'Hopscotch to oblivion', Barcelona, Spain

A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor.^[1] The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

History and etymology[link]

Coinage in France by André Breton[link]

The term black humor (from the French humour noir) was coined by the Surrealist theoretician André Breton in 1935,^[7][8] to designate a sub-genre of comedy and satire^[9][10] in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism,^[7][11] often relying on topics such as death.^[12][13]

Breton coined the term for his book Anthology of Black Humor (Anthologie de l'humour noir), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, and included excerpts from 45 other writers. Breton included both examples in which the wit arises from a victim, with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim, whose suffering is trivialized, and leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as is the case with Sade. Black humor is related to that of the grotesque genre.^[14]

Breton identified Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick (1710), and a few aphorisms.^[8][11]

The terms black comedy or dark comedy have been later derived as alternatives to Breton's term. In black humor, topics and events that are usually regarded as taboo, specifically those related to death, are treated in an unusually humorous or satirical manner while retaining their seriousness; the intent of black comedy, therefore, is often for the audience to experience both laughter and discomfort, sometimes simultaneously.^{[citation needed]}

Adoption in literary criticism[link]

Bruce Jay Friedman, in his anthology entitled Black Humor, imported the concept to the United States, labeling with it very different authors and works, arguing that they shared the same literary genre. The Friedman label came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Early American writers who employed black humor were Nathanael West ^[1] and Vladimir Nabokov.^[1] In 1965 a mass-market paperback, titled Black Humor, was released. Containing work by a myriad of authors, which included J.P. Donleavy,^[5][6] Edward Albee,^[5][6] Joseph Heller,^[5][6] Thomas Pynchon,^[5][6] John Barth,^[5][6] Vladimir Nabokov,^[5][6] Bruce Jay Friedman,^[5][6] himself, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine,^[5][6] this was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the conception of black humor as a literary genre; the publication also sparked nation wide interest in black humor.^[6][15] Among the writers labeled as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl,^[16] Thomas Pynchon,^[9] Kurt Vonnegut,^[9] Warren Zevon, John Barth,^[9] Joseph Heller,^[9] and Philip Roth.^[9] The motive for applying the label black humorist to all the writers cited above is that they have written novels, poems, stories, plays and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner.

The purpose of black comedy is to make light of serious and often taboo subject matter, and some comedians use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues, thus provoking discomfort and serious thought as well as amusement in their audience. Popular themes of the genre include murder, suicide, depression, abuse, mutilation, war, barbarism, drug abuse, terminal illness, domestic violence, sexual violence, paedophilia, insanity, nightmare, disease, racism, homophobia, sexism, disability (both physical and mental), chauvinism, corruption, and crime.

Comedians, like Lenny Bruce,^[10] that since the late 1950s have been labeled "sick comedy" by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy." After Lenny Bruce,^[10] others have been Sam Kinison, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Jimmy Carr, Daniel Tosh, Frankie Boyle, Chris Morris and the Monty Python team.

By contrast, blue comedy focuses more on crude topics, such as nudity, sex and bodily fluids. Although the two are interrelated, black comedy is different from straightforward obscenity in that it is more subtle and does not necessarily have the explicit intention of offending people. In obscene humor, much of the humorous element comes from shock and revulsion, while black comedy might include an element of irony, or even fatalism. For example, the archetypal black-comedy self-mutilation appears in the English novel Tristram Shandy. Tristram, five years old at the time, starts to urinate out of an open window for lack of a chamber pot. The sash falls and circumcises him; his family reacts with both chaotic action and philosophic digression.

Visual media[link]

Motion pictures[link]

Black comedy is commonly used in dramatic or satirical films, retaining its serious tone, working as a tool of many films, television shows and video games. Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove presents one of the best-known mainstream examples of black comedy.^[9] The subject of the film is nuclear warfare and the possible annihilation of life on Earth. Normally, dramas about nuclear war treat the subject with gravity and seriousness, creating suspense over the efforts to avoid a nuclear war, but Dr. Strangelove instead plays the subject for laughs. For example, in the film, the fail-safe procedures designed to prevent a nuclear war are precisely the systems that ensure that it will happen. Plotwise, Group Captain Mandrake serves as the only sane character in the film, while Major Kong fills the role of the hero striving for a harmful goal.

Television[link]

The most successful television situation comedy also to be a black comedy is M*A*S*H, which, like the film version of M*A*S*H that had inspired it, treated the Korean War as a subject of black comedy; it deliberately kept recorded laughter out of the operating room sequences, and many of the episodes described the absurdity of many combat situations, even in sequences where the characters were weathering hostile fire.

