Dark humor

Haggis said:

What is it?
Do you like it?
How about some recommendations?
Any further discussion you think is relevant.

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Isn't it the same thing as black comedy? Serious subjects treated humorously. I think humor is sometimes the best way to really tackle a serious subject. It has to be done well - pitch perfect. Or it seems like you are making light or fun of something that you shouldn't.

Specifically horror recommendations? I can't help you there. In other genres, there is PJ O'Rourke's 'Holidays in Hell.' Roald Dahl is a master. Nabokov's 'Lolita' is the funniest book ever written about pedophilia.

Or maybe 'dark humor' is something entirely different?

Haggis said:

And just to hijack my own thread for a minute here, you thought that Lolita was funny? Different strokes, maybe?

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Yes, I found parts of it laugh-out-loud funny. Perhaps even funnier, because I coudn't believe I was being cajoled into laughing. Other parts made me cry out loud.

Yeah, could be different strokes. Maybe dark humor is a lighter shade than black comedy. I like it blacker than black.

I thought Lolita was very funny too (in parts). I think I read somewhere there is supposed to be an element of tension in all humour, and laughter releases that tension.

I think there is definitely something in that. A lot of comedy has taboo elements or cruelty in it. Even kid's humour - like Itchy & Scratchy!

"Black humor" is gallows humor. Taking an impossibly bleak, depressing and possibly dangerous situation (usually, one that you have no control over) and using humor to point out the absurdity of it all. War make's a good setting. A theme in pretty much everything written in the 60's and 70's -- Vonnegut, Pynchon, Heller, Roth come to mind, but there are a many others. Films like Dr. Strangelove and M.A.S.H. (suicide is painless!)

Lolita as well, although the brilliance (besides the linguistic kind) was in turning a child molester into a sympathetic character. Definitely a humorous book.

I try to mix humor in with my writing, but it tends to be more brown than black.

I'm not sure "dark humor" isn't the same as black humor, it just got mixed in with the currently fashionable "dark fiction", "dark fantasy" etc.

I found that the 100-worders I've written for Necrotic Tissue end up being structured not unlike jokes: a narrative build-up (hopefully establishing dread) followed by a punchline that reflects the rest of the story in a different light. Maybe it's because a good joke is about the same length as the shorter flash stories.

I think there is much found in common between the dynamics of horror and comedy, in any case.

As far as film goes, I think Shaun of the Dead and Dead and Breakfast both show the potential for horror-comedy. The former is built around a very clever existential joke which lifts it beyond traditional parody.

DeeCaudill said:

I think there is much found in common between the dynamics of horror and comedy, in any case.

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Exactly! Jokes work because they startle you... there's a reason they call it a punchline. The physiological responses to humor and horror are not that different -- tears of laughter, etc.

Blood Lite by HWA is awesome, I laughed my ass off. Also I heard the Dark Jester Press had a darm humor antho but I haven't read it.