# Black (or dark) comedies recomendations
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [January 12, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115 "2023-01-12T17:24:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/1 "2023-01-12T17:24:04Z")
We watched _Filth_ last night. Totally blown away by it. It was the best movie I’ve seen in a while. But it was dark, with a capitol D. I’m thinking I would like to explore this genre some more.
Looking for suggestions to expand my horizons. I’m looking for more dark than comedy.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/2 "2023-01-12T17:27:33Z")
I’d suggest _In Bruges_. I’m not usually a big fan of dark comedy, but a friend recommended it to me, and I liked it so much that I watched it twice in a week.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/)
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/3 "2023-01-12T17:32:57Z")
The obvious current example would be **Barry**. It’s about a hit man who wants to be an actor, starring Bill Hader (SNL) and Henry Winkler. Very dark, and very funny.
For movies, try Grosse Point Blank, in which Hitman John Cusack goes to his high school reunion and deadly hijinks ensue.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/4 "2023-01-12T17:33:31Z")
Jojo Rabbit, Paraside, Fight Club, Trainspotting.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/5 "2023-01-12T17:40:32Z")
The Menu (2022) - can be viewed on HBO MAX currently. Definitely more dark than comedy. Some have described it as “horror” but I would not categorize it that way.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/6 "2023-01-12T17:40:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I’d suggest _In Bruges_.
One of my favorites. I watched it ten years ago and was so impressed I immediately asked my gf if she wanted to see a great movie, and watched it with her.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/7 "2023-01-12T17:54:39Z")
Some of my favourite dark comedy TV series (note: I like my comedies to be funny)
- _Delocated_ (season 2 is my favourite TV show season of all time)
- _Nighty Night_ and _Hunderby_ (Julia Davis rocks)
- _The Boys_ (hope you like blood)
- _Ugly Americans_, _Rick and Morty_, _Jeff & Some Aliens_ (if you like animated shows)
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### Author:  [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/8 "2023-01-12T17:59:37Z")
Two minor Scorsese movies that are pretty awesome:
_The King of Comedy_, with Robert De Niro in an atypical non-tough-guy role as a guy who lives in his mother’s basement (literally, in the literal sense of the word), aspires to be a stand-up comic, and kidnaps Jerry Lewis, who plays a television talk-show host. Being allowed to do a spot on Lewis’s show is the ransom.
_After Hours,_ with Griffin Dunne as a guy who just wants to get home, and the whole world seems to be conspiring against him with one fucked-up situation after another frustrating him. Pretty good supporting cast, including Cheech and Chong playing . . . well, essentially the kind of guys you’d expect Cheech and Chong to play.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/9 "2023-01-12T18:05:36Z")
I liked “The Hunt” way more than I thought I would.
> **[The Hunt (2020 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_(2020_film))**
>
> The Hunt is a 2020 American horror thriller film\[a\] directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. The film stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts. Jason Blum was a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner, along with Lindelof. Zobel and Lindelof have said that the film is intended as a satire on the profound political divide between the American left and right. It is about a group of elites who kidnap working class people to hunt them.
> The...
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/10 "2023-01-12T18:06:41Z")
_Tucker and Dale vs Evil_
Sets the teen-sex-slasher movie on its ear. Alan (“Firefly”) Tudyk stars. Well worth your time, if you’re into this kind of thing.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/11 "2023-01-12T18:07:30Z")
> [@dirtball](#):
>
> _After Hours,_ with Griffin Dunne as a guy who just wants to get home, and the whole world seems to be conspiring against him with one fucked-up situation after another frustrating him. Pretty good supporting cast, including Cheech and Chong playing . . . well, essentially the kind of guys you’d expect Cheech and Chong to play.
Ha, brings back memories of being in my early 20s, taking a first date to that movie, not having any idea how weird and dark it was. It was kind of uncomfortable sitting through, wondering what she was thinking. Imagine taking a first date to see David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet”- similar experience. Fortunately she was cool with it. Not that the relationship went anywhere, but that was more due to me than my first date movie choice.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/12 "2023-01-12T18:10:59Z")
A couple of older movies with a similar theme…
Parents (1989)
> **[Parents (1989) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098068/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4)**
>
> Parents: Directed by Bob Balaban. With Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky. A young boy living in 1950s suburbia suspects his parents are cannibalistic murderers.
Eating Raoul (1982)
> **[Eating Raoul | IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3547898905/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1)**
>
> Three Reasons Criterion Trailer for Eating Raoul
Haven’t watched either in eons. From what I remember, Eating Raoul was an indy flick with lower production values; Parents was a more mainstream movie, starring Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/13 "2023-01-12T18:14:07Z")
A couple of TV series I missed
- _Corporate_ (the work life of corporate drones in a soulless company run by a gleefully unhinged Lance Reddick)
- _Nathan Barley_ (Charlie Brooker’s show about the life of a moronic internet quasi-celebrity back when that was hardly even a thing)
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/14 "2023-01-12T18:31:25Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#):
>
> Eating Raoul (1982)
Ohh, wow. I remember watching that soon after it came out, and really enjoying it.
