150 Dark Comedy Quotes

Following is our list of dark comedy quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about dark humor.

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Famous Dark Comedy Quotes

You know, comedy and horror are flip sides of the same coin. — James Murray

Like comedy, horror has an ability to provoke thought and further the conversation on real social issues in a very powerful way. — Jordan Peele

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. - Peter Ustinov

Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. — Peter Ustinov

Comedy is a tragedy plus time. — Carol Burnett

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. — Erma Bombeck

Life is a mixing of all kind of things: comedy and tragedy going together. — Alejandro Jodorowsky

I like doom and gloom with a sense of humour. Maybe it's a Scottish thing, we like to undercut indulgence with a laugh. — Shirley Henderson

Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end. — Sid Caesar

Comedy is defiance. It's a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it's the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale. — Will Durst

The human comedy is always tragic, but since its ingredients are always the same - dupe, fox, straight, like burlesque skits - the repetition through the ages is comedy. — Dawn Powell

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot. - Buster Keaton

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot. — Buster Keaton

In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed. — Wislawa Szymborska

When Kubrick decided to go the black comedy route with his movie, he thought of me to give it that flavor. — Terry Southern

Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel. - Horace Walpole

Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel. — Horace Walpole

A farce, or slapstick humor, does well universally. - John Ratzenberger

A farce, or slapstick humor, does well universally. — John Ratzenberger

Short Dark Comedy Quotes

  • There is a point in portraying surface vulgarity where tragedy and comedy are very close. — Barbara Stanwyck
  • Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die. — Mel Brooks
  • Life would be tragic if it weren't funny. Laugh at the Absurdity of LifeStephen Hawking
  • All humor is rooted in pain. — Richard Pryor
  • Without comedy as a defense mechanism I wouldn't be able to survive. — Garry Shandling
  • This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel. — Horace Walpole
  • I provide a little comic relief. — Anthony Anderson
  • What is comedy? Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke. — Steve Martin
  • The real reason for comedy is to hide the pain. — Wendy Wasserstein
  • The secret to humor is surprise. — Aristotle

Dark Comedy Image Quotes

Dark comedy quote To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust him in the dark, that is faith.
To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust him in the dark, that is faith.

What Is Comedy Quotes

That's really what 'Jokers' is - an improv show. — James Murray

We even say a lot of the times, we'll put our own filter on. We'll rein each other in when somebody's out there. If we see somebody's getting mad we'll change the direction on purpose. Cause that's not what our show is. It's not getting people upset. It's making each other laugh. — Joe Gatto

Women comedy is different than men comedy. Guy comedy is very aggressive, it's about insulting each other, name-calling, and kind of busting each other's chops, and that's not what women's comedy is. — Paul Feig

Dark comedy quote When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars.
When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars.

When I was in third grade I taught myself ventriloquism... What's hard is to learn to be an entertainer and make people laugh. I was a few years out of college before I felt I had enough material. Then in 1988 I moved to L.A. and started to do some shows at comedy clubs. — Jeff Dunham

That's what I love about sketch comedy: a sketch is five minutes, then it goes dark, and there's the potential for something else. — Jason Sudeikis

Well 'Impractical Jokers' isn't really a prank show, because the joke is on us. We make ourselves look like idiots in front of the public. So the public is mostly confused about what is happening. — Joe Gatto

Dark comedy quote I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the star
I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.

It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is. — Jack Lemmon

Santino, never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking. Never let them know what you have under your fingernails. I think your brain is going soft from all that comedy you play with that young girl. Stop it and pay attention to business. Now get out of my sight. — Mario Puzo

There's this other world where all comedians want to do is make funny videos. Typically what's happened in the past is that a comedian gets a standup career and over the course of 20 years builds it up to the point where Comedy Central gives them a sketch show. — Gavin McInnes

I guess what I always found funny was the human condition. There is a certain comedy and pathos to trouble and accidents. Like, when a driver has parked his car crookedly and then wonders why he has the bad luck of being hit. — John Prine

Dark Humor Quotes

A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing. — Laura Ingalls Wilder

No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. — George Lucas

I am a candid interview and I have a dark and dry sense of humor - a very Canadian sense of humor and I am only learning now stupidly that you can't read tongue. When I say something funny in a newspaper and I meant it to be funny, it doesn't read that way. — Michael Buble

Dark comedy quote When you can't look on the bright side I will sit with you in the dark.
When you can't look on the bright side I will sit with you in the dark.

