# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/21 "2012-04-09T15:24:44Z")
**Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** may count. Begins with the end of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/22 "2012-04-09T15:31:38Z")
[Seeking a Friend for the End of the World](http://youtu.be/T43InzvBm-k) is an upcoming comedy about an Asteroid hitting the earth. Looks very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/23 "2012-04-09T15:33:26Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Speaking of Harlan Ellison, there’s [A Boy and his Dog](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TI802Dqdc8) (Youtube link) Arguably Don Johnson’s best work. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/24 "2012-04-09T16:21:03Z")
Just a short essay, only a few pages, but a seriously funny classic – available online in several formats: [A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080) ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/25 "2012-04-09T17:25:17Z")
What, no love for Woody Allen’s [Sleeper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_(film))? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/26 "2012-04-09T17:37:58Z")
I own this but have not yet read it, though I have heard that it’s quite funny. I should get around to reading it one of these days: [Sewer, Gas and Electric](http://www.amazon.com/Sewer-Gas-Electric-PUBLIC-TRILOGY/dp/0446606421) ---
**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, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/27 "2012-04-09T17:44:22Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > What, no love for Woody Allen’s [Sleeper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_(film))? Any society with a young Diane Keaton and an Orgasmatron is a utopia, not a dystopia. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/28 "2012-04-09T17:50:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 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. So true! I tried watching it on Netflix recently and it was not good at all. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/29 "2012-04-09T18:08:28Z")
Not a dystopia, per se, but the kid’s show _Adventure Time_ takes place 1000 years or so after a nuclear war. The war is still relevant since there are characters that were alive during the actual war (magic happened, so there are immortal beings and such). It’s otherwise light and happy, but there are definitely hints of something darker in the background. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/30 "2012-04-09T18:52:26Z")
> [@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? Way back in the Dark Ages…the 70’s…we played RPG games. I eneded up refereeing most of the time because, frankly, I was damn good at it 🙂 There was one friend who sucked…SUCKED at refereeing and he so wanted to do it. The problem is that he always started to take things as a competition and would go against the players…a terrible characteristic in a referee. He also was an extremely cynical/depressed person. Except Paranoia. He was an EXCELLENT Paranoia referee. I still laugh at some of the things that happened when playing it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaptyxis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anaptyxis/32/3171_2.png) [@Anaptyxis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaptyxis)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/31 "2012-04-09T19:38:45Z")
I would think [_Max Headroom_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_%28TV_series%29) deserves a mention. Man I loved that show. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/32 "2012-04-09T20:43:29Z")
The French movie _Delicatessen_ is both funny and dramatic, and is about a not-quite-apocalyptic but unspecified-disaster-stricken world (near famine is the main plot point). ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230/33 "2012-04-09T20:50:16Z")
Jasper Fforde of _Eyre Affair_ fame had a new book out a bit ago, _Shades of Grey_, which seems to be first of a series. It’s a far-future post-apocalyptic dystopia where one’s social class is determined by how many colors one can see. Very funny if you like that sort of thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/light-and-or-funny-works-about-a-dystopic-future/618230.md?page=1)