Ideas for dark comedy...
Screen Writing Idea development Ideas for dark comedy...
I'm working on a compolation of dark comedy short sketches I quess would be the right word.
Anyway, what makes a good dark comedy. If you don't have any ideas yourself, what are some good movies of that particular genre you could suggest.
Many thanks.
Later.
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"Get the twelve-guage!"
Axel Foley
Beverly Hills Cop 3
How about starting with the greatest dark comedy of all time (Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE OR HOW I STOPPED WORRIED AND LOVE THE BOMB)?
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european-horror@e-Groups.com
You gotta see Rushmore. These two guys, a 15-year old and a much older Bill Murray battle for the affections of a kindergarten teacher, and they both try to dissuade each other from getting her. At one point, the kid cuts his brakes, and Murray's car goes out of control. Then Murray takes the kid's bike off the rack when nobody's around and runs over it with his car. It really is a funny dark comedy.
i think the best dark comedy is "little shop of horrors" (the musical, not roger corman's old one). It is so funny to hear the upbeat do-wop 50s girl group music as Seymour throws bloody body parts into the plant's mouth. and the part with the sadistic denstist is just awesome! you should definetely watch this movie.
as for ideas, like i mentioned about little shop of horrors, it is a good idea to have happy cheerful fun music playing as something really violent or horrible is happening.
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Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication--early Macintosh ad
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[This message has been edited by Sluggo (edited 11-12-2000).]
I never thought of the thing about the music Sluggo, thanks. I'll start writing pretty soon here and I'll let y'all know how it comes out.
Later.
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"Get the twelve-guage!"
Axel Foley
Beverly Hills Cop 3
Swimming With Sharks! Great dark comedy
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You are nothing! If you were in my toilet I wouldn't bother flushing it. My bathmat means more to me than you!- Buddy Ackerman, 'Swimming With Sharks'
http://www.urbannightmare.com
If you wanna get into HEAVY dark comedies, see a Troma film. They are probably the goriest (and funniest) flicks I have ever seen. They run up kinds rare, but the most famous ones are TOXIC AVENGER series. Hes a nerdy kid who falls into toxic waste and kills drug dealers. Plus some baddies run over a kid's head. hehe.
Then, watch American Beauty- mainly the parts that invlove Lester's mid-life crisis.
Then get The Whole Nine yards, which is still a little bit of a dark comedy. 'I don't want to die.' 'You'd better get used to it because you're going to.....sooner or later.' or whatever that line is.
Then hire out the compete collection of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In particular anything that has anything to do with violence, ie: Pet Conversions ('Terriers make lovely goldfish...Leg's off, fin's on, a little pipe in the back of it's neck so it can breath, bit of gold paint...)
Hope this helps.
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I once had 509 posts...but now I don't.
Rent The Loved One!
Very Bad Things, it's a dark comedy. I wanted to say very dark, but it's very bad, I'm not making very much sense, I'm very tired. But yea, Dr. Strangeglove is also very good. ------------------
"One can only be modest if one has something to brag about" (Thanks crazylou)
[This message has been edited by Magnus (edited 02-11-2001).]
Dr. Strangelove
Rushmore
Grosse Pointe Blank
rushmore is not a dark comedy. dark comedies are relating to death and gore, not revenge.
Gross Point Blank, Dr Strangglove and Very Bad Things are all good ones to watch. I think Fight Club should also be on your to watch list.
Death and gore aren't the only things dark comedies deal with. Dark comedies can be about many different things. Usually, dark comedies poke fun at taboo subjects, and that could be oh so many things.
I've always wanted to make a dark comedy about the holidays and Christmas time.
Well, i don't limit it too gore and/or death, but rushmore is definitly not a dark comedy.
Dark comedies force the viewer to laugh at pain and wickedness. Any kind of pain and wickedness whether it's physical, psychological or existential. Often its about things that are deadly serious to the charachters but from the audience's removed standpoint they are absurd. You need a situation that is absurd in itself but has great value and risk to the charachters. You laugh and feel a little ashamed for laughing.
They also go well with satire, the smarter and more sublime the better.
I recommend Full Metal Jacket (1st half especially) Heathers and selected scenes from Pulp Fiction ("Say 'what?' again!" and the smack overdose scene especially).
Get episodes of Ken Finkelman's "The Newsroom" or "More Tears" if you can. Fine dark humor about the wicked an shallow.
Those scenes from Pulp Fiction are good examples. Chaos is prevalent. Strange, confusing and witty and wicked things are being said under the immense pressure but nobody's got the time to laugh because the stakes are too G-damn high.
Unless their going crazy, a madness that gives them insight to thier absurd plight the charachters cannot laugh. They can barely crack an uncomfortable grin. The real humor in a dark comedy must be played straight.
Well I made the first inscision. The subject is open for further, deeper dissection.
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-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I feel that lately anything that deals with people doing bad things and is also funny has gotten the distinction of a dark comedy. That isn't necessarily right.
In my mind, a dark comedy makes you laugh at things that in another context would make you upset, quesy, cry, whatever. The caveat to that is something done poorly, as in most troma films (so bad its good) does not count. However, as our culture becomes desensitized to violence and mayhem this becomes harder to do. Just because you are laughing when someone's head gets blown off does not make it a dark comedy. I saw very bad things reviewed as a dark comedy, mostly I thought it was a very bad movie, there were no sympathetic characters at all, and none of them acted in any way like a real person would.
I guess my idea of a dark comedy still follows the convention of laughing at something that I should probably not be. Following that definition, a couple contemporary examples would be Neil Labute's first two movies (In the Company of men and Friends and Neighbors), To Die For, most Elroy adaptations. Wow, this is harder than I thought. I have a feeling that todays culture has almost rendered the Dark Comedy non-existant, because so many of the things they capitalize on are common place and mainstream, and there's the problem.
Besides movies, try reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It's classic satire/dark comedy, and it gave me alot of ideas for my script.
'Shallow Grave' by the Trainspotting mob is an excellent dark comedy. Jim - Catch 22 is fantastic, however I wouldn't call most of the humour dark...
nova_monkey
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