The importance of comediennes and dark humour
Women are more important to dark comedy than you think
Helen Zhang with SuppliedI always feel a mix of anxiety and excitement when I’m recommended a comedy starring women.
On one hand, I’m incredibly excited to support media centring women and their experiences. On the other hand, I’m mortified at the idea that the show might be lacking something or is just plain bad. After all, there’s a pre-existing social narrative saying women are just not as funny as men, and any bad comedy starring women just adds fuel to that fire. Don’t even get me started on girl comedy being reduced to making oneself the butt end of the joke.
Comedy is about the unexpected. This is why we think the socially awkward antics of Mr. Bean and the non-sequitur plots in Spongebob Squarepants are hilarious as children. It’s why we all think that one Peppa Pig whistle skit is hysterically funny. Humour doesn’t always have to be limited to just the unexpected, though. Have you ever felt yourself laughing at something that’s actually abjectly unpleasant? I once laughed and cried at the same time when I dislocated my knee at work, all because I couldn’t let go of the fact the sound I made when it happened was exactly like the Roblox “oof.”
Take it a step further and think about the times you’ve laughed about things that are awful, offensive, and actually really depressing: enter dark comedy. This comedy doesn’t care about social norms — it wants to prove everyone really sucks at the end of the day. Seinfeld, Arrested Development, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty are all notable comedies with this flavour. These shows are funny and completely messed up — but what’s unfortunate about the lot of them is they’re male-centred comedies.
I think now more than ever, women and gender non-conforming people should take the dark comedy world by storm. The overwhelming popularity of shows like Daria, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, and most recently Derry Girls has paved an excellent opportunity for us, ladies. Who better to critique social norms than people who are so intimately and constantly messed up by them? Girls can be horrible people too, and it’s time we showed people that!
Dark comedy does a really critical job of exposing the oddity of social norms. It makes you want to look away from the TV because you’re cringing, laugh at things you’re horrified to be laughing at, sympathize with really terrible characters. And boy, is it a self-reflexive critique.
The experience of being a woman is frustrating — so much so that it’s hilarious. From unspoken and abided by rules (go to the washroom with a friend, keep someone actively updated about your location when you’re on a Tinder date), to people constantly undermining things like your math or driving abilities, to people being really concerned about women but not believing them at the same time: it sucks.
This argument extends to all marginalized groups. Please, please, please make good dark comedy about your experiences with your narratives. Because at the end of the day, the jokes are funnier when they’re told by someone who truly understands the joke, and when society treats you like a joke you might as well make some serious money out of it.
