Darkest film that could be considered 'comedy'?

MakeEmLaugh

What is the darkest film that could be considered a 'comedy'? Many will say Dr Strangelove, as it deals with nuclear annihilation and the end of the world.

Some might say Pulp Fiction, as it derives humour from things as absurd and outrageous as a gun accidentally going off and killing someone, and having to deal with the consequences of cleaning up their brain matter.

For me, the darkest film which could still be called a comedy is Todd Solondz's Happiness. One of its main characters is a psychiatrist named Bill (Dylan Baker) who is, unbeknownst to those around him, sexually attracted to children.

At one point he desperately attempts (eventually succeeding) to drug his son's adolescent friend so that he can sexually assault him (which he does, off-screen).

The scene in which he tries to find out what his son's friend would like to eat, while his wife is oblivious, is both funny and extremely dark.

Iranoutofideas

American Psycho

degrassinoel

Seen that (Happiness) shortly after it's release in the cinema, at least half the audience walked out before the end.

I watched it til the end with my ex, dark is right. Though i personally didn't find any of it funny, i'd have to agree it's in that category. Bleak humour at best imo

Harry Palmr

The King of Comedy and After Hours are two favourites of dark comedy. Man Bites Dog would be another contender.

fluke

That feckin Calvary

shazzerman

Naked. Johnny is hilarious: "what's it like being you?".

La_Gordy

Loved Happiness. Remains one of the most grim films I've ever seen, but the humour was great.

Turtyturd

The Day the Clown Cried?

I think you hit the nail on the head there with 'Happiness' OP. I thought it was a 'good' film, but one I'll probably never watch again.

From our own shores; 'Adam and Paul' was quite a dark and bleak film but because of some of the dialogue used, especially in conversations between the title characters as they struggle through their day from one mishap to another, I laughed probably a lot more than I should have while watching it.

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Padraig Mor

Kind of the reverse: The Butcher Boy. Many people regard it as a comedy but I think of it as a very dark drama, with Francie convincing himself that his desperate life is a 'normal', funny one.

Birneybau

'God Bless America' and 'Super' both have some seriously fcuked up stuff in them.

brevity

Seven Psychopaths maybe?

conorhal

degrassinoel wrote: »

Seen that (Happiness) shortly after it's release in the cinema, at least half the audience walked out before the end.

I watched it til the end with my ex, dark is right. Though i personally didn't find any of it funny, i'd have to agree it's in that category. Bleak humour at best imo

ooh yeah, that was easilly one of the best films I never wanted to see again.

Very Bad Things was quite enjoyably dark.

fitz

conorhal wrote: »

Very Bad Things was quite enjoyably dark.

Was going to post this too....that movie is hilariously dark.
Starship Troopers is another one that cracks me up...

darkdubh

Harry Palmr wrote: »

The King of Comedy and After Hours are two favourites of dark comedy. Man Bites Dog would be another contender.

Was going to mention those.The King Of Comedy is a classic dark comedy and its storyline about stalking celebritys and the lengths Robert De Niros character goes to get on tv has a current resonance.

Birneybau

I'd almost call 'Nightcrawler' a very dark comedy.

the raven 15

The fisher king.

Brilliant movie.

The Strawman Argument

Find it hard to think of a film that balances a dark topic with such seriousness and awareness of where it can naturally inject some really funny moments as Festen. Can imagine some people sitting through it and being baffled anyone would call it a comedy.


Nightcrawler's a really good recent suggestion, got a kind of similar thing going through it as the King of Comedy in the lead performance imo.

titan18

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Title says it all really. A black comedy about people who've killed themselves and are in a purgatory for people who've committed suicide.

eternal

titan18 wrote: »

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Title says it all really. A black comedy about people who've killed themselves and are in a purgatory for people who've committed suicide.

Liked that a lot.

madma

adam & paul

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Heathers is hilarious despite centering on an unhealthily attached teenage couple who disguise several murders as suicides and avoid being caught because parents, teachers and peers are so enthralled by the whole teen suicide thing. Far from a perfect film, but anything that can make a bereaved father weeping 'I love my dead gay son!' funny deserves some credit. The dialogue has dated ('How very!') but the satire's pretty fresh.

It probably actually seems darker now than it did at the time, in fairness. Mean Girls was pretty much as close to a remake as anyone's dared :pac:

Harry Palmr

Society by Brian Yuzna is worth a mention - 80s teen angst which by the end has become the stuff of a particularly strong cheese nightmare. I only have fairly vague memories of this one now but the effects in the climax by the twisted genius Screaming Mad George are quite something. Its a film you experience rather than enjoy I think.

Lingua Franca

Turtyturd wrote: »

The Day the Clown Cried?

I read the script to that film a few weeks ago. It was not one bit light hearted or humorous. Jerry Lewis would have had to seriously up his clowning game to distract from the relentless misery.

FloatingVoter

Royal Screeching Town wrote: »

Heathers is hilarious despite centering on an unhealthily attached teenage couple who disguise several murders as suicides and avoid being caught because parents, teachers and peers are so enthralled by the whole teen suicide thing. Far from a perfect film, but anything that can make a bereaved father weeping 'I love my dead gay son!' funny deserves some credit. The dialogue has dated ('How very!') but the satire's pretty fresh.

It probably actually seems darker now than it did at the time, in fairness. Mean Girls was pretty much as close to a remake as anyone's dared :pac:

.....and Winona when we all had a crush on her. To the teenage me, you either rated Winona as a ride (pun fully intended) or you were a kind of male Heather.

