Over the years I have been a huge fan of Dark Comedy. Shows, movies and comics that have a more darker tone, but still continue to be hilarious. One of the reasons I like the Newgrounds of Old.
Dark Comedy itself, when you get right down to it, follows the same rules as other genres of comedy. Timing, Setups, Punch Lines. The difference being the execution of said rules.
In say a slapstick comedy, the setup is someone preparing to throw a pie in another person's face, the punchline is either they hit or miss and the timing usually means that someone walks in on it in the moment of impact.
Now take a scene like say a couple arguing as they are crossing the street. That's the set up. The argument gets heated, with one or the other saying "You can just drop fucking dead." Only for the person to say that to suddenly get hit by an oncoming car. Now the person getting run over isn't the funny part.....for the most part. The comedy doesn't just come from the carnage, but the fact that it all happens so suddenly with convenient things happening at that time. The set up being the argument, the punchline being the death of one of the people arguing and the timing being a car hitting that person right after they finished talking.
Now that's just a basic example of Dark Comedy, people can do a lighter version of this for more family friendly humour or for the sake of added shock humour you could make it even darker. Come up with as many fucked up things you can think of. Stuff that put Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy and Rick and Morty on the map. However like all comedies there are rules.
- Set up, Punch Line, Timing. As explained before.
- No subject is taboo, but don't overdo it. This one's important because like most comedies, you can only do so many jokes about the same dark subject that they wear out over time.
- Pick your darkness. There are many types of dark themes as there is dark comedy. Gothic, Modern, Classic, you name it. Pick a theme and the jokes come to you.
- Read the room. Not everyone finds the same joke funny.
- Have fun.
Well thanks for reading and let me know your favourite Dark Comedies.
La Simpatico: El Musica? What happened to the bartender of Nowhere?
El Musica: I shot him.
La Simpatico: Well that's just...YOU WHAT!?
El Musica: Now I'm off to go to Nowhere's Fixin' Shop, to Fix Ed Nowhere.