Comedy 1

Dark Comedy: Bringing Light upon Society

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Introduction
In a world with over 6,000 spoken languages, there is only one which everyone has in
common. Laughter. Laughter is a common occurrence in every culture ranging from Americans
to Africans to Indians. But why do people laugh? More importantly, how does comedy benefit
society? Comedy has the ability to change how one perceives the world. Whether changing
ones frown into a smile or changing how someone views a situation, comedy has a lasting
effect. Specifically, dark comedy makes listeners question their surroundings. Dark comedy
creates the realization of what actually is going on in society, it shines light where none used to
be.
Laughter
When a person gets a headache, they are told to take a Tylenol. When they are in pain,
told to take an Advil. When they have a stomach ache, have a Tums. However, there is one
medicine which trumps all of these pills which cannot purchased at any drug store, laughter. Dr.
Paul McGhee- humor psychologists- claims, Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful
tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.
From studies backed by the American Heart Association done at UCLA and the American
College of Cardiology, the benefits of laughter have been found to be astronomical. Among
other health benefits, laughter has been found to reduce pain, boost immunity, and even reduce
the risk of heart disease (Cole, 2013). What makes laughter different than other medicines is
that laughter causes no financial burden. Laughter can be present in any situation whether in the
luxurious homes of San Francisco or the more run down parts of Chicago. It can be found while
watching a TV show or seeing a friend do something silly; the possibilities are endless.

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Relief Theory
The Relief Theory of Humor was devised by Psychologist Sigmund Freud and accredits
laughter to the release of tension made by a joke. The Relief Theory places a large emphasis on
Mark Twains quote, Humor is tragedy plus time. The reason that humor happens after a
tragedy is because tragedies create tension inside a person. The tension is constantly built up
and the only way to release the tension is to talk about the subject. Dr. Patt Schwab developed
four steps that an individual goes through to deal with the tension (Schwab, 2003).
The first stage that one goes through is Morbid Humor. During this stage, there are
often attacks at the one who caused the event resulting in stress. For example, after 9/11, jokes
revolved around the harming of those in the Middle East. This humor typically does not benefit
or appeal to listeners unless they too were affected by the tragedy.
After morbid humor, one begins to experience Distractive Humor. Distractive humor is
utilized to do what it says, distract an individual from the experience at hand. This form of
humor is supposed to lift the spirit of those effected and allow them to mentally escape.

Going

along with the prior example of 9/11, to distract Americans a satirical paper such as The Onion
could have released a newspaper which briefly mentioned the event, but then only wrote about
puppies.
The third stage that individuals experience is known as Power Humor. Power humor is
utilized to make an individual feel stronger or above a situation. A majority of stand-up routines
consist of power humor. What separates power humor from morbid humor is that power humor
is used strategically to make one feel stronger than the one who is the subject of the joke.
Morbid humor is to simply speak bad about a subject. Actual examples of power humor were

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when The Onion posted two articles two weeks after 9/11. The two articles God Angrily
Clarifies Dont Kill Rule and Highjackers Surprised to Find Selves in Hell Insist they were
Promised Eternal Paradise and 67 Virgins boosted the self-esteem of American citizens while
simultaneously putting down those who associate themselves with the attackers.
The last stage of dealing a traumatic event is Connective Humor. Connective humor is
much like power humor in the idea that it directly talks about the subject at hand, but rather than
attacking something, it is used to connect people together. This form of humor does not just
focus on the matter at hand, but additionally brings in other perspectives. About eight months
after 9/11, the magazine Satire Wire published an article titled Religious merger creates 900
million Hinjews. The article talks about how both religions-Hindi and Judaism- have opposing
views of the Islamic faith, and then pulls in some similar stereotypes of each religion. The article
strengthened connections between Jews and Hindis by demonstrating how they are not much
different.
Incongruity Theory
The Incongruity Theory of Humor was devised by Immanuel Kant in the mid-late 18th
century. He defines that humor arises from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation
into nothing. Common examples of these jokes are referred to as Anti-Jokes. They are called
that because they do not have the results or punch line that you expect to hear. Take the
following set up joke as an example: What is green and has wheels? Some answers that you
may come up with are: a lawnmower, a green truck, a John Deere Tractor, ect. However, the
punch line of this joke is: Grass, I lied about the wheels. Audiences find this type of joke
funny because the punch line does not match up with what is expected. If the joke was told with
what was expected, no laughter would become apparent. It was only with the unexpected match

