Piñata: A Dark Comedy is a dark comedy written to explore what an audience is willing to laugh at and what remains when the laughter has finished. Set in a tavern, Piñata showcases the comedic on goings of a few young adults. Stephen enacts an extensive scheme to show Marcy that her boyfriend is no good for her. Stephen’s friend Wick attempts to cope with haunting trauma as his sister, Lily, does what she can to get Stephen’s attention. The characters navigate each others desires and needs through witty banter and outrageous stories. These comedic antics build in intensity until the play reaches a shocking climax. This moment thrusts the audience into a state of discomfort. The play is prefaced with a critical chapter that explores the way in which the play deals with its audience and how the play utilizes audience laughter. / February 2016

The following is a multi-genre collection, including short shorts, short fiction, non-fiction, and drama. Each piece utilizes Gothic motifs and dark comedy in an effort to explore life and loss.

This thesis serves to classify Black Humor as a philosophy, which holds that the world is meaningless and absurd, and as a literary technique. Historical origins are discussed and the idea is related to a reflection of the middle-class syndrome of twentieth century man. Close philosophical and literary relatives are presented and a pure work isn't defined. Black Humor literary characteristics are described in terms of style, theme, plot, setting, chronology, and characteristic ending. Black Humor characters are classified as "non-heroes" divided into four categories. Prevalent use and treatment of traditional forbidden subjects of sex, defecation, money, violence, emotionlessness, religion, death, and "illogical" logic are stressed. In summary, Cat's Cradle is examined in light of the Black Humor characteristics described and found to be other than a pure Black Humor work.

The American South is a rich source of literature that combines the humorous and the horrific in its attempts to explain and expose the region's deep-seated social turmoil. One of the most prolific genres to come out of the South is southern gothic literature that, though not always humorous is known for its use of grotesque imagery and reliance on highly charged melodramatic narratives. When these works are comic, they don't merely reflect the region's strife but attempt to transform it. This dissertation looks at how southern gothic writers Beth Henley, Fannie Flagg and Flannery O'Connor use dark comedy in their works as defiant acts designed to question the status quo and reform the southern landscape by creating ruptures where marginalized people can assert themselves into the norms of American culture. Drawing on several different definitions of comedy, including Barecca's works on female narratives and linguistic theories of jokes, this work defines dark comedy and identifies where humor and horror come together in the works of these southern gothic writers to form particularly dark comic moments. Then, it uses Butler's theory of sites of rupture to explain how dark comedy can be transformative. In Giving an Account of Oneself, Butler explains Foucault's regime of truth as a system that is always both self-reflexive and social - a system where the norms that govern recognition create boundaries where subjects are formed. She goes on to conclude that ruptures can occur within the "horizon of normativity" whereby those relegated to the margins can gain entry and be encompassed within the governing norms. Dark comedy, then, occurs at or even creates that site of rupture in the individual and in the society that experiences it, and allows for the individual, and by extension society, to change its understanding of what is normal and resides within the margins. Within the text, then, dark comedy changes the governing norms to include the once marginalized oddities.

Death, dying, and the actual loss of life are some of the broadest sweeping concepts that typically evoke a wide array of emotions from sadness and anger to fear and despondence. It is unlikely that the first words associated with death are comedy, humor, or laughter. However, that is precisely what creators and comedians of dark, death, and gallows humor seek to achieve. For my senior capstone project, I have created a short fictional narrative film encompassing the traits of a dark comedy. However, noticing that few dark comedies delve into topics surrounding suicide, I wondered if it was possible to achieve the same comedic and filmic effects with suicide as dark comedies do with death. Is it possible to generate humor from suicide and desiring death? What is implied if humor is derived from the inability to reach death on one’s own volition?

This paper will cover the creation of my thesis film, “Down to the Last,” from concept to completion, with a special focus on writing a dark comedy with a strong female lead, and the desire to incorporate visual effects and stunts to enhance the overall story. Details of how my crew and I decided to approach the challenges of my script and vision will be fleshed out along with solutions to problems we faced during preproduction, principle photography, and postproduction. The outcome of the project is a combination of minute deviations from my initial vision and a minimization of visual effects in order to preserve the tone and humor of the story.

A motor-mouthed rapper with a perfect ear wants to turn a golden-voiced oddball into a music superstar but his popstar ex-lover threatens to blow up her meteoric rise.

In humour studies research, there have been few attempts to elucidate why black humour was such a prevalent, powerful force in late twentieth century culture and why it continues to make a profound impression in the new millennium. As Dana Polan (1991) laments: ???Rarely have there been attempts to offer material, historically specific explanations of particular manifestations of the comic???.1 This thesis offers an interdisciplinary analysis of black humour in the late twentieth century. I contend that the experience of black humour emerges from the intricacies of human beliefs and behaviours surrounding death and through the diverse rituals that shape experiences of loss. I suggest that black humour is an attempt to articulate the tension between the haunting absence and disturbing presence of death in contemporary society. Chapter 1 of this thesis offers an historical and etymological perspective on black humour. In Chapter 2, I argue that the increasing privatisation and medicalisation of death, along with the overt mediatisation of death, creates a problematic juxtaposition. I contend that these unique social conditions created, and continue to foster, an ideal environment for the creation and proliferation of black humour. In Chapters 3 and 4, I examine the structures and functions of black humour through three key theories of humour: incongruity, catharsis and superiority. Chapter 5 looks at ways in which the experience of black humour creates resolutions and forces dissonances for people entwined with loss. In this final chapter, I also consider how black humour may help people make meaning from issues surrounding death. Throughout this theoretical discussion, I interweave the analysis of a range of scenes from contemporary black comic texts (i.e. plays, screenplays and television scripts). On the whole, this thesis works towards a more complex, specific understanding of the phenomenon of black humour within a social context.

In humour studies research, there have been few attempts to elucidate why black humour was such a prevalent, powerful force in late twentieth century culture and why it continues to make a profound impression in the new millennium. As Dana Polan (1991) laments: ???Rarely have there been attempts to offer material, historically specific explanations of particular manifestations of the comic???.1 This thesis offers an interdisciplinary analysis of black humour in the late twentieth century. I contend that the experience of black humour emerges from the intricacies of human beliefs and behaviours surrounding death and through the diverse rituals that shape experiences of loss. I suggest that black humour is an attempt to articulate the tension between the haunting absence and disturbing presence of death in contemporary society. Chapter 1 of this thesis offers an historical and etymological perspective on black humour. In Chapter 2, I argue that the increasing privatisation and medicalisation of death, along with the overt mediatisation of death, creates a problematic juxtaposition. I contend that these unique social conditions created, and continue to foster, an ideal environment for the creation and proliferation of black humour. In Chapters 3 and 4, I examine the structures and functions of black humour through three key theories of humour: incongruity, catharsis and superiority. Chapter 5 looks at ways in which the experience of black humour creates resolutions and forces dissonances for people entwined with loss. In this final chapter, I also consider how black humour may help people make meaning from issues surrounding death. Throughout this theoretical discussion, I interweave the analysis of a range of scenes from contemporary black comic texts (i.e. plays, screenplays and television scripts). On the whole, this thesis works towards a more complex, specific understanding of the phenomenon of black humour within a social context.

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