A man's subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour. — P. G. Wodehouse

Dark humor appealed to me because it was a bigger laugh than you could get with anything else. Seeing people laugh at something inappropriate with their whole bodies, a guttural, visceral laugh beyond a mere "hah." — Anthony Jeselnik

A big part of the humor is in identifying with the tragic elements of the film. The New Zealand sense of humor is very dark. Our films are usually very dark and it's always someone being killed. Usually a child. — Taika Waititi

Dark comedy quote When you can't look on the bright side i will sit with you in the dark.
When you can't look on the bright side i will sit with you in the dark.

Our records, if you have a dark sense of humor, were funny, but our records weren't about comedy. They were about protests, fantasy, confrontation and all that. — Ice Cube

I envy people that know love. That have someone who takes them as they are. — Jess C Scott

Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness; and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick-bed with thorns, and rack our sinking spirits with despair. — Reginald Heber

Man makes plans . . . and God laughs. — Michael Chabon

Black Comedy Quotes

Yeah, even a black comedy. Where it's a little eerie. I'd love to do that. But there are about three really fabulous ones on the air now and I don't know if I can do any better than that. I'd like to sort of forge new ground. — Sharon Gless

The day of the wedding went like these things generally do, full of anxious moments interspersed with black comedy. — Janet Street-Porter

The devil is not as black as he is painted. — Dante Alighieri

Dark comedy quote The people that are there for you on your darkest nights are the ones worth spending your brightest
The people that are there for you on your darkest nights are the ones worth spending your brightest days with.

People always say 'You do racial comedy.' And I don't, exactly. I do cultural comedy. Because race and culture are two different things. There's black people from America and then there's black people from Africa. Racially, they're the same; culturally, they're extremely different. — Russell Peters

In college I was one of six males who auditioned for five male roles in a comedy play. I was the one rejected. At that moment I made up my mind never to place myself at the mercy of some pompous, goateed, black-turtleneck-shirted "should I yay him or nay him?" pantywaist ever again. — Emo Philips

Paddy was in the delivery room when the midwife handed him a black baby. "Is this yours?" she asked "probably" said Paddy "she burns everything else" — Billy Connolly

Dark comedy quote Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

I go "I just want a cup of black coffee." She goes "Do you want to try a biscotti? They're from Italy and they're considered a delicacy." Have you ever eaten one of these things? It tastes like a burned cookie. Where I'm from, that's considered a mistake. — Bill Engvall

School shootings were invented by blacks... and stolen by the white man. — Chris Rock

In black neighborhoods, everybody appreciated comedy about real life. In the white community, fantasy was funnier. I started looking for the jokes that were equally hilarious across the board, for totally different reasons. — Will Smith

Black Comedy is a farce that is played in the dark, as you know, with the lights full on. It's the Chinese convention of reversing light and dark, and exactly where anybody is at any given moment is the play. — Peter Shaffer

Black Humor Quotes

If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole airplane made out of that stuff? — George Carlin

I'll tell you how I'd like to be remembered: As a black man who won the heavyweight title - Who has humorous and who never looked down on those who looked up to him - A man who stood for freedom, justice and equality - And I wouldn't even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was. — Muhammad Ali

You can't slit the throat of everyone whose character it would improve. — Al Swearengen

Dark comedy quote The tiny seed knew that in order to grow it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and s
The tiny seed knew that in order to grow it needed to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light.

My dad was a complicated man. He was a huge racist, my dad, but he still tried to be a good father, you know? Like, he would tell me that Santa Claus was black - that way, when I found out he didn't exist, it wouldn't be that big a let down. — Anthony Jeselnik

You have to accept the fact that sometimes you are the pigeon, and sometimes you are the statue. — Claude Chabrol

Say what you want about the deaf. - Jimmy Carr

Say what you want about the deaf. — Jimmy Carr

Dark comedy quote When it rains look for rainbows, when it's dark look for stars.
When it rains look for rainbows, when it's dark look for stars.