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attached to the question that yielded laughter proving that incongruity yields laughter. Despite
the large appeal of the Incongruity Theory to comedians, it has a major fault. It explains why a
joke is funny, but fails to provide why one would not be funny. As Humor Psychologist Peter
McGraw puts it, Accidentally killing your mother-in-law would be incongruous, assert
superiority, and release pent-up tensions, but its hardly a gut buster if you have to explain the
catastrophe to your wife. For this reason, he and his team at the Humor Research Lab devised
the Benign Violation Theory (McGraw, 2010).
Benign-Violation Theory
The Benign-Violation Theory is the theory developed by Peter McGraw and his team to
fix the Incongruity Theory. It states how something is only funny if it both violates a social
norm and is benign- it has no real harm.
Figure 1 (McGraw & Warner, 2014)

A common occurrence explained by this theory is tickling. If you are being tickled by a
friend or family member, you will most likely laugh. Yes, being tickled violates the social norm
of keeping your hands to yourself and is often viewed as a form of attack, but it is
simultaneously benign. When you are being tickled you feel no pain, so as a result you laugh.
However, if you replace your friend or family member with a creepy guy with a strange look on

Comedy 6

his face, you will most likely not laugh. There is nothing benign about being tickled by a
stranger who looks like he might want to kill you. (McGraw & Warner, 2014)
When a situation is too much of a violation, comedians will often times try to make them
more benign so they can get the reaction they desire. This style is known as the Silverman
Strategy. It was named after comedian Sarah Silverman who often talks about racial
stereotypes in cute ways in order to soften the violation. The softened violation makes the topic
seem more distant which yields laughter (McGraw, 2010).
On the contrary, the Seinfeld Strategy does the opposite (McGraw, 2010). This
strategy was named after Jerry Seinfeld who in his TV show, Seinfeld, constantly seeks to
point out the absurdities of normal life in New York. It takes benign situations and finds
violations inside of it. Stand-Up Comedian Aziz Ansari utilizes this strategy in his Stand-up
show Dangerously Delicious (Ansari, 2012). At one point during the show, he begins to read his
Cousin Harriss college letter. The letter is obviously not the best one anyone has ever seen, but
it is obvious that it is definitely something a student in high school would have written.
However, throughout reading the essay, Aziz critiques nearly everything Harris writes pointing
out how ridiculous some of the writing is. When he points things out, the audience responds
with laughter.
Despite the general laws of the Benign-Violation Theory, people will experience different
emotions when a situation occurs. What one person finds hilarious, might be found offensive to
another person. For example, one might find the South Park episode mocking EPA hilarious
while someone who is a part of EPA would find it vulgar and disgusting. Another instance when
people would have different reaction is depending on their distance from an event. If you are
walking with friends and then one of them slips on a banana peel (and is not harmed), it is likely

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that you will find it funny. However, if that same incident occurred, but you were not there when
it happened, there would be no laughter. Incidents like this one are where the phrase You had to
be there came from. On the other hand, if you hear about a man in a different town who
accidentally hammered a nail into his hand, the expected result is laughter. The same result
would not yield, however, if the man was actually your next door neighbor. In summary,
mishaps are found funny when they are close but tragic events are funny when they are distant.
Dark Comedy
Dark Comedy, commonly referred to as Black Comedy, is a subgenre of comedy and
satire where topics and events that are usually treated seriously are treated in a satirical manner
while still being portrayed as the negative events that they are (Black Comedy). However, dark
comedy does not necessarily have to be immature like toilet or vulgar humor. To implement dark
comedy effectively, knowledge of the event must be known. Often times, the topic is considered
to be taboo (events such as violence, terrorism, or sexism) which strays people away from
partaking in it. When not implemented in the correct way, the joke is considered to have
crossed the line or to have gone too far.
In modern day pop culture, dark comedy is everywhere. Every comedy television show
and movie now-a-days utilizes dark comedy in a way. In the Saturday Night Live Skit with
Peyton Manning holding the football camp for little kids, SNL was criticizing society. They
were criticizing NFL players for acting as good role models for kids, but actually being terrible
people in real life. They also criticized parents for letting their kids look up to these people even
after seeing what they do.

