10 great dark comedies

3. Bad Santa (2003)
Dark premise: A profane Santa Claus is funny.
If you regard Christmas and Santa Claus as sacred symbols, this is not the film for you. However, if you regard those same sacred symbols and events as being rife for comic attack, then “Bad Santa” will make you laugh until you cry. It follows the antics of the worst Santa Claus ever. Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner Marcus (Tony Cox) are really con men. Each year they pose as Santa and elf so they can rob department stores. This year, however, Willie gets tailed by an odd kid (Brett Kelly), who seems strangely unaffected by Santa’s offensive behavior. This Santa curses, drinks heavily, and sleeps with his customers if the opportunity arises.
Darkest/funniest/most twisted moment: When Willie meets a woman (Lauren Graham) with a Santa fetish and they get it on, it’s as over-the-top twisted and funny as a scene gets.
Best line: (Whatever it might be, it’s not printable here)

2. Heathers (1989)
Dark premise: Teenage suicide is funny.
Where most teenage comedies skim the possibilities of dark humor, “Heathers” mines it with every possible pick. The three Heathers (Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker), along with Veronica (Winona Ryder), form the most powerful clique in Westerberg High School. Even though she’s part of the group, Veronica loathes the Heathers and loathes high school in general. When she meets new kid J.D. (Christian Slater), they go on an “accidental” killing spree, that has the effect of making suicide seem cool.
Darkest/funniest/most twisted Moment:  The point where J.D. and Veronica plan the “phony” double suicide of jocks Kurt and Ram to the discovery by officers McCord and Milner (the last names of the lead actors from “Adam 12”) of their bodies and the mineral water that confirms their homosexuality is among the great comic sequences.
Best line: (J.D. to Veronica) “This is Ohio. If you don’t have a brewski in your hand you might as well be wearing a dress.”

1.   Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Dark premise: Nuclear war is funny.
Director Stanley Kubrick followed the Cold War doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” to its logical, yet insane conclusion, and came up with this dark comedy, which begins with bombing orders being transmitted to Major Kong (Slim Pickens) from the nutty Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden). The film basically shifts between three places: the plane, the war room and Ripper’s office. The brilliant Peter Sellers plays three different roles: the President of the United States, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and Dr. Strangelove. Every scene that takes place in the war room is laugh-out-loud funny as the President tries to get General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) to explain how bombing orders were given without the President’s consent and then how to bring the bombers back. Sellers’ performance as Dr. Strangelove is one of pure comic genius.
Darkest/funniest/most twisted moment: Nothing is funnier than Group Captain Lionel Mandrake's reaction when he's confronted by the idiotic and slightly paranoid Colonel Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn) and prevented from calling in the recall codes that could save the world because the Colonel thinks Mandrake is a “prevert.”
Best Line: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”

Jason Katzman is co-creator and writer for Shadowculture's Mr. Cranky. Jason Katzman can be reached at .

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