# Light and-or funny works about a dystopic future **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 9, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230 "2012-04-09T04:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/1 "2012-04-09T04:10:04Z")
_Zombieland_ and _Shawn of the Dead_ are two zombie apocalypse movies that have a lot of comedy. (Both have scary moments as well.) _Idiocracy_ didn’t quite work but had a great premise and some truly funny moments in the stupid future. (“Welcome to Costco I love you!”) _Brave New World_ isn’t a farce but was definitely more satirical and on the whole lighter than contemporary works like _1984_. (“Praise our Ford.”) What are some other books/movies/other about a dystopic or apocalyptic future that are ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/2 "2012-04-09T04:14:45Z")
_Brazil_ certainly had its lighthearted moments, but they served to make the horrific moments that much worse. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/3 "2012-04-09T04:25:17Z")
I thought Idiocracy worked very well, FWIW. _Team America: World Police_ is kind of what you’re looking for, if you squint some. Cyril Kornbluth’s _The Marching Morons_ is the best one I can think of on the spot. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/4 "2012-04-09T04:37:19Z")
_A Clockwork Orange_ has a lot of oddball humor in it. The Space Merchants, another by Kornbluth and Frederick Pohl, posits a future of advertisers run amok, and has lots of comic elements. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/5 "2012-04-09T04:47:18Z")
Hm, much of the [Stainless Steel Rat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat) series is both dystopic and funny if you like that sort of humor, as is the[Retief](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jame_Retief) series [the earlier books in both series], another Harry Harrison, [Bill the Galactic Hero](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill,_the_Galactic_Hero). Hm, again [Harry Harrison](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harrison) - Deathworld trilogy. Not sure if you consider intergalactic spy sabotage funny, but [Wasp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_%28novel%29) really has its moments if you realize the author was responsible for WW2 dirty tricks as well. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/6 "2012-04-09T04:59:31Z")
I thought about mentioning the _Deathworld_ series, but IIRC the dystopian part was on one planet in a much larger “federation” of worlds, most of which were doing fine. IMO, the movie Avatar stole most of its plot from this series. Likewise, I don’t think either the **Retief** or **Stainless Steel Rat** series are paarticularly dystopian. Particularly Retief, who is basically the one smart and effective operative in what amounts to a galactic State Department. Eh, maybe you’re right about the Rat, it’s been so long since I read it. But excellent choice **Bill the Galactic Hero**. A great dystopia, very black as midnight humor. Which reminds me of the movie _Hospital_. If you can consider one small hospital in a big city a dystopia, then this would be a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/7 "2012-04-09T05:07:17Z")
Don’t know if it was really that funny, but who can forget [Woops!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103583/) on Fox? According to IMDB, the tagline was, “At Fox, we believe there are some things you just can’t joke about. Fortunately, the end of the world is not one of them.” Talk about a laugh riot. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/8 "2012-04-09T05:10:53Z")
[Romantically Apocalyptic](http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/), a webcomic/art project. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/9 "2012-04-09T05:15:34Z")
[Super Sad True Love Story](http://www.amazon.com/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story/dp/0812977866/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333948403&sr=1-1) by Gary Shteyngart. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/10 "2012-04-09T05:19:00Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Don’t know if it was really that funny, but who can forget [Woops!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103583/) on Fox? > > According to IMDB, the tagline was, “At Fox, we believe there are some things you just can’t joke about. Fortunately, the end of the world is not one of them.” Talk about a laugh riot. Which reminds me of A Blast From the Past – a movie where a family shuts itself into an underground bunker for decades because they _think_ there’s been an apocalypse. Eventually some crisis leads them to unseal and send out their son (I can’t remember why), and humor ensues. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/11 "2012-04-09T11:29:24Z")
**Whoops** doesn’t county. The OP says it has to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/12 "2012-04-09T11:42:05Z")
The future Neal Stephenson depicts in \*Snow Crash \*is undeniably dystopic; it’s also pretty funny, with its Mafia pizza and nuclear Aleutians. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/13 "2012-04-09T12:00:52Z")
[_Paranoia_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29) is, at least, great fun to read, and is definitely dystopian. I wonder how many people, like me, would only read the rulebooks and modules, and had no interest in playing the game? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/14 "2012-04-09T12:04:53Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > [URL=“[Paranoia (role-playing game) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29)”] > I wonder how many people, like me, would only read the rulebooks and modules, and had no interest in playing the game? Yep. But back then, I would buy any RPG book I could get my hand on, just to read. What I \*played \*was basic D&D. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/15 "2012-04-09T12:11:24Z")
Not dystopic (but then again lots of the above suggestions aren’t either – the Zombie Apocalypse is no Dystopia) but relevant is the 1980 anthology Robert Sheckley edited, **After the Fall**. It’s a collection of “upbeat end-of-the-world stories”, which is the kind of thing you’d expect from Sheckley. [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1719](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1719) As I’ve mentioned many times before on this Board, my favorite is Philip Jose Farmer’s entry, _The Making of Revelation, Part 1_, wherein God appoints Cecil B/. DeMille to produce and direct Armageddon, using all the Dead as his staff (rather like his Riverworld stories). DeMille gets Harlan Ellison to write the script, because Ellison is the only one who isn’t afraid to argue with God. Eventually even God gets pissed off at him, and he’s replaced by “a hack from Peoria” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/16 "2012-04-09T12:51:44Z")
Speaking of Harlan Ellison, there’s [A Boy and his Dog](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TI802Dqdc8) (Youtube link) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/17 "2012-04-09T13:17:53Z")
There’s also **[The Bed-Sitting Room](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bed-Sitting_Room_(film))**, which, despite a great cast and a first-class director of comedies, is not actually as funny as the description would indicate. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/18 "2012-04-09T14:06:25Z")
Stephen King’s The Stand has some great humor in it. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/19 "2012-04-09T14:25:34Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > [_Paranoia_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29) is, at least, great fun to read, and is definitely dystopian. > I wonder how many people, like me, would only read the rulebooks and modules, and had no interest in playing the game? “Serve the Computer! The Computer is your friend!” “Stay alert! Trust no-one! Keep your laser handy!” “Excuse me, citizen… is there a tank-bot on our requisition form?” _Paranoia_ was great fun. Getting back to the OP, I would nominate Will Self’s _**[The Book of Dave](http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Dave-A-Novel/dp/1596913843/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333981402&sr=1-1)**_. Part of the book takes place in the present, and tells the story of a mentally-unhinged cab driver named Dave who’s dealing with a rough divorce. Flash forward 500 years to a post-apocalyptic England that has been largely flooded, where society centers around a religion based on a found transcript of Dave’s psychotic ravings. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/20 "2012-04-09T15:10:51Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not dystopic (but then again lots of the above suggestions aren’t either – the Zombie Apocalypse is no Dystopia) A valid point, so- category broadened to include apocalyptic, zombie or otherwise, in addition to dystopic; basically “Funny but with really bad things having happened”. I love _Good Omens_ but I’m not sure I’d count it as the apocalypse never actually happens (at least not the worst parts). Ditto _Supernatural_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230.md?page=2)