The Strawman Argument

Lingua Franca wrote: »

I read the script to that film a few weeks ago. It was not one bit light hearted or humorous. Jerry Lewis would have had to seriously up his clowning game to distract from the relentless misery.

Lewis was supposed to have deviated HUGELY from the script during production, decided to give it a strong autobiographical slant. I believe the writer wanted their name completely removed from it but couldn't as the screenwriters guild place such importance on original writers Lewis hadn't actually done enough for that. I believe the writers family have been cited as a bigger barrier to its release than Lewis himself.



I was quite surprised how closely Life is Beautiful managed to be like what I've always imagined the Day the Clown Cried must be like, except somehow worse.

Technocentral

"Happiness"

darkdubh

Technocentral wrote: »

"Happiness"

Been mentioned with slightly more detail.

Buttros

Buffalo Soldiers

Laugh out loud funny and very dark

Foggy Jew

Little Miss Sunshine. Sublime.

JohnFalstaff

Mackendrick's Sweet Smell of Success is vicious... and hilarious... and very dark, in every sense.

e_e

Dr Strangelove pretty much makes you laugh out loud at the destruction of all life on earth, the ultimate black comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFzR48ABqE

johnny_ultimate

A quick Google search will throw up at least some people complementing Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom's on its blackly comic virtues.

leonards

degrassinoel wrote: »

Seen that (Happiness) shortly after it's release in the cinema, at least half the audience walked out before the end.

I watched it til the end with my ex, dark is right. Though i personally didn't find any of it funny, i'd have to agree it's in that category. Bleak humour at best imo

Nothing happy about it at all... Had to turn it off...

Frank O. Pinion

Todd Solondz is a master of dark comedy. Along with the already mentioned Happiness, which I think is brilliant and the best film of 1998, check out Welcome To The Dollhouse (1995), Storytelling (2001), and Palindromes (2004). Storytelling is his best work, and one of my favourite films of all-time.

I didn't like his most recent films as much, Life During Wartime (2009) (a sequel to Happiness) or Dark Horse (2011), but his earlier films are fantastic.

A quote from Palindromes to live life by:

"People always end up the way they started out. No one ever changes. They think they do but they don't. If you're the depressed type now that's the way you'll always be. If you're the mindless happy type now, that's the way you'll be when you grow up. You might lose some weight, your face may clear up, get a body tan, breast enlargement, a sex change, it makes no difference. Essentially, from in front, from behind. Whether you're 13 or 50, you will always be the same."

-Mark Wiener.

Celly Smunt

Worlds greatest dad.

The Strawman Argument

I thought Dark Horse was a bit of a tremendous return to form, to be honest. There was a layer of genuine warmth there that a lot of his work, imo, fails to adequately convey.

Frank O. Pinion

The Strawman Argument wrote: »

I thought Dark Horse was a bit of a tremendous return to form, to be honest. There was a layer of genuine warmth there that a lot of his work, imo, fails to adequately convey.

Yeah, I probably need to re-watch both Life During Wartime and Dark Horse. I've only seen each of them once, I've seen his other films multiple times.

Saralee4

I found Dog Day Afternoon dark and funny.

You sympathise with Al pachinos character and the other guy because they are so clueless when it comes to the bank robbery. Then when you find out he is doing it to pay for a sex change for his neurotic trans bf and the "victims" start to side with him in some kind of Stockholm syndrome. The other guy becomes suicidal at one stage and they are really out of their depth. Parts of that film are very sad and humorous.

Based on a true story I believe.

Saralee4

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Society by Brian Yuzna is worth a mention - 80s teen angst which by the end has become the stuff of a particularly strong cheese nightmare. I only have fairly vague memories of this one now but the effects in the climax by the twisted genius Screaming Mad George are quite something. Its a film you experience rather than enjoy I think.

I actually felt violated after watching that! It was so creepy!

The other fella

How has nobody mentioned Trainspotting yet? Swimming down the plumbing of a **** filled toilet to get your opium suppositories back is just hilarious.

Halloween Jack

The shining, although I'm almost questioning whether it's dark enough, absolutely hilariously funny though and no doubt in my mind it was intended to as such.

SuperGrover

Eraserhead

mrsdewinter

Turtyturd wrote: »

The Day the Clown Cried?

Had to look that one up - sounds like a serious lapse in taste on the part of everyone involved.

ButtersSuki

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A quick Google search will throw up at least some people complementing Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom's on its blackly comic virtues.

I bought this in HMV Oxford Street in London a few years ago as a member of staff there couldn't tell me enough of how amazing it is. I Was very disappointed.

It's shoyte (no pun intended).

Helium

'Full Metal Jacket' for me.

shazzerman

Surprised The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hasn't got a mention.

MfMan

Can 'A Few Good Men' be mentioned? Between Jack's OTT gurning, Demi's nothingness and wee Tom's excesses, there was a lot of gentle humour in there.

Saralee4

Halloween Jack wrote: »

The shining, although I'm almost questioning whether it's dark enough, absolutely hilariously funny though and no doubt in my mind it was intended to as such.

I think it's dark he tries to kill his wife and child!

Another Jack Nicholson one could be One Flew Over The Cookoos Nest.

Nurse Ratchet was an evil cow and it's tragic what happens him in the end. The film is very funny too.

Birneybau

Halloween Jack wrote: »

The shining, although I'm almost questioning whether it's dark enough, absolutely hilariously funny though and no doubt in my mind it was intended to as such.

What's funny about 'The Shining'?