Summary

• Dark humor can be found in even the most bleak and harrowing situations, leaving viewers amused by themes that seem inherently downbeat.
• Black comedies like Burn After Reading, Heathers, and Sorry To Bother You use satire and humor to tackle serious subjects such as the War on Terror, teenage bullying, and capitalism.
• Films like Parasite and American Psycho blend humor with psychological horror, creating an unsettling and disturbing yet hilariously funny viewing experience.

While everyone loves a fun, light-hearted uplifting movie, sometimes a darker, bleaker, but still somehow hilarious black comedy movie is what many viewers really want. Comedy movies come in many different shades. For every sweet romantic comedy like Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally, there is a filthy cartoon comedy like South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut or Fritz the Cat. While some viewers seek out silly, self-aware spoofs like Airplane or Scary Movie, other film fans prefer a more subtle, deadpan style of dramedy like the movies of Wes Anderson or Woody Allen.

However, sometimes, what viewers are seeking out is a bleak black comedy that somehow finds laughs in the darkest of places. While The Big Lebowski’s ending makes the entire movie's plot feel like a waste of time, it is still tough for viewers not to laugh at the nihilistic absurdity along the way. The best black comedies can leave viewers amused by situations that should be harrowing and themes that seem, on paper, to be inherently downbeat. While they won’t be to everyone’s taste, these black comedies prove a little laughter can lighten even the darkest story.

10 Burn After Reading (2008)

Coen Brothers movies are famous for their offbeat sense of humor, and their unique satire reached its darkest extreme in 2008’s Burn After Reading. Both relentlessly dark and undeniably hilarious, Burn After Reading is a satire of the War on Terror that sees a group of farcically ill-equipped CIA agents, diplomats, and gym workers embroiled in a plot involving mysterious documents. Thanks to two shockingly brutal deaths, Burn After Reading isn’t for the faint of heart. However, the satire is a bracing, brutal, and hilariously hopeless send-up of the surveillance state.

9 Heathers (1988)

Heathers tells the story of a quartet of pretty, popular, and ruthlessly mean teenage girls whose reign of terror is cut tragically short by the arrival of a charismatic bad boy. This teen heartthrob convinces one of the girls to kill her friends and stage their suicides, arguing that their bullying makes them fitting targets for this karmic payback. A spiky cult classic that mines laughs from a sensitive subject, Heathers plays out like a nastier, bleaker spin on Mean Girls, albeit with a higher body count.

8 Sorry To Bother You (2018)

2018’s Sorry To Bother You marked the directorial debut of rapper, writer, and activist Boots Riley. The story of LaKeith Stanfield’s Cassius Green, Sorry To Bother You initially focuses on its hero’s ascent in the world of telemarketing. Then, the movie changes its premise halfway through and becomes something darker, stranger, and even more uproariously funny. Filled with the sort of magical realist flourishes that made Riley’s follow-up I’m A Virgo essential viewing, Sorry To Bother You is a sharp anti-capitalist satire that blends sci-fi, horror, and social commentary to great effect.

7 Vice (2018)

Director Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic Vice sees Christian Bale in typically superb form as the taciturn war criminal, and the movie doesn’t give its subject an inch as Vice refuses to flinch away from the human cost of 2003’s Iraq invasion. All of this sounds like it would be a far cry from Talladega Nights or Anchorman, and the movie's unsparing depiction of Cheney's bloody legacy can be undeniably heavy at times. However, McKay somehow ensures that Vice remains hysterically funny despite its dark themes.

6 Parasite (2019)

At first, 2019’s Parasite looks like a smart, satirical Hitchcock homage from director Bong Joon-ho. After falling into poverty, a working-class family opportunistically snatches up the many jobs that an oblivious rich family offers them. However, like Sorry To Bother You, Parasite has a nasty surprise up its sleeve. Drawing on its director’s dark earlier movies, Parasite’s second act reveals it to be a psychological horror movie that drops its original premise for something creepier. An urgent, unremittingly dark parable, Parasite is also hilarious right up to its gruesome, grim dénouement.

5 American Psycho (2000)

It took over a decade for Bret Easton Ellis’s infamous American Psycho to receive a movie adaptation, but Mary Harron’s classic satire was worth the wait. Over two decades after its release, American Psycho remains a hilarious, if bloody and brutal, send-up of '80s capitalism. Christian Bale gives a career-defining turn as the thoughtless Patrick Bateman, whose killing spree provides Harron and Ellis with countless opportunities to mercilessly lampoon corporate greed.

4 In Bruges (2000)

While director Martin McDonagh’s later period piece Banshees of Inisherin might be his recognizable work, it is not the playwright’s darkest comedy. His critically acclaimed movie debut In Bruges remains McDonagh’s bleakest combination of pitch-black humor and pathos. Its story follows Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell’s hitmen Harry and Ray during their miserable sojourn to the titular town. A tragedy in Ray’s dark past makes their banter bittersweet, while a gore-soaked finale brings the tragedy to a guiltily hilarious crescendo.

3 Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The movie that managed to make the prospect of a nuclear holocaust laugh-out-loud funny, Dr. Strangelove is a towering achievement in satirical cinema. Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire stars Peter Sellers in numerous roles as the chaotic plot follows desperate attempts to avoid nuclear war between Russia and America. Grim and farcical at the same time, Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy with uniquely apocalyptic stakes.

2 Ravenous (1999)

1999’s gory curio Ravenous makes cannibalism shockingly funny in its twisty story of soldiers in the Mexican-American War who resort to desperate measures to ensure their survival. Grounded by a pair of superb lead performances from Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, Ravenous uses cannibalism to make some barbed satirical stabs at American imperialism and the ideology of Manifest Destiny. A horror movie shockingly inspired by a true story, this is one black comedy that viewers with tough stomachs won’t want to miss out on.

1 After Hours (1985)

Scorsese’s nervy, neurotic black comedy masterpiece After Hours launched an entire sub-genre of “One crazy night” movies wherein a relatable everyman is dragged into all manner of scrapes and antics thanks to an innocent misunderstanding. However, the likes of Superbad, Go, and Something Wild never managed to get as dark, bleak, or outright creepy as this nightmarish comedic odyssey. Griffin Dunne’s Paul Hackett endures the longest night of his life as a spontaneous date devolves into a terrifying endurance test in a black comedy movie that is unsettling, disturbing, crushingly sad, and still somehow extremely funny.