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Dark comedy is not limited through just television. Nineteenth century writer, Oscar
Wilde, utilized satire- a form of dark comedy- throughout his writing. Specifically, in his play
The Importance of Being Earnest he criticizes the elite upper class of the Victorian Era. He
criticizes them not by stating how preposterous everything they did was, but by inflating all of
their faults to ensure clarity to the audience. This topic is considered a part of dark comedy
because it was taboo to speak poorly of the upper class publicly.
Other novels that contain black comedy include Animal Farm, Thank You for Smoking,
and many more. Unlike The Importance of Being Earnest which focuses on social standards,
Animal Farm satirizes the Russian Revolution. Thank You for Smoking satirizes media
exploitation and social politics. Black comedy can be utilized to satirize any topic, there are no
limits as to how far black comedy can go.
South Park
One of the most controversial TV shows to ever air is South Park, an animated sitcom on
Comedy Central. What makes it so controversial is that the premise of the show is to satirize
current events. Each episode is written in one week meaning that no one episode is created until
the one prior to it has aired. South Park has satirized events ranging from the presidential
election to the fear of gluten to the ineffective school system. However, what makes South Park
socially acceptable is the fact that it attacks every group otherwise known as Equal Opportunity
Offensiveness (Weinstock, 2008). Rather than attacking one group throughout the season, the
directors attack a different group in each episodes. These attacks are not to demonstrate hatred,
but rather to show societys views on the group at the current moment.

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For example, this past year, news channels have constantly highlighted all of the
shootings committed by police officers on African Americans. Being the case, in the final
episode of the season- December, 2014- director Trey Parker created an episode where police
officers acted as society has inferred that they truly act. Holograms of various celebrities
began to pop up all over town. When a confrontation arises with Tupac, the police officer
responds with Well did you choke him. After realizing that choking was not enough to kill
the hologram, another officer asks Well did you shoot him. The final remark by the police
officer was Well whats the problem?
At no point while watching this episode did I think, Thats terrible of them to
criticize police officers because that is what South Park does. It brings topics that need to be
addressed to the publics eyes. It does not just talk about the topic, but emphasizes the topic so
anyone, even those who do not know what is going on, can understand. South Park is the best
example of dark comedy in todays pop culture due to its wide range of appeal as well as its
ability to critique everything. There is no specific way an episode has to run. Common events
happen in every episode such as Kenny dying or Cartman making a Jew joke to Kyle, but one
episode can be about sexism in society and then the next about NASCAR.
Comedy in Businesses
Although they do not seem as if they fit together, comedy and business go hand in hand.
Bringing in comedy skills helps build [a] supportive environment where people can be open and
honest with one another (Wilson, n.d.). The environment becomes more supportive because
one of the main aspects of comedy is to always say yes and go on with the idea. Cofounder of
Bostons Improv Asylum comedy group puts it as:

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Theres a lot of power around yes versus no. If I say no, I might get a laugh at
your expense. But it stops the idea. And it creates a bad culture, both onstage and in
an office setting. Next time, you might wait for me to start so that you can rip the rug
out from under me, as opposed to a relationship where were trying to advance
shared ideas and make each other look good. (Stevenson, 2014)
Additionally, bringing in the techniques utilized in Stand-Up Comedy into the business
world makes presentations and client meetings more efficient. In Stand-Up, the only material
which you possess is your wit. All word choices and actions must be made based off of how the
audience is acting. If the audience is laughing at jokes revolving around politics, continue with
the jokes about politics. The same applies with a business presentation or an attempt to sell a
product. If the consumer likes what you are saying about OxiClean being Mother-Nature
approved and safe on colored fabrics that is what needs to be talked about.
Comedy even teaches businesses how to [find] ways to get people who seem
uninterested to perk up. All that needs to be done is find some sort of common ground, an
area where both the consumer and producer feel comfortable. In Stand-Up this is often done by
observing the audience and seeing what types of jokes would fit the general crowd. For
example, an audience of twenty year old men would not find the same jokes funny as an elderly
lady. In business, attracting attention is done in a similar fashion.
Comedy in Politics
Politics is a language that is difficult to understand. Often times, the public does not
actually know what is going on. And the few scenarios where the public does know what it
going on, they are misguided by the way politicians speak. However, by bringing comedy in to