After I told my wife that black underwear turned me on, she didn't wash my Y-fronts for a month. — Chic Murray

Just tell the truth, and they'll accuse you of writing black humor. — Charles Willeford

You know how Mexican restaurants always have "border" in the name: Border Grill, Border Cafe. You wouldn't do that to black people: Kunta's Kitchen or Shackles. They don't do it to white people. You don't see the Honkey Grill, the Cracker Barrel... oh, nevermind. — George Lopez

You can talk any redneck into a challenge. That’s why so many rednecks die in strange ways. — Jase Robertson

Comedic Quotes

I have comedic things in my stuff, but I don’t consider myself a comedian. I’m just a YouTuber, I guess just a personality. — Ryan Higa

No matter what I have to say, I'm still trying to say it in comedic form. — Harold Ramis

I'm always the guy on tour that tries to get guys chatting and a lot of banter back and forth so I definitely feel that a lot of bodybuilders have that comedic side in them, they're just a little bit more introverted. — Phil Heath

Dark comedy quote Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which they never show to anybody.
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which they never show to anybody.

I'd probably be better in an action role and even a more comedic role as I find myself pretty hilarious. — Phil Heath

I'd rather get a good clean laugh with good material, than an easy laugh by swearing or shocking. That's not clever or comedic, anybody can get a laugh that way, it's too easy. — Jim Dale

As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, international, and wonderfully comedic. — Maureen O'Hara

Dark comedy quote Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

If you look at anything, there are always comedic moments. — Bradley Cooper

When you are honest in your comedy, you have to acknowledge the world that you're in. Through a comedic voice you're talking about what needs to be talked about, whether it's race relations or politics or anything that's happening on a global or an American scale. — Trevor Noah

We're all real people with moments of intense honesty and pathos and humanity. We all experience that, whether you're comedic or not. — Bob Odenkirk

I love any comedic zombie movies. — Atticus Shaffer

Writing Humor Quotes

A poem is never finished, only abandoned. — Paul Valery

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. — Steven Wright

At the risk of appearing disingenuous, I don't really think of myself as 'writing humor.' I'm simply reporting on the world I observe, which is frequently hilarious. — Richard Russo

He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose. - Fred Allen

He writes so well he makes me feel like putting my quill back in my goose. — Fred Allen

Based on what you know about him in history books, what do you think Abraham Lincoln would be doing if he were alive today? 1) Writing his memoirs of the Civil War. 2) Advising the President. 3) Desperately clawing at the inside of his coffin. — David Letterman

I think people appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides. The whole angst thing is cool, but if that's all you've got, it's just boring. Everything I write, whether it's happy or sad, has a sense of humor to it. — Katy Perry

A writer's voice is not character alone, it is not style alone; it is far more. A writer's voice line the stroke of an artist's brush- is the thumbprint of her whole person- her idea, wit, humor, passions, rhythms. — Patricia Lee Gauch

Whenever I'm out of town for at least a week, I feel like I should write a postcard or something, but you can be a genius, you try and write a postcard you come across like a moron anyway: 'This city's got big buildings. I like food. Bye.' — Jim Gaffigan

Write drunk; edit sober. — Ernest Hemingway

I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. It's a start. — Steven Wright

Stand Up Comedy Quotes

I can't imagine being a woman in the world of acting, like where you age starts to weigh you down - you go from being attractive to where they [directors] decided you're out... I feel like with stand-up comedy, it doesn't matter if I've gotten fatter. — Jim Jefferies

It’s the ultimate pinnacle of stand-up to have an hour on HBO, but way more people see Comedy Central and they’ve been good to me. — Daniel Tosh

I keep my stand-up comedy notes in a pile on my desk. I don't organize my act. I keep myself in a state of confusion. It stresses me out, but I prefer creative chaos. — Joy Behar

I just love entertaining. I will do anything - stand-up comedy, video games, fencing, internet shorts - I just want to keep being lucky enough to entertain people anyway I can. I try never to limit my art to a medium. — Matthew Gray Gubler

I don't do drugs. If I want a rush I just stand up when I'm not expecting it. — Dylan Moran

Stand-up comedy is an art form and it dies unless you expand it. — Sam Kinison

I hate being mean. I watch those roasts on Comedy Central and they make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. — Downtown Julie Brown

I watch a happy person doing stand-up, and I go, "What the hell is this? This person's happy!" You need internal conflict. You need the guy to be out of step with society. It's a tool for comedy. — Zach Galifianakis

When you're standing around for an hour doing stand up it's no big deal but when you're standing around watching a show for an hour - it's a big difference. It's annoying - your feet hurt, your back hurts - it's just not the most comfortable way to see stand-up comedy. — Joe Rogan

