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Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss, aiming to provoke discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term black comedy can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component.
Black comedy differs from blue comedy—which focuses more on topics such as nudity, sex, and —and from obscenity. Additionally, whereas the term black comedy is a relatively broad term covering humor relating to many serious subjects, gallows humor tends to be used more specifically in relation to death, or situations that are reminiscent of dying. Black humor can occasionally be related to the grotesque genre.Merhi, Vanessa M. (2006) Distortion as identity from the grotesque to l'humour noir Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humor with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes. Dark Humor. Edited by Blake Hobby. Chelsea House Press.Garrick, Jacqueline and Williams, Mary Beth (2006) Trauma treatment techniques: innovative trends pp. 175–176Lipman, Steve (1991) Laughter in hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust, Northvale, N.J:J Aronson Inc.Bloom, Harold (2010) Dark Humor, ch. On dark humor in literature, pp. 80–88
Breton coined the term for his 1940 book Anthology of Black Humor ( Anthologie de l'humour noir), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor (particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1710), and in a few ).André Breton introduction to Swift in Anthology of Black Humor, quote: In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including both examples in which the wit arises from a victim with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) Sade.
Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the morale of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors.Obrdlik, Antonin J. (1942) "Gallows Humor"-A Sociological Phenomenon , American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 5 (Mar. 1942), pp. 709–716Mariah Snyder, Ruth Lindquist Complementary and alternative therapies in nursing According to Wylie Sypher, "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them."Wylie Sypher quoted in ZhouRaymond, Jingqiong Carver's short fiction in the history of black humor p.132
Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use was widespread in middle Europe, from where it was imported to the United States.Kurt Vonnegut (1971) Running Experiments Off: An Interview, interview by Laurie Clancy, published in Meanjin Quarterly, 30 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 46–54, and in Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut, quote: It is rendered with the German expression Galgenhumor (cynical last words before getting hangedLynch, Mark A witch, before being burned at the stake: Typical man! I can never get him to cook anything at home (cartoon) ). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression rire jaune (lit. yellow laughing),Redfern, W. D. and Redfern, Walter (2005) Calembours, ou les puns et les autres : traduit de l'intraduisible , p.211 quote: Müller, Walter (1961) Französische Idiomatik nach Sinngruppen, p.178 quote: Dupriez, Bernard Marie (1991) A dictionary of literary devices: gradus, A-Z, p.313 quote: which also has a Germanic equivalent in the Flemish dialects expression groen lachen (lit. green laughing).Claude et Marcel De Grève, Françoise Wuilmart, Treaduction / Translation , section Histoire et théorie de la traduction – Recherches sur les microstructures, in: Grassin, Jean-Marie (ed.), DITL (Dictionnaire International des Termes Littéraires), 22"(1950) Zaïre, Volume 4, Part 1, p.138 quote: Chédel, André (1965) Description moderne des langues du monde: le latin et le grec inutile? p.171 quote:
Italian comedian Daniele Luttazzi discussed gallows humor focusing on the particular type of laughter that it arouses ( risata verde or groen lachen), and said that grotesque satire, as opposed to irony satire, is the one that most often arouses this kind of laughter.Pardo, Denise (2001) Interview with Daniele Luttazzi, in L'Espresso, 1 February 2001 quote: Daniele Luttazzi (2004) Interview, in the Italian edition of Rolling Stone, November 2004. Quote: Marmo, Emanuela (2004) Interview with Daniele Luttazzi (March 2004) quote: In the Weimar Republic , this genre was particularly common, and according to Luttazzi, Karl Valentin and Karl Kraus were the major masters of it.
Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes , , ambulance crews, military personnel, journalists, lawyers, and , where it is an acknowledged coping mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do.
A 2017 study published in the journal Cognitive Processing concludes that people who appreciate dark humor "may have higher IQs, show lower aggression, and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it."
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