See also[link]

• Comedy horror
• Cringe humor
• Crude humor
• Gallows humor
• Macabre
• Problem plays
• Schadenfreude
• Shock value

Notes[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Merriam-Webster, Inc (1995) Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of literature, entry black humor, p.144
2. ^ Garrick, Jacqueline and Williams, Mary Beth (2006) Trauma treatment techniques: innovative trends pp.175-6
3. ^ Lipman, Steve (1991) Laughter in hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust, Northvale, N.J:J Aronson Inc.
4. ^ Kurt Vonnegut (1971) Running Experiments Off: An Interview, interview by Laurie Clancy, published in Meanjin Quarterly, 30 (Autumn, 1971), pp.46-54, and in Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut, quote:

   The term [Black Humor] was part of the language before Freud wrote an essay on it -- 'gallows humor.' This is middle European humor, a response to hopeless situations. It's what a man says faced with a perfectly hopeless situation and he still manages to say something funny. Freud gives examples: A man being led out to be hanged at dawn says, 'Well, the day is certainly starting well.' It's generally called Jewish humor in this country. Actually it's humor from the peasants' revolt, the thirty years' war, and from the Napoleonic wars. It's small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness. Jewish jokes are middle European jokes. And the black humorists are gallows humorists, as they try to be funny in the face of situations which they see as just horrible.

5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Bloom, Harold (2010) Dark Humor, ch. On dark humor in literature, pp.80-88
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Freud (1927) Humor
7. ^ ^{a b} Real, Hermann Josef (2005) The reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe, p.90 quote:

   At least, Swift's text is preserved, and so is a prefactory note by the French writer André Breton, which emphasizes Swift's importance as the originator of black humor, of laughter that arises from cynicism and scepticism.

8. ^ ^{a b} Lezard, Nicholas (2009-02-21). "From the sublime to the surreal". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/21/anthology-of-black-humour. 
9. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-blackhum.html
10. ^ ^{a b c} "black humor - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about black humor". Encyclopedia.farlex.com. http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/black+humor. Retrieved 2010-06-24. 
11. ^ ^{a b} André Breton introduction to Swift in Anthology of Black Humor, quote:

    When it comes to black humor, everything designates him as the true initiator. In fact, it is impossible to coordinate the fugitive traces of this kind of humor before him, not even in Heraclitus and the Cynics or in the works of Elizabethan dramatic poets. [...] historically justify his being presented as the first black humorist. Contrary to what Voltaire might have said, Swift was in no sense a "perfected Rabelais." He shared to the smallest possible degree Rabelais's taste for innocent, heavy-handed jokes and his constant drunken good humor. [...] a man who grasped things by reason and never by feeling, and who enclosed himself in skepticism; [...] Swift can rightfully be considered the inventor of "savage" or "gallows" humor.

12. ^ Thomas Leclair (1975) Death and Black Humor in Critique, Vol. 17, 1975
13. ^ . JSTOR 306869. 
14. ^ Merhi, Vanessa M. (2006) Distortion as identity from the grotesque to l'humour noir
15. ^ Bloom, Harold (2010) Dark Humor, ch. On dark humor in literature, pp.82
16. ^ James Carter Talking Books: Children's Authors Talk About the Craft, Creativity and Process of Writing, Volume 2 p.97 Routledge, 2002

Johnny Dark is an American comedian and comic actor, active on television since the 1970s. He is most recently known for his recurring appearances on Late Show with David Letterman.^[1]

In addition to his Late Show appearances, his appearances as a comedian include Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Donny and Marie, and the The Alan Hamel Show.^[1] He has also done stand-up comedy in Atlantic City and, as an actor, appeared in several films.^[1][2]

Filmography[link]

{{columns-list|2|

• A Lousy Ten Grand
• Skin Walker
• Down the Barrel
• High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story
• Waitin' to Live
• Arli$$
• The Norm Show
• Shasta McNasty
• Partners
• Dead Man on Campus
• Weird Science
• Touched by an Angel
• Roseanne
• Baywatch Nights
• Hang Time
• Don't Quit Your Day Job
• The Bonnie Hunt Show
• Family Matters
• Pointman
• Silk Stalkings
• Breakfast of Aliens
• They Came from Outer Space
• Growing Pains
• Repossessed
• Just the Ten of Us
• Wishful Thinking
• Mr. Belvedere
• Communion
• Bert Rigby, You're a Fool
• Up Your Alley
• L.A. Law
• Mama's Family
• The Facts of Life
• Smart Alex
• Glory Years
• Night Patrol
• The Being
• The Jacksons
• Rip-Off

References[link]

External links[link]

• Johnny Dark's Lincoln at MySpace

Ray Liotta
Liotta at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Raymond Allen Liotta (1954-12-18) December 18, 1954 (age 57) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1978–present

Raymond Allen "Ray" Liotta (born December 18, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. He has won an Emmy Award and been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He is also known for starring as the protagonist, Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Early life[link]

