POISON CANDY:
THE POLITICS OF BLACK COMEDY
By Trevor K. McNeil
A Laughing Matter
Life can be really rough. Precious few people really have an easy go of it and even those who do don’t tend to recognize it at the time. A situation which can lead to what social-psychologists call “anomie.” This odd little word, which sounds a bit like a fringe French filmmaker, refers to a low-level anxiety and depression brought about by societal conditions. Fortunately we have a way to fight back. To “kick at the darkness ‘til it bleeds daylight”, as Bruce Cockburn once put it.
It Comes Naturally
Humor, is one of the most powerful forces known to humanity. It can comfort as well as cut and heal as well as destroy. It was one of the first things humans learned how to do. There is now research that suggests that early humans were able to laugh before they could speak. It is little wonder then that people have used humor to deal with their lot in society since the concept of society was conceived. Particularly in terms of Black Comedy and its partner Gallows Humor.
For the Greater Good
From these seeds of gleeful irreverence, dating back at least as far a Voltaire and Jonathan Swift in the modern context, grew the current conception of political comedy. While no single form of comedy is always popular, political comedy is one of the most consistent. Like any other form it has its hacks as well at its prodigies. Though as long as there are people in power, there is going to be an audience for it. As happened with Lenny Bruce, who also included elements of Black Comedy in his work. Such as the cover of his 1959 comedy album “The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce”, which showed him having a picnic in a cemetery. An image meant to criticize the segregation of cemeteries using a “you think this is sick?” method of exposing hypocritical societal priorities.
The Wild Card
There are many forms politically themed comedy can come in, from the up-front style of David Cross to the more thoughtful methods of Mort Stahl and the squishy, soft gentleness of Alan Alda. Despite this variance of form and attitude, it would be a mistake to think that politically charged comedy is limited to those clearly identified as such. Some of the harshest and most meaningful and lasting criticisms of the powers that be coming from a source few might expect. Black Comedy.
From the Heart (of Darkness)
Infamous for its intentional provocation of deeply taboo topics, it is hard to see anything good coming out of the combination of Black Comedy and social politics. Not least because Black Comedy is so often being politically incorrect. Usually by design. Though just because something comes off as harsh, or even wrong as according to social mores, does not mean it does not have some important things to say. This is exactly why there is a distinction made between “punching down” and “punching up.” Comedy can be really rough, even brutal, though this just makes target selection all the more important. One way or another someone is going to get hit so it might as well be those who really deserve it.
Dark Prophet
One of the first to consistently use Black Comedy for political aims was the writer, director and actor Michael O’Donoghue. Little known today, O’Donoghue was an influential pioneer of American comedy. He was one of the first writers hired at “The National Lampoon” magazine, later becoming editor; he was also founder and producer of the “National Lampoon Radio Hour” and then later went on to the then neophyte “Saturday Night Live”. He became the show’s first head writer and was the first actor ever to say a line on the series. He also had a recurring role as a sweetly cynical character named Mr. Mike.
Never Surrender
Through it all, O’Donoghue held to a Black Comedy ethos, using it as a weapon against everything he saw as being wrong in the world. Key works include the comedy album “The National Lampoon Radio Dinner”, the “It’s Not My Fault” column in “Spin” magazine, the screenplay for the Dickens satire “Scrooged” and the infamous “Vietnamese Baby Book”. Published at the height of the Vietnam War, the book is a savage satire of the baby books popular at the time, as well as an impassioned criticism of Napalm attacks against civilian children.
Intentions and Interpretations
As would often happen with Black Comedy, O’Donoghue’s intentions were misunderstood by most. He was not making fun of the tragedy of war crimes or even the soldiers who perpetrated them but the government that made them possible. He deeply hated Richard Nixon. His was not just petty irreverence. O’Donoghue is quoted as saying: “making people laugh is the lowest form of comedy.” While this sounds a bit counter-intuitive, O’Donoghue meant it quite literally.
That The Arrow Fits the Wound
He took his comedy seriously. He wanted his Black Comedy to provoke people to think, and to question everything they saw, heard, touched, tasted and smelled. Which makes sense considering he once cited Kafka as a major comedic influence. Particularly the great writer’s line,”it is enough that the arrow fits the wound.” He is also the only humorist, as far as I know, to be the target of an assassination attempt. Someone actually mailed a bomb to him at the Lampoon offices. His response to suddenly finding himself holding a live explosive device? “Someone really didn’t like the Vietnamese Baby Book.”
Porto-Progressive
Despite his madman persona and provocative Black Comedy style, O’Donoghue was a deep thinker, genuinely angry about what he saw as social wrongs. While a product of his place and time, O’Donoghue could show surprisingly progressive, enlightened attitudes. He had no patience for the shenanigans of the powerful, particularly when they hurt the vulnerable and little mercy when it came to abusers. One of the three instances included on his wikiquote page being: “the key to a successful restaurant is dressing girls in degrading clothes.”
