Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, gallows humor, or dark humor is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term black comedy can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Popular themes of the genre include death, crime, poverty, suicide, war, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, and human sexuality.
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The term black humour (from the French humour noir) was coined by the Surrealist theorist André Breton in 1935 while interpreting the writings of Jonathan Swift.[10][11] Breton's preference was to identify some of Swift's writings as a subgenre of comedy and satire[12][13] in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism,[10][14] often relying on topics such as death.[15][16]
Breton coined the term for his 1940 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 (particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1710), and in a few aphorisms).[11][14] In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including 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. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) Sade.
Among the first American writers who employed black comedy in their works were Nathanael West[17] and Vladimir Nabokov,[17] although at the time the genre was not widely known in the US. The concept of black humor first came to nationwide attention after the publication of a 1965 mass-market paperback titled Black Humor, edited by Bruce Jay Friedman.[8][18] The paperback was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the concept of black humor as a literary genre.[9] With the paperback, Friedman labeled as "black humorists" a variety of authors, such as J. P. Donleavy,[8][9] Edward Albee,[8][9] Joseph Heller,[8][9] Thomas Pynchon,[8][9] John Barth,[8][9] Vladimir Nabokov,[8][9] Bruce Jay Friedman[8][9] himself, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.[8][9] Among the recent writers suggested as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl,[19] Kurt Vonnegut,[12] Warren Zevon, Christopher Durang, Philip Roth,[12] and Veikko Huovinen.[20] The motive for applying the label black humorist to 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. Comedians like Lenny Bruce,[13] who since the late 1950s have been labeled for using "sick comedy" by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy".
Sigmund Freud, in his 1927 essay Humour (Der Humor), puts forth the following theory of black comedy: "The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure." Some other sociologists elaborated this concept further. At the same time, Paul Lewis warns that this "relieving" aspect of gallows jokes depends on the context of the joke: whether the joke is being told by the threatened person themselves or by someone else.[21]
Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the morale of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors.[22][23] According to Wylie Sypher, "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them."[24]
Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use was widespread in middle Europe, from where it was imported to the United States.[7][verification needed] It is rendered with the German expression Galgenhumor (cynical last words before getting hanged [25]). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression rire jaune (lit. yellow laughing),[26][27][28] which also has a Germanic equivalent in the Belgian Dutch expression groen lachen (lit. green laughing).[29][30][31][32]
Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes police officers,[36] firefighters,[37] ambulance crews,[38] military personnel, journalists, and funeral directors,[39] where it is an acknowledged coping mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do.[37][38]
Walter Redfern, discussing puns about death, remarks: 'Related terms to gallows humour are: black comedy, sick humour, rire jaune. In all, pain and pleasure are mixed, perhaps the definitive recipe for all punning' (Puns, p. 127).
Provocative and controversial art and in-your-face entertainment put our commitment to free speech to the test. Why should we oppose censorship when scenes of murder and mayhem dominate the TV screen, when works of art can be seen as a direct insult to peoples' religious beliefs, and when much sexually explicit material can be seen as degrading to women? Why not let the majority's morality and taste dictate what others can look at or listen to?
Sex in art and entertainment is the most frequent target of censorship crusades. Many examples come to mind. A painting of the classical statue of Venus de Milo was removed from a store because the managers of the shopping mall found its semi-nudity "too shocking." Hundreds of works of literature, from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, have been banned from public schools based on their sexual content.
American law is, on the whole, the most speech-protective in the world -- but sexual expression is treated as a second-class citizen. No causal link between exposure to sexually explicit material and anti-social or violent behavior has ever been scientifically established, in spite of many efforts to do so. Rather, the Supreme Court has allowed censorship of sexual speech on moral grounds -- a remnant of our nation's Puritan heritage.
This does not mean that all sexual expression can be censored, however. Only a narrow range of "obscene" material can be suppressed; a term like "pornography" has no legal meaning . Nevertheless, even the relatively narrow obscenity exception serves as a vehicle for abuse by government authorities as well as pressure groups who want to impose their personal moral views on other people.
The only clear assertion that can be made is that the relationship between art and human behavior is a very complex one. Violent and sexually explicit art and entertainment have been a staple of human cultures from time immemorial. Many human behavioralists believe that these themes have a useful and constructive societal role, serving as a vicarious outlet for individual aggression.
The Supreme Court's current definition of constitutionally unprotected Obscenity, first announced in a 1973 case called Miller v. California, has three requirements. The work must 1) appeal to the average person's prurient (shameful, morbid) interest in sex; 2) depict sexual conduct in a "patently offensive way" as defined by community standards; and 3) taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
The Supreme Court has held that Indecent expression -- in contrast with "obscenity" -- is entitled to some constitutional protection, but that indecency in some media (broadcasting, cable, and telephone) may be regulated. In its 1978 decision in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica, the Court ruled that the government could require radio and television stations to air "indecent" material only during those hours when children would be unlikely listeners or viewers. Broadcast indecency was defined as: "language that describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory activities or organs." This vague concept continues to baffle both the public and the courts.
PORNOGRAPHY is not a legal term at all. Its dictionary definition is "writing or pictures intended to arouse sexual desire." Pornography comes in as many varieties as the human sexual impulse and is protected by the First Amendment unless it meets the definition for illegal obscenity.
Parents need to know that Yes, God, Yes is a semi-autobiographical teen comedy set in the early 2000s. It centers on Alice (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things, a Catholic high school girl who accidentally ends up having a sexual internet chat with a stranger the same week that rumors spread at school about her and a classmate. Expect lots of discussion about sex, from virginity and Catholic views on premarital sex to specific sex acts and the reputation you can get for even allegedly doing something. There are also glimpses of a cybersex chat and pornography, as well as implied oral sex and masturbation, a couple of kisses, and an off-camera sex act that someone watches voyeuristically. Language is occasionally strong or insulting ("s--t," "slut," "perv," "a--hole," etc.), and there's one moment when a teen is served a wine cooler at a bar where adults are drinking. Families will be able to discuss their beliefs about sexism, sex, and religion after watching the film. 2ff7e9595c
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