Dark humor is a type of comedy that uses funny situations to talk about topics that are usually not discussed openly, especially those that are serious or painful. It aims to make people feel uncomfortable, think deeply, and laugh at the same time.

Dark humor is different from blue comedy, which focuses on topics like nudity, sex, and body fluids, and from obscenity. While dark humor is a general term that includes jokes about many serious subjects, gallows humor is usually connected to death or situations that remind people of dying. Dark humor can sometimes be linked to the grotesque genre. Literary critics have connected black comedy and black humor to authors like Aristophanes from ancient Greece.

Etymology

The term "black humor," which comes from the French phrase "humour noir," was first used by André Breton, a theorist from the Surrealist movement, in 1935. He introduced the term while analyzing the works of Jonathan Swift. Breton described black humor as a type of comedy and satire where laughter comes from doubt and a lack of trust in people, often using topics like death.

In his 1940 book, Anthology of Black Humor (Anthologie de l'humour noir), Breton credited Jonathan Swift as the first person to use black humor and gallows humor. He highlighted Swift’s works, including Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), and Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1710), as well as some of Swift’s sayings. In the book, Breton included writings from 45 other authors. Some examples showed humor that made readers feel sorry for people who suffered, which is common in gallows humor. Other examples used comedy to mock people who suffered, making their pain seem less serious. This approach sometimes led readers to feel more sympathy for those who caused harm, similar to the social criticism found in the writings of the Marquis de Sade.

History

Christian martyr Saint Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians because he told a joke while facing death. He was sentenced to be burned alive on a cooking device called a rotisserie. During this time, he reportedly said, "Turn me over. I'm done on this side." Because of this, he is also the patron saint of chefs.

Early American writers who used black comedy in their work included Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov. The idea of black humor became widely known after a 1965 book titled Black Humor, edited by Bruce Jay Friedman. This book was one of the first American collections focused on black humor as a literary style. Friedman called several authors "black humorists," including J. P. Donleavy, Edward Albee, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Vladimir Nabokov, Bruce Jay Friedman, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

More recent writers described as black humorists by critics and journalists include Roald Dahl, Kurt Vonnegut, Warren Zevon, Christopher Durang, Philip Roth, and Veikko Huovinen. Evelyn Waugh has been called "the first contemporary writer to produce the sustained black comic novel." These writers are labeled as black humorists because they created works—such as novels, poems, plays, and songs—that used humor to address serious or horrifying events. Lenny Bruce, who was described in the late 1950s as using "sick comedy" by journalists, has also been linked to "black comedy."

Nature and functions

Sigmund Freud, in his 1927 essay Humor (Der Humor), did not use the term "black humor" but described an example of gallows humor. He wrote, "The mind tries not to feel sad about difficult situations. It refuses to be forced to suffer. It shows that painful events are only chances to find happiness." Other sociologists later explained this idea further. Paul Lewis noted that the "relieving" effect of gallows jokes depends on who tells them: the person facing danger or someone else.

Black comedy helps people who are treated unfairly feel stronger and makes those who harm others feel weaker. Wylie Sypher said, "Being able to laugh at bad things and mistakes shows we have overcome them."

Black comedy is a natural human reaction, and examples of it appear in stories from ancient times. It was common in middle Europe and later brought to the United States. It is called Galgenhumor in German, meaning "cynical last words before being hanged." This idea is similar to the French phrase rire jaune ("yellow laughing") and the Belgian Dutch phrase groen lachen ("green laughing").

Italian comedian Daniele Luttazzi discussed gallows humor, focusing on the type of laughter it causes (risata verde or groen lachen). He said that grotesque satire, not ironic satire, most often causes this kind of laughter. During the Weimar era, this style was common in Kabaretts, and Karl Valentin and Karl Kraus were known for using it.

Black comedy is often used in jobs where people deal with serious or dark topics. This includes police officers, firefighters, ambulance workers, soldiers, journalists, lawyers, and funeral directors. It is seen as a way to cope with stress. These jobs encourage people to consider the situation when telling these jokes, as outsiders might not understand the context.

A 2017 study in the journal Cognitive Processing found that people who enjoy dark humor may have higher intelligence, show less aggression, and handle negative emotions better than those who dislike it.