial Mom, about a suburban housewife who happens to be a serial killer.
Schizopolis, about a man working for a Scientology-like self-help corporation called Eventualism
Sleeping Dogs Lie, about a girl whose relationships are destroyed when she reluctantly reveals that once, out of curiosity, she performed oral sex on her dog.
S.O.B., about a film director who turns a family-oriented flop musical into a hit psycho-sexual thriller.
Survive Style 5+, in which a man continually tries and fails to get his wife to stay dead - among other things.
The Grotesque, a British film (1995) by John-Paul Davidson after the novel by Patrick McGrath with Alan Bates, Lena Headey and Sting. Too whimsical to describe.
Twin Town a British film made in Swansea, South Wales about two joy riders who take on revenge on "Bryn Cartwright" when their father "Fatty Lewis" falls off a ladder whilst doing a job for him.
The Trouble with Harry follows several quirky residents of a small town as they deal with a dead body that has inconveniently turned up in a local park.
Very Bad Things, about a group of friends who accidentally kill a hooker and murder a bellhop during a bachelor party. After burying the bodies, they begin killing each other when they fear that one of them might confess.
Visitor Q, absurdist, taboo-laden Japanese film with surprisingly moralistic undertones about the twisted redemption of a dysfunctional family involved in incest, rape, necrophilia, murder and mother-abuse.
The War of the Roses, about a couple going through a nasty divorce while still trying to live in the same house.
Weekend at Bernie's, in which two employees spend a weekend with the corpse of their former boss, while avoiding a mafia hit man and still trying to have fun and sexual misadventures.
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Periodicals
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Television
Steven Spielberg Presents Toonsylvania
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Video games
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Websites
4chan (especially the /b/ section of the site)
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Authors
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Comedians
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Comics Artists and Writers
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Filmmakers
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Musicians
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Radio Personalities
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See also
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