I've seen stand up comedy, and after a while you start to notice that a lot of people are doing things that are like a lot of other people. There can be a bit of a herd mentality, and that's obviously less interesting because there's less going on. I'm just being totally frank with you. — Dylan Moran

Political Humor Quotes

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. - Voltaire

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. — Voltaire

You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team. — Eric Cantona

In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem. - George Carlin

In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem. — George Carlin

I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag. — Molly Ivins

No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. — Mark Twain

Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous ... this is how I see my duty as a designer. — Philippe Starck

Politics: Poli a Latin word meaning many and tics meaning bloodsucking creatures. — Robin Williams

Political correctness is tyranny with manners. — Charlton Heston

Few things are more irritating than when someone who is wrong is also very effective in making his point. — Mark Twain

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God. — Abraham Lincoln

People Writing About Dark Comedy

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Read quotes by Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole
quotes on life, love and friendship

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Read quotes by James Murray

James Murray
quotes on comedy, education and leadership

50 1
Read quotes by Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele
quotes on writing, racism and get out

49 143
Read quotes by Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov
quotes on love, education and leadership

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Read quotes by Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett

123 823
Read quotes by Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck
quotes on death, marriage and family

331 3736

More Dark Comedy Quotes

I like dark comedies. That's why I like the Wayans Brothers. — Zach Galifianakis

I think that crowdfunding has become such a powerful tool to tell stories that might not find financing otherwise - like a dark comedy about infidelity, for example! — Kit Williamson

I like very dry humor. I dont like things that are over the top. I like subtlety. I like things that are nonchalant. I like characters that are sort of monotone and based in dark comedy. — Emily Rios

I'm not interested in parts where they are looking for a good-looking guy. I want to be a weird little sidekick in a crazy comedy and then play like a dark drama or a thriller. — Alexander Skarsgard

Heavy role in the movies that I've done that I have loved and fit my soul; A Simple Plan, Monster's Ball, Sling Blade, One False Move, Bad Santa even. I mean Bad Santa is a comedy, and it's a very dark comedy, and it's become like iconic, you know. — Billy Bob Thornton

As the tall dark and handsome male star, Carey Grant always stands for male beauty and desirability, whether in a 30s screwball, a 40s film noir, or a 50s romantic comedy. He consequently turns around the orthodox gender between the one who looks and so desires, and the one who is looked at, and so is being desired. — Steven A. Cohen

Dark comedy is very difficult. You have to bring the audience in and push them away at the same time. — Pierce Brosnan

I tend to find comedy in dark places. I also tend to find comedy in taking on the status quo - which has always been something I find important. — Tom Green

People hit the sauce in a big way all winter. Amidst blizzards they wrestle unsuccessfully with the dark comedy of their lives, laughter trapped in their frigid gizzards. Meanwhile, the mercury just plummets, like a migrating duck blasted out of the sky by some hunter in a cap with fur earflaps. — Amy Gerstler

You won't find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don't speak to me. People don't come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I'm this dark, twisted, miserable person. — Naomi Watts

I don't think comedy comes from hotbeds of doing shtick. I think it usually comes from some kind of childhood humiliation or darkness. — Sarah Silverman

It's always been said that comedy comes mostly out of the dark side anyway. — Alan Thicke

It's something that people relate to - and I hope my kid doesn't relate to - but there's a level of believability in playing complex characters. You know, Christopher Walken has done some hilarious comedies, De Niro. There's great room for complexity and darkness to do well in comedies. — Jeremy Sisto

I found myself within a forest dark. — Dante Alighieri

Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. — Dante Alighieri

If it's strictly comedy, I like to bring some darkness to it. If it's strictly drama, I always like to lighten it up as well. I like to find some kind of dimension and make my characters human, so that it doesn't feel like a sketch and feels more like a slice of life. — Nestor Carbonell

I just want to work with talented people who are enjoyable to be with, and take big huge risks from high comedy to deep, dark, brooding drama, to thriller. I just want to go back and forth. — Frank Oz

I feel like it's a dangerous and dark world if 'Sunny' becomes mainstream comedy. If you were to turn on CBS at 8 o'clock on Thursday and see an episode of 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia,' I don't know if I want to live in that world. — Rob McElhenney

I'm not at all funny. I can do dark comedy pretty well, but straight-up comedy, I don't know. I'm much darker. I've been like that since I was 3 years old. — Rooney Mara