Trivia: Raoul was played by a young Robert Beltran, who later starred as Chakotay on _Star Trek: Voyager_.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/15 "2023-01-12T18:41:45Z")
A favorite:
> **[Ruthless People (1986) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091877/)**
>
> Ruthless People: Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. With Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater. A couple cheated by a vile businessman kidnaps his wife in retaliation, not knowing that their enemy is delighted...
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### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/16 "2023-01-12T18:46:01Z")
I don’t know I would call that “dark comedy”. I love the movie. I absolutely love the scene where Judge Reinhold is ranting about how he and his wife need to be ruthless; meanwhile he is very carefully and delicately picking up a spider and placing it outside the front door. (shot from the porch) You then see the screen door open, a foot come out and smash the spider.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/17 "2023-01-12T18:48:33Z")
> **[Very Bad Things (1998) - IMDb](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0124198/)**
>
> Very Bad Things: Directed by Peter Berg. With Jon Favreau, Leland Orser, Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater. A prostitute is killed during a bachelor party and the attendees turn on each other as the wedding approaches.
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### Author:  [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/18 "2023-01-12T18:53:11Z")
Reading the Wiki description of _Filth_, I’m surprised no one has suggested _A Fish Called Wanda_ (though not as violent, it seems to have a similar arc).
I am also partial to _A Simple Favor_, which is a satire on what I call the “Gone Girl Genre” of films.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/19 "2023-01-12T18:56:29Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I’d suggest _In Bruges_. I’m not usually a big fan of dark comedy, but a friend recommended it to me, and I liked it so much that I watched it twice in a week
Pretty much anything by Martin McDonagh (_In Bruges_, _Seven Psychopaths_, _Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri_, and thge recent _The Banshees of Inisherin_) all qualify. _Three Billboards_ actually feels like a Coen Bros movies (casting Frances McDonald nails that down), so while you are at it also check out the entire oeuvre of the Coens except for their shitty remake of _The Ladykillers_ and maybe give _Intolerable Cruelty_ a pass. (I guess _Miller’s Crossing_ and _No Country for Old Men_ aren’t really comedies but why skip such great films?) Often overlooked gems are _The Man Who Wasn’t There_ (basically a Cain-esque parody of small town murder noir) and _Burn After Reading_,which is a conspiracy thriller with no conspiracy populated by idiots. (J.K. Simmons only has a couple of scenes in the entire film but he clears the decks with every line.)
Danny DeVito hasn’t directed many films but while _Ruthless People_ and _Throw Momma from the Train_ are just pretty good, _The War of the Roses_ is transcendent and doesn’t cop out at the end. If you’ve never seen it…you have to. “A good dog to the last bite…woof, woof!”
David O. Russell is also a director to check out (if you can get past his abusive on-set behavior) and while I don’t think he’s ever quite done another film as good as _Three Kings_, _American Hustle_ and _Joy_ have a good amount of dark humor.
Beyond that…_Being John Malkovich_ and _Adaptation_ are great Charlie Kaufman comedies with a dark tinge. (The Kaufman-adapted _Confessions of a Dangerous Mind_ is less well done and overproduced but worth seeing as an early Sam Rockwell performance alone.) Shane Black’s _Kiss Kiss Bang Bang_ and _The Nice Guys_ are good sendups of the detective/conspiracy genre with plenty of darkness. Adam McKay’s _Vice_ isn’t exactly a comedy and Christian Bale plays such a deadpan Dick Cheney that it is hard to tell if it is supposed to be a satire, but Sam Rockwell nails a perfect balance of parody and sincere idiocy in portraying George W. Bush.
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> Jojo Rabbit
The film is surprisingly lighthearted for a movie about a child whose imaginary friend is Hitler (played by Taika Waititi) in the wanting years of WWII before German collapse but it certainly has some surprisingly dark turns. And Sam Rockwell again…in fact, just go look through Rockwell’s body of work because he does very well at being the clown in the midst of darkness and despair.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2023, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-dark-comedies-recomendations/978115/20 "2023-01-12T19:01:28Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> The Menu (2022) - can be viewed on HBO MAX currently. Definitely more dark than comedy. Some have described it as “horror” but I would not categorize it that way.
Thanks. I’ve good things unfortunately no HBO MAX - I’ll have to wait for other venues.
I wouldn’t mind if dark comedy drifted lightly into horror.
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