Black Comedy
Black comedy is a style of Comedy that takes heavy, sensitive, disturbing, or controversial subjects and treats them with bitter amusement. The term humour noir, French for "black humor," was coined in 1935 by André Breton, an important name of the Surrealist Movement, and detailed in his 1940 book Antologie de l'humour noir. In this book, Breton analyzes the literature of Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift and 45 other writers' excerpts that he considered to be black comedy.
Unlike the more light and accessible comedies, black comedy tends to be more shocking and aimed at adult audiences, often featuring themes such as death, suffering, Crime, poverty, War, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, sexuality and politics. It also frequently appears within Satire films, such as Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and A Clockwork Orange.
Unlike the more light and accessible comedies, black comedy tends to be more shocking and aimed at adult audiences, often featuring themes such as death, suffering, Crime, poverty, War, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, sexuality and politics. It also frequently appears within Satire films, such as Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and A Clockwork Orange.
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