Black humor, which some people regard as too sharp and offensive, is a mixture of more harmless ordinary humor with sheer cynicism. Moreover, it is believed that the comic effect of this particular variety is due to the banter on topics such as death, violence, fatal diseases, physical disabilities and others.
Instructions
Step 1
Objects or motives of black humor are also called macabre themes. Macabre literally translates as "the dance of death" and is an allegorical plot of painting and literature of the European Middle Ages. It is black humor that is the basis of the art of absurdism in various fields of art. But, strictly speaking, this term, which sounds like humor noir in French, is of French origin and was first encountered by Huysmans back in the 1880s among followers of the direction of surrealism.
Step 2
In turn, André Breton in 1939 even compiled an "Anthology of Black Humor." It was this French writer who hypothesized that the origins of black humor date back to the Enlightenment - Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal", Voltaire's "Candida" and Stern's "Tristam Shandy". In the twentieth century, the surrealists provided a rationale for the philosophy of dark comedy, which, in their opinion, stemmed from the teachings of Frend and Hegel.
Step 3
Researchers also believe that the origins of black humor originate in the medieval carnival tradition, when people staged "dances of death" and "feasting during the plague." It is from black humor that many harsh folklore songs and children's horror stories also flow, and urban folklore is still filled with malicious and partly sadistic rhymes and anecdotes.
Step 4
By the way, André Breton included in the compiled Anthology the works of Charles Baudelaire, Alphonse Allay and Lewis Carroll, who wrote not only sweet stories about the travels of Alice's girl. The Russian literary heritage of black humor includes the Christmastide stories of Antosha Chekhonte (pseudonym of Anton Chekhov), short stories by Sasha Cherny, Daniil Kharms, and even Harmful Advice, popular among modern Russian children, by Grigory Oster.
Step 5
In cinema, the traditions of black humor have also found a great application in the genre of black comedy or "Black comedy", which includes films with Monty Python. A separate "offshoot" of this genre is "horror comedy" or comedy horror, within which, for example, Roman Polansky shot his "Ball of the Vampires". In this direction, such Hollywood directors as Robert Zemeckis, who shot the film "Death Becomes Her", the Coen brothers, who are the authors of the film "Barton Fink", of course the most popular Quentin Tarantino with his films "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," also Tim Burton with "Corpse to Blind" and the film "Dark Shadows".
