Black humor is an absurd, abnormal, pathological literary genre juxtaposing pain and laughter, fantastic facts, disproportionately mild reactions, cruelty, and tenderness in comedy. It was an important literary genre in the 1960s in the United States. Unlike traditional comedy movie such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, it is a literary method of expressing tragic content through humor.
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“Black” represents death and is a terrifying and comical reality, while “humor” is the satirical attitude of individuals with a will towards this reality. Humor combined with black becomes desperate humor. Dark comedy employs the method of black humor to reflect deep meanings, which attracts people’s attention. Due to the increasing enthusiasm for black comedy, several popular movies are listed below.
1. American Psycho (2000)
This black satire depicts urban life in the late 1980s in the United States. Bateman is a popular, handsome, charming stock broker with humorous conversations. This satirical horror film reflects the pathological values of materialism and non-discrimination between right and wrong in contemporary society.
It is impossible to distinguish between people what is authentic from the surface of falsehood and mutual replication. The dark atmosphere and beautiful visuals of the entire film strongly contrast, presenting a tension of black humor. The protagonist Patrick Bateman is still lost in the killing game of filling the inner void repeatedly.?
2. Triangle of Sadness (2022)
It tells the story of two supermodels who participate in a luxurious cruise prepared for the super-wealthy but encounter unexpected disasters and challenges. The film exposes the wealth gap, power and beauty, and class and gender issues in contemporary society through satire and humor, showcasing the distortion and collapse of human nature in extreme environments.
The style of the film is black humor, which satirizes problems in real society through exaggerated and absurd plots. The film reflects and criticizes concepts such as beauty, wealth, power, and gender, revealing the false, superficial, selfish, and cruel qualities hidden behind them. The film also explores the changes in human nature in extreme environments, from civilization to barbarism, cooperation to competition, and rationality to madness. The film showcases human nature’s complexity and diversity by comparing characters’ performances in different contexts.
3.Parasite(2019)
Parasite tells the story of a family of four who are all unemployed. Their son encounters an opportunity to become a tutoring teacher for a wealthy family. Then the other three family members use tricks to infiltrate the family, working and seizing resources from the host family. However, the good times do not last long.
The film tells a convoluted and fascinating story. It is a very thoughtful and profound film that uses parasites as a metaphor to explore issues such as class differences, wealth inequality, and family relationships in today’s society. The film showcases the current situation and root causes of class conflicts in Korean society, allowing the audience to have a deeper understanding and reflection on these issues.
In black humor literature and absurd drama, although there is no lack of excitement in laughter, this laughter contains a sense of loss, loneliness, alienation, self-loss, and despair, except for a lack of confidence in human power and dignity.
From the perspective of the value of contemporary black humor comedy films, the absurd world and crazy society are essential characteristics of black humor comedy films. From the absurd and alienated world in black humor comedy films, we can explore the class and status behind the characters and understand their inner spiritual world from the external space. Above three films are good recommendations for black comedy fans as they all contain practical significance which deserves our deep thinking.
If you enjoy comedies classics, there are a number of great choices for you, such as Free Guy, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Ted 2, and Grown Ups from the 2000s to the 2020s. You can watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days via Netflix with subscription.
