Black Humor
Humor discovered in pain, despair, horror, or a generally pessimistic View
of the world. Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark and Nathanael
West's Miss Lonelyhearts are examples from the 1930s, but the term is
most frequently applied to post-World War II writers, especially in the
United States, who present a sense of alienation heightened by laughter.
Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Pynchon are often cited.—
Harper Handbook to Literature
Sometimes known as Gallows Humor.
ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture:
The Grotesque
Sick-Joke Cycle
 Plague Jokes
 Challenger Jokes
How do we know Christa McAuliffe [the first teacher
in space, killed on board the Challenger] wasn’t a
good teacher?
ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture:
The Grotesque
Sick-Joke Cycle
 Plague Jokes
 Challenger Jokes
How do we know Christa McAuliffe [the first teacher
in space, killed on board the Challenger] wasn’t a
good teacher?
Because a good teacher doesn’t blow up in front of
her class.
ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture:
The Grotesque
Dr. Strangelove, or How I
Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb
(1964)
Black Humor on the
Grotesque Blog
Terry Southern, Black Humor Writer (Candy, The
Magic Christian) [left]; Stanley Kubrick [right)]
Black Humor
ENGL 2020 Themes in Literature and Culture:
The Grotesque