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politics, it becomes clear what is actually meant. For example, at the 2015 White House
Correspondents Dinner, Barack Obama had Luther- his anger translator- come and translate
everything which he said. Barack Obama would say what sounds politically correct and then
Luther (Keegan-Michael Key) would say what Obama actually meant to say. For example,
Obama thanks the press for [shedding] light on the most important issues of the day.
Immediately afterwards, Luther mocks both Fox and CNN for putting too much emphasis on
certain issues which in turn, impose fear on citizens. By having Luther say the harsh comments
rather than Obama, it does not harm the public image of Obama. (Obama, 2015) If anything, it
benefits his ratings because it makes him seem to be the good guy who is more sane and
understanding.
Additionally, by placing comedy into politics it becomes more enjoyable to watch what is
going on. That is what shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
are intended to do. Both shows act as real news channels, but they have the twist of being funny.
After all of the incidents with police officers killing African Americans, Jon Stewart focuses on
the death of Eric Garner (Stewart, 2014). Instead of just stating what he believes should happen,
he points out the ridiculousness of the situation as a whole. Politicians were saying that the man
was only killed because he was resisting arrest. Immediately afterwards, Stewart shows a clip
of Snooki from Jersey Shore resisting arrest with nothing bad happening to her. Lastly, he
criticizes who actually got indicted from the situation. No, none of the police officers who
committed the murder got arrested, but the man who recorded the video of the situation. Jon
Stewarts form of comedy makes the situation easier to understand because he emphasizes the
controversial facts, not his actual opinions, but the facts of the situation.

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What makes The Daily Show so effective, compared to every other news channel, is that
Jon Stewart is not afraid to speak the truth. Stewart talks about the happening rather than the
opinions about the happening. If a political leader is doing something that is frowned upon,
Stewart will deliberately say it. He will not attempt to imply an underlying message because his
audience, younger viewers and those who do not find interest in mainstream news channels, are
often not politically aware enough to comprehend them. Despite his cruel- yet true- claims,
politicians do not find offense to Stewarts remarks because of his comical appeal. Yes, Stewart
may mock their policies, but it also makes society begin to contemplate the topic at hand.
Conclusion
Comedy is not a way for people to express their immaturity. Rather, comedy is an art to
propose change, much like how music and painting have done in the past. Comedians place
serious topics in comical situations in order to get the public thinking about a topic. Criticism is
placed in comical situations because- as Oscar Wilde once said- if youre going to tell someone
the truth, make them laugh, otherwise theyll kill you. Comedians are the ones who will
provoke the change needed in society. They shine light where none used to be. Comedy will
create a better society.
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Central, Washington D.C.
Black Comedy. (n.d.). In TV Tropes. Retrieved from
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Bodow, S., & Stewart, J. (2014). We can't breathe [Television series episode]. In The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart. Comedy Central.
Chappelle, D. (2004). Racial Draft [Television series episode]. In Chappelle's show. Comedy
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Evans, J. (2013, January 28). Why we still need comedy. The State Press. Retrieved from
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Key, K. & Peele, J. (Directors) (2014, May 30). The Power of Comedy. Peabody Awards.
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being-a-good- comedian/284104/
McFadden, R. (2012, May 9). Just joking? taking comedy seriously. Retrieved from
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Mcgraw, P. (2010). Peter McGraw: What makes things funny [Video file] Retrieved from
http://leeds-faculty.colorado.edu/mcgrawp/benign_violation_theory.html

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McGraw, P., & Warner, J. (2014). Chapter One. In The humor code: A global search for what
makes things funny (pp. 1-16). New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster.
Obama, B. (Director) (2015, April 25). President's Speech. White House Correspondents Dinner.
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Schwab, P. (2003, January 1). Humor's role in tragedy. Retrieved from
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siness_getting_to_yes_and.html
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Weinstock, J. (2008). Taking south park seriously. Albany, New York: State University of New
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