No Rest For the Wicked
Look past the surface and it becomes clear that he was not actually advocating the exploitation of young women for financial gain. He was darkly mocking those who would do so, his Black Comedy being mistaken for cruel sexism. Having a history of being unpredictable, he was also reputed to have held a hunting knife to the throat of a National Lampoon colleague rumored to have drugged and raped his girlfriend. I shudder to think what he might have done to Harvey Weinstein. Likely something involving explosives.
Next Generation
O’Donoghue’s Black Comedy spirit would live on in the younger generation of funny folk. This shows up most obviously in Bill Hicks. Though also, somewhat surprisingly, in the shouting, warbling, weirdo Bobcat Goldthwait. It can be hard to hear through the heaps of persona. His stand-up style was chaotic at best but Goldthwait has made some pretty complex points in his time. Such as making fun the pomposity of Nancy Reagan and her part in the disastrous “War on Drugs” in the 1980s and taking aim at censorship and conservative activist groups.
A Vulgar Display
Perhaps his greatest Black Comedy line on the second subject being when he said if he was going to kill himself it would be with Heavy Metal. For those unfamiliar, the 1980s saw a massive crackdown on counter-cultures. The basic idea was that if it wasn’t “normal” it was therefore evil and contributing to the degradation of society. When a teenager was found dead from suicide while listening to a record by Ozzy Osborne, the conservative vultures callously exploited the tragedy as a weapon against Heavy Metal as a whole. They suggested it was listening to Ozzy in and of itself that made the teen kill himself.
A New Chapter
Giving up full-time stand up in the early-2000s, Goldthwait turned his attentions to films, producing a string of independent movies in several genres including Horror and Documentary. All of them bearing his distinctive, Black Comedy mark. The most notable, for me at least, is 2011’s “God Bless America”. One of Goldthwait’s most direct films, it follows Frank, an ordinary, decent guy driven to the edge of madness by the worst aspects of modern American culture.
Blood, Death and Allegory
When Frank loses everything he embarks on a cross-country killing spree. With a psychotic teenaged girl named Roxy riding shotgun, Frank takes out representations of the worst of us. Their hit list includes a toxic Reality TV star, a Westboro Baptist Church-style protest group and a border-line evil conservative radio talk show host. Beneath all the blood-soaked, Black Comedy carnage is a touching allegory about what makes us bad, as well as what makes us good and how we can be better.
Fresh Blood
There is now a new generation of comedians embracing Black Comedy, a good number of them women. While not always in a Black Comedy mode Samantha Bee can certainly have her moments of dark brilliance. While still also deftly taking the piss out of the new evil empire. A particularly stark and upsetting example is her segment on endometriosis. A shockingly common uterine condition so painful it can literally cause heart-attacks. Yet despite this potential for agonizing death, it still has no effective treatment due to government ambivalence.
Natural Disasters and Suicide
Two mainstays of Black Comedy. The first explored by Bee in her special from Puerto Rico after the hurricane which pulled no punches. One of the most elegant and sensitive comedians on suicide is Maria Bamford. Having suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts herself, Bamford has a brilliant bit, structured almost like a sonnet, about how suicide is just one in a bevy of bad ideas almost everyone has but don’t follow through on. Ending with the line “you are never alone!” Showing much more thought, care and attention than the government is willing to (sorry, I’m still sore about that).
Fringes
While not as well-known as Bee or Bamford, actor and writer Frankie Shaw is another creator making her mark utilizing the dark arts of Black Comedy. Best known for her role as plot fodder on “Mr. Robot”, Shaw has also been behind several independent productions. All of which show the spirit of Black Comedy broaching such subjects as poverty, racism, gender inequality, sexual assault, disabilities and childhood rape.
“Legitimate” Rape
For my money the most affecting is her 2016 short film “Too Legit”. A Black Comedy in the tradition of O’Donoghue, the film is based on a statement by Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin claiming that women cannot get pregnant from rape because: “if it is a legitimate rape the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.” It follows a teen rape victim who tries to find out if her rape was “legitimate” to know if her resulting pregnancy is “real.”
A Long Way To Go
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the film takes place in a sort of alternate universe in which rape culture is the unconscious modus operandi. The story follows the heroine as she inquiries if hers was a legitimate rape. She is met with confusion and insensitivity, if not outright hostility. Remember Kavanaugh?. It is a brutally honest Black Comedy satire of the crap women still have to face even in the 21st century at the hands of retrograde, clueless men in positions of power. Where is hunting knife when you need one?
