Dylan Moran Will Break Your Stupid Heart, Idiot.
The thing about dark comedy is that it seems to operate under completely different rules than regular, “ha-ha” comedy. If comedy presents itself as friendly tickle, dark comedy is more of a downward stabbing motion into your chest cavity. Most of the time it’s hard to tell why you’re laughing, and the rest of the time, you know you probably shouldn’t be. YouTube (god bless it and keep it) has a treasure trove of stand-up by one of the greatest living dark comedians, Dylan Moran, and you really owe it to yourself and your family to watch “Stop You’re Killing Me,” his Amnesty International show. Here’s a hint: he is not at all polite about the motives of someone who goes to a “hip charity” gala.
The most interesting moment for me is at about the 1:45 mark, when Moran begins telling a story about how he and his brothers were brought up by his father, because his mother had died. Now, without ruining it for you, the story becomes pretty hilarious, but you’re sort of left wondering, “Was any of that true?” Wikipedia (may its fortunes decrease) is unhelpful on the subject of Moran’s dead mother, and he doesn’t mention her in interviews. The point is, how could this be a joke, or even part of a joke. What’s funny about a dead mom?
Victor Raskin, the brilliant linguist, wrote a semantic description of jokes back in 1985 that identified a mechanism called “script opposition,” that is, the joke-teller sets up an expected response, with the actual punchline being not only unexpected, but somehow “opposed” to the expected one. Now, this is a 22-year-old theory, but the principle of script opposition is still a helpful way of looking at humor because it can explain why we laugh at things which are not, ostensibly, funny in the slightest. In fact, a great deal of what we laugh at is, outside of the context of a joke, horrible.
If I had to attempt a definition, I’d say that dark comedy is the vicious foregrounding of this dichotomy.
If you keep watching, you’ll hear a joke about George W. Bush sending 98 million black single mothers to the electric chair. It’s an amazing set, but one that is constantly challenging your expectations and prickling your conscience. It’s hard to say what he’s getting at. If he were only interested in entertainment, there are safer jokes to tell (cf. Dane Cook). It may be that the best way to get across your deep dissatisfaction with the world is to make people laugh at it, and leave them wondering, “What the hell was so funny?”
P.S. The concept of dark comedy is so pernicious that David Mikics’ recently published A New Handbook of Literary Terms (2007) pretty much ignores it.
Wed., Jul. 18, 2007
Reader Comments (3)
"If it bends it's funny. If it breaks it's not funny."
"Comedy equal tragedy plus time."
Some awful quotes from an hateful character in one of my favourite movies. (I'm not checking for accuracy of the lines.)
I'd say the "plus time" part is unnecessary. We laugh when we are sure that one person is hurt but not anyone we sympathize with at the moment. Of course I love dark humor. And I love watching someone deliver a story for the sake of humor that is detestible otherwise--and I love it even more when I'm not sure it isn't detestible as is.
There is a line of course. But for me it isn't about the darkness. It's about the humour. When watching The Aristocrats the joke really just started to get old. Some comics focus too much on simply proving their indifference without showing any intelligence.
It needs to be crafted. Not just affrontive.
"And this offends you as a Jewish person?"
"No, it offends me as a comedian."
Hey if you like Dylan, you should check out his BBC comedy BLACKBOOKS about a snobby, wino bookstore owner in London. It's funny British humor on the level of SPACED and THE OFFICE, and it is definitely the kind of stuff that binge-drinking English majors can dig.
Excelsior!!!
Yeah, I actually meant to mention it, but I was so excited about the standup, I forgot. Black Books is amazing, and it's where I was introduced to Moran. It's available on the interweb in various formats, including ths great whole episode on YouTube.