Black humor - Definition and Overview

Black comedy, also known as black humor, is a subgenre of comedy and satire that deals with "serious" subjects – death, divorce, drug abuse, et cetera in a humorous manner.

A scene in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot is a good example of black comedy: A man takes off his belt to hang himself, and his trousers fall down. The cartoons of Charles Addams typically display black humour such finding funny business with scenes that would normally be considered horrific.

Some famous black comedy films include:

American Psycho about a serial killer. Played by Christian Bale.
Black Cat, White Cat
Catch-22, another film about the madness of war, based on the novel by Joseph Heller.
Dog Soldiers, a group of soldiers being hunted by werewolfs in the highlands of Scotland.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, dealing with nuclear war.
Fight Club, about murder, mayhem, and soap.
Grace Quigley, a very fun film about euthanasia
Harold and Maude, in which an alienated young man obsessed with staged suicides and the funerals of strangers falls in love with a vivacious octonagerian
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
Ichi the Killer, about a pair of savage killers, one a sadist and the other a masochist.
Life Is Beautiful (Originally La Vita è bella), about an Italian Jew who uses humor and fantasy to hide the truth from his son in a concentration camp.
Life of Brian, Monty Python's satire about Christianity
The Lindsay Anderson trilogy of If..., O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a Guy Ritchie film about the seedy underside of London crime
Loot by Joe Orton dramatist of several Black Comedies
The Loved One, dealing with funerals
M*A*S*H, in which the medical staff of a Korean War field hospital engage in silly mischief to alleviate the horror of the bloody carnage of the wounded they must treat
Man Bites Dog, a mockumentary turning the tables on news and documentaries
Meet the Feebles, about a group of animal-puppet performers who suffer terrible human vices.
Monsieur Verdoux, about a suave serial killer who commits his crimes to support his familiy.
Prizzi's Honor, in which a Mafia hitman and hitwoman fall in love
Pulp Fiction, about the misadventures of thugs.
Roger & Me, in which director Michael Moore follows the tragically ridiculous decline of Flint, Michigan and its effects after General Motors CEO Roger Smith closed the city's autoplants and threw 40,000 people out of work.
The Ruling Class, about an insane British nobleman who thinks he's Jesus
Snatch, another Guy Ritchie film, essentially a sequel to LSATSB but with totally new characters & story
To Die For, about murder and pedophilia.
Trainspotting, about the adventures of a group of heroin addicts.
Wag the Dog, a story about a "war" designed to salvage the election for a president who had sex with a young woman.

Black humor - Definition and Overview

See also

Example Usage of Black