Everybody says video-game adaptations are all the same, but I disagree. Normally, video-game adaptations are like Alone In The Dark, Resident Evil, Alien Vs. Predator - sci-fi creature stuff. But I think I've covered] a wide range of genres and time periods, like Transylvania in 1700 and now a Western with BlodRayne II, or adventure with Dungeon Siege, or comedy and satire with Postal. — Uwe Boll

I'd love to do something dark, something that has nothing to do with music or comedy. Anything, but I'm still learning what I can do. — Beyonce Knowles

Somehow that doesn't feel like a natural human thing to do, to go to those dark places, you have to kind of force yourself to do that. And comedy, it's like you're excited to get there in the morning every day. — John C. Reilly

I decided to do a comedy. It's a good mind-set to go into work and be happy every day instead of being in a dark place. — Mila Kunis

Because I was familiar with Taika's Watiti work and there's a very subversive, funny streak amongst all of them. I don't think he turned [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] into a sort of drama, there's too much dark material underneath it for it to be a comedy; it wasn't designed to be a comedy. I think it's a comedy... I think it's a drama that's funny; which is different. — Sam Neill

I certainly do believe that a lot of comedy comes from awkwardness and embarrassment - pointing out the ways things are uncomfortable. Definitely the stuff that interests me. I don't necessarily think that comedy comes from a dark place, like you have to be a strung-out heroin addict. But I don't think it comes from happiness, that's for sure. It comes from frustration and suppressed rage, and wishing the world were different. — Christian Finnegan

My mother was always the one with the dark, really filthy sense of humor. She was a vulgar woman. She used to tell me to do comedy before I even tried it. She was always up for any gag. — Doug Stanhope

I have a dark sense of humor, so I definitely like to work on stuff like that. I do enjoy working in comedies where I can create a fun and broad character. — Fiona Gubelmann

I'm not a huge fan of romantic comedies - my taste goes much more to the offbeat and dark. I'd love to sink my teeth into something like Fargo. — Courteney Cox

Comedy is about flaws anyway... There's a lot of humor in the dark areas of life. — Brett Gelman

There's comedy in tragedy, and tragedy in comedy. There's always light and dark in most jobs. Whether it's framed as a comedy, drama or tragedy, you try to mix it up within that. You can work on a comedy and it's not laugh-a-minute off set. You can work on a tragedy that's absolutely hilarious. — Harry Treadaway

I like comedy but I guess I don't think [my art] is that funny, either. It's too dark and a bit weird in places to be genuinely, uniformly hilarious and function as comedy. — David Shrigley

Doing a film and saying, I've done a really dark film and now I have to do a comedy... That's not me. If a script comes along and it's dark I'll absolutely do it and take the consequences. I'm not fussed about the image that goes along with it. — Daniel Craig

I gravitate towards dark comedy, because I'm a huge fan of dark comedy. I always think the most painful thing that you can laugh at is the best. — Jamie Babbit

Whenever you're making a dark comedy, you're always looking for the yin and yang in an actor. — Jamie Babbit

The classic comedian says there's nothing that's taboo; if you laugh at one thing you've got to laugh at everything, that comedy is taking people to dark areas and showing them the light. — Bo Burnham

I'm capable offstage of having some dark, twisted thoughts but the kind of things I like to do onstage are just more conceptual and I don't even think of them as being clean. I don't sit down and think, "Man, I'm going to come up with some lily-white comedy!" They're just things that I like to talk about, and then at the end of the day you think, "Well, I guess that was clean" but it's not the focus. — Brian Regan

Comedy doesn't come easy for me. I've only done 2 movies that are really comedy-style films and I have to work at them. And they're just as scary in a way. I hate labeling all these things; comedy, love stories, dark drama, whatever. — Channing Tatum

I'd like to play a mixture of Lucille Ball meets Murphy Brown meets Glenn Close on 'Damages,' to keep a little bit of the darkness in there. I like dark comedy a lot. — Joelle Carter

I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being. — Stephen Mangan

Comedy doesn't always have to come from a dark place. — Craig Kilborn

There have been 15 or 16 screenplays over the years, including one by me, but none of them has gotten made because Paramount is a huge studio. The Dice Man is an anti-establishment cult novel and you don't normally make studio films from such dark comedy material. — Luke Rhinehart

All comedy comes from a dark place. — Katt Williams

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