Favourite Black Comedies?

theparsonski

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Can be films, books, TV shows, even videogames.

My favourite is In Bruges. It's about two Irish hitmen who are sent by their boss to hide in the Belgian town of Bruges after a job gone wrong. The film is mostly about them trying to get along and enjoy themselves while they're there, which is far harder for one than the other. The performances are amazing - I never knew how much depth Colin Farrell had before watching the film, and Ralph Fiennes as an unpredictable, violent, yet intensely-principled East End mob boss is hilariously sinister. Brendan Gleeson is also amazing, and he made one particular scene in the film possibly my favourite in any movie.
The film is insanely quotable, if hugely offensive. My favourite have to be:

"An Uzi? I'm not from South Central Los fucking Angeles. I didn't come here to shoot twenty black ten year olds in a drive-by. I want a normal gun for a normal person."

"We shall strike a balance between culture and fun."
"Somehow I believe, Ken, that the balance shall tip in the favour of culture, like a big fat fucking retarded fucking black girl on a see-saw opposite... a dwarf."

"They're filming something... They're filming midgets!"


So yeah, it strikes a balance between humour and pathos; there is genuine emotion and drama driving the plot - I absolutely cannot find anything at fault with the film.

Seven Psychopaths, also by Martin McDonagh, is brilliant too - if a very different kind of film. It's still a black comedy, but it is more reminiscent of a Tarantino film instead of the generally grounded-in-reality feel of In Bruges.

So what are your favourite black comedies?
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Probably some Coen Bros. movie. I always thought of Fargo as a black comedy. Burn After Reading is fun too. And I like the old Studio Ealing / Alec Guiness movies, like Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lady Killers.
 

Wraith

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theparsonski said:
As a black man, I found that quote offensive while also extremely hilarious. I am now searching for that movie online, to enjoy later on tonight.

OT: I came here, because of the title, thinking you meant something like Tyler Perry movies. In which case I would've just bitched about how bad they are, but I see you meant a diff. subject so I'll move on.

I found Inglorious Basterds to be pretty damn hilarious. The scene where that one guy was shoving his entire fist down a Nazi's throat had me rolling. Then when everyone got shot in the bar, I laughed at how something like that never really happens in a movie and how the same guy was busy stabbing an already dead Nazi in the head over and over again after said Nazi was shot in the groin repeatedly.
 

theparsonski

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Kendale Anderson said:
theparsonski said:
As a black man, I found that quote offensive while also extremely hilarious. I am now searching for that movie online, to enjoy later on tonight.

OT: I came here, because of the title, thinking you meant something like Tyler Perry movies. In which case I would've just bitched about how bad they are, but I see you meant a diff. subject so I'll move on.

I found Inglorious Basterds to be pretty damn hilarious. The scene where that one guy was shoving his entire fist down a Nazi's throat had me rolling. Then when everyone got shot in the bar, I laughed at how something like that never really happens in a movie and how the same guy was busy stabbing an already dead Nazi in the head over and over again after said Nazi was shot in the groin repeatedly.
Ahahaha, I did say it was an offensive movie. To be fair, in a deleted scene he subsequently explains that the reason he was so specific about the 'big fat fucking retarded fucking black girl on a see-saw' was because a fat black girl had come and beaten the shit out of him when he was a child playing on a see-saw. I kinda think the quote is funnier without the explanation though.

Let me know how you enjoy the movie!

And I also love Inglourious Basterds, it was a great movie. I loved the SS character (his name escapes me), he was both incredibly scary and sinister yet also hilarious. I remember him saying something like "Ooooh, that's a bingo!" and I just laughed my ass off for a good twenty minutes.
 

Relish in Chaos

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Crank. Jason Statham is brilliant in pretty much any film he?s in, the humour is outlandish ridiculousness of the highest degree, and I?ve watched it, like, five times and it still never fails to entertain me.

Then there?s Shaun of the Dead. Most of these Simon Pegg horror-comedy-whatever-type films are great because of Simon Pegg being a generally likeable character and the ingenious storylines.

And I know you didn't ask it, but if I was to pick a worst black comedy...Lesbian Vampire Killers. After the initial gag of "look it's VAMPIRES and they're LESBIANS and they're MAKING OUT this is totally hawwwt!", the story gets old and neither of the leads are particularly compelling. Also, fuck James Corden. Unfunny prick.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Johnny Novgorod said:
Probably some Coen Bros. movie. I always thought of Fargo as a black comedy. Burn After Reading is fun too. And I like the old Studio Ealing / Alec Guiness movies, like Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Lady Killers.
damn ninjas, but I agree that Burn After Reading was flipping hilarious.

I dunno, most comedies I like are dark comedy, so it's hard to name a favorite. Though A Serious Man was a real trip at the cinema. That's truly a film where most people won't likely know if they should laugh or not. It's so weird.
 

Talaris

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Dr Strangelove is the classic black comedy film, it's incredibly funny and yet also really dark and disturbing, especially for 1964 when it was released.

In the way of anime I've been watching Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?, two very different shows but both with black humor in them, the former more than the latter.

Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei is basically a string of sketches where the main characters discuss and satirise various topics, be it human behaviours or philosophical questions. For example in one sketch, they take the Shroedinger's Cat theory and apply the Shroedinger's box to other things in life to retain the possibility of two outcomes, like potentially having a hot wife, or having a love letter in your locker. It can be pretty random at times, but very original and clever.
 

octafish

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Joe Orton's Loot springs to mind, mostly because I am a sucker for farce, and this one of the darkest farces imaginable. Too Highbrow? Marion and Geoff then? No?


...fine then...Strangelove...you deviated preverts!
 

Henkie36

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Lord of War. It's a real shame that nobody really remembers that movie, because it's a) really good and b) really funny: (First line in the movie) ''There are 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one for every twelve people. The only question that remains is: how do we arm the other eleven?''
Or: ''In my experience, some of the most succesful relationships are based on lies and deceit. Since that's where they usually end, I figured it would be a good place to start.
And: [After making a fortune form selling weapons]: ''I have a feeling it wasn't exactly what comrade Lenin had in mind when he as advocating the redistibution of wealth.''
And one of te darkest: ''They say that evil prevails when good men fail to act. What they ought to say is: evil prevails.''

My point? Go see Lord of War.
 

TKretts3

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Lake Placid had me laughing throughout the entirety of the film. It was hilarious, dark, and hilariously dark. Another dark film that had me laughing a lot was American Psycho. I only give top prize to Lake Placid because, well, it was more outright as a comedy - easier to laugh with.
 

Crises^

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Brain dead was hilarious

the zombie baby in the park and the two mothers watching in horror had me in stitches.
 

SquidVicious

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Ever since I saw Withnail and I that's the pinnacle of dark comedy that I've held everything else to, and nothing's even come close to surpassing it, not even Dr. Strangelove.
 

Gargant

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For me it's got to be Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, that man has black comedy down to a fine art.