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was adopted at the age of six months by Mary Liotta, an appointed township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner, personnel director, and the president of a local Democratic club.^[1] Both of his parents unsuccessfully ran for local office.^[2] Liotta had believed his biological parents were of Scottish and Italian descent,^[3] but eventually reunited with his biological mother and discovered that she is not of Italian descent.^[4][5] In 1973, Liotta graduated from Union High School in Union, New Jersey, and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 1992. Liotta studied acting at the University of Miami, where he performed at the university's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Career[link]

One of Liotta's earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World. He appeared on the show from 1978 to 1981. He infamously made his film debut sexually assaulting Pia Zadora with a garden hose in the cult classic The Lonely Lady. In 1987, he earned his first Golden Globe nomination"HFPA – Awards Search". 1.hfpa.org. http://www1.hfpa.org/browse/member/29970. Retrieved July 7, 2009.  for his portrayal of volatile ex-con Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild (1986). In 1989, he costarred, along with Kevin Costner, in the fantasy/drama film, Field of Dreams. Liotta portrayed Shoeless Joe Jackson, the ghost of the famed baseball player. In 1990, Liotta portrayed real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. In 1992, he costarred, along with Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe, in the thriller Unlawful Entry as an psychopatic cop. He also a leading role in No Escape. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Liotta would earn more critical praise for his turn in James Mangold's film Cop Land, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. In 1998, he received critical praise for his performance as the compulsive gambling but decent policeman Harry Collins, in the crime film, Phoenix.

In addition to his film roles, Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack (for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination) and provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. That same year he appeared as Det. Lt. Henry Oak in the Joe Carnahan-directed film Narc, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male, a praised performance that many critics considered to be Liotta's career best. He then reunited with director James Mangold in 2003 alongside John Cusack and Alfred Molina in the dark horror-thriller Identity, remembered for its very unique and clever twist. He also narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel in 2005. Liotta had a memorable guest appearance that year on the television drama ER playing Charlie Metcalf in the episode "Time of Death". The role earned him an Emmy for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series". Liotta would later spoof himself and his Emmy win in Bee Movie. He starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith, which was pulled from the schedule after only three episodes had aired. He later appeared in Smokin' Aces (reuniting with Narc director Joe Carnahan), portraying an FBI agent named Donald Carruthers in one of the lead roles. He appeared with John Travolta in the movie Wild Hogs and with Johnny Depp in the 2001 film Blow, portraying the father of drug dealer George Jung.

Liotta has appeared in Battle in Seattle as the city's mayor, and in Hero Wanted playing a detective alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.. He was also in Crossing Over, co-starring Harrison Ford. Liotta played Detective Harrison in the 2009 Jody Hill comedy Observe and Report as Seth Rogen's nemesis from the local police. In 2011, he starred in The Son of No One, opposite Channing Tatum and for the first time in his career, Al Pacino.^[6] He told ABC's Good Morning America in 2001 that he was offered the role of Tony Soprano by series creator David Chase but turned it down to focus on movies.

Liotta's recent movies include Date Night with Steve Carell, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron, the independent drama Snowmen, and The River Sorrow, which stars Liotta as a detective alongside Christian Slater and Ving Rhames.

Personal life[link]

Liotta married actress Michelle Grace in February 1997. They met at her ex-husband's (Mark Grace) baseball game; they also co-starred in The Rat Pack, in which Liotta played Frank Sinatra and Grace played Judith Campbell Exner. Their daughter, Karsen, was born in December 1998. The couple divorced in 2004. Liotta currently resides in Pacific Palisades, California.

A baseball pitcher bearing his name is currently in the Kansas City Royals system.^[7]

As part of his contract for starring in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale as Gallian, Liotta had permission to keep all wizard robes donned for the film.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ray Liotta at the Internet Movie Database

Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Kaurismäki (left) and Ville Virtanen in 2011
Born	Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (1957-04-04) 4 April 1957 (age 55) Orimattila, Finland
Occupation	Film director, producer and screenwriter
Awards	Cannes Grand Prix 2002 The Man Without a Past Cannes Ecumenical Jury Special Mention 1996 Drifting Clouds Cannes Prize of the Ecumenical Jury 2002 The Man Without a Past FIPRESCI Award 2011 Le Havre Jussi for Best Film 2006 Lights in the Dusk Jussi fot Best Debut Film 1983 Crime and Punishment Jussi for Best Script 1983 Crime and Punishment 1996 Drifting Clouds 2002 The Man Without a Past 2011 Le Havre Jussi for Best Direction 1990 The Match Factory Girl 1992 La vie de bohème 1996 Drifting Clouds 2002 The Man Without a Past São Paulo Audience Award for Best Feature 1996 Drifting Clouds

Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈɑki ˈkɑurismæki] ( listen); born 4 April 1957, Orimattila, Finland) is a Finnish screenwriter and film director.

Career[link]

After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment (1983), Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki. He gained worldwide notice with his movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America.

His style has been influenced by the French directors Jean-Pierre Melville and Robert Bresson, as he relies on low-key acting and simple cinematic storytelling to get his message(s) across. Critics have also seen an influence from Rainer Werner Fassbinder but Kaurismäki - a keen film buff himself - has said that he somehow never got around to seeing any Fassbinder movies until quite recently. His movies have a unique downplayed humorous side that can also be seen in the films of Jim Jarmusch, who has a cameo in Kaurismäki's film Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Jarmusch also used frequent Kaurismäki actors in his film Night on Earth, a part of which takes place in Helsinki, Finland.

Much of his work is centred on Helsinki, his native city, particularly Calamari Union which is largely set in the working class neighbourhood of Kallio, and the trilogy that comprises Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, and The Match Factory Girl. His vision of Helsinki is, it should be noted, both critical and singularly unromantic. Indeed, the characters often speak about how they wish to get away from Helsinki: some end up in Mexico (Ariel), others in Estonia (Calamari Union and Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana). The setting is the 1980s, even in the more recent movies, or there are references to the 70's and 80's eras.

Awards and protests[link]

In terms of awards, Kaurismäki's most successful movie has been The Man Without a Past. It won the Grand Prix and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival^[1] and was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 2003. However, Kaurismäki refused to attend the gala, noting that he didn't particularly feel like partying in a nation that is currently in a state of war. Kaurismäki's next film Lights in the Dusk was also chosen to be Finland's nominee in the category for best foreign film. Kaurismäki again decided to boycott the Awards and refused the nomination as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy.

In 2003, in one of his most famous protests, Kaurismäki boycotted the 40th New York Film Festival as a show of solidarity with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami who was not given a US visa in time for the festival.^[2]

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

• Crime and Punishment, 1983
• Calamari Union, 1985
• Shadows in Paradise, 1986
• Hamlet Goes Business, 1987
• Ariel, 1988
• Likaiset kädet (Les mains sales), 1989 (production for Finnish TV)
• Leningrad Cowboys Go America, 1989
• The Match Factory Girl, 1990
• I Hired a Contract Killer, 1990
• La Vie de Bohème, 1992
• Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana, 1994
• Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, 1994
• Drifting Clouds, 1996
• Juha, 1999
• The Man Without a Past, 2002
• Lights in the Dusk, 2006
• Le Havre, 2011^[3]

Documentaries[link]

• Saimaa-ilmiö, 1981
• Total Balalaika Show, 1994

Short films[link]

• Rocky VI, 1986 (8 min)
• Thru the Wire, 1987 (6 min)
• Rich Little Bitch, 1987 (6 min)
• L.A. Woman, 1987 (5 min)
• Those Were The Days, 1991 (5 min)
• These Boots, 1992 (5 min)
• Oo aina ihminen, 1995 (5 min)
• Välittäjä, 1996 (4 min)
• Dogs Have No Hell, 2002 (10 minute episode in the collaborative film Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet)
• Bico, 2004 (5 minute episode in the collaborative film Visions of Europe)
• The Foundry, 2006 (3 minute episode in the collaborative film To Each His Own Cinema)

See also[link]

• Finnish cinema

References[link]

• Roger Connah K/K: A Couple of Finns and Some Donald Ducks: Cinema and Society. VAPK Pub., Helsinki, 1991
• Ródenas, Gabri (2008), "The Poetry of Silence" in http://www.orimattila.fi/kirjasto/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=212&Itemid=94, Orimattila Town Library.
• Pilar Carrera: "El cineasta que vino del frío (Bico-Visión)" ("The moviemaker who came in from the cold"): http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/view.php?pid=bibliuned:signa-2011-n.20-11

References[link]

External links[link]

• Aki Kaurismäki by Orimattila Town Library.
• Aki Kaurismäki at the Internet Movie Database

Kenny Larkin (who also releases as Dark Comedy) is an American techno producer from Detroit. He has been described by Allmusic as "massively influential" on American, British, and German techno.^[1]

Larkin was born and raised in Detroit, but did not participate in the early years of Detroit techno because he was serving in the military. Upon his return, he began producing, influenced by Juan Atkins and Derrick May, as well as the Chicago house music scene.^[1] His early single releases, "We Shall Overcome" and "Integration", were issued on Plus 8, a label overseen by Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva; later released appeared on Buzz and Warp as well as other labels. His records have seen more success in continental Europe than in the U.S..

Late in the 1990s, Larkin began working as a stand-up comedian into the 2000s. His musical output has slowed as a result.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kenny Larkin discography at Discogs.