Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36552
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36552
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Horror works on building tension. Humour breaks it.** On the face of it, you've got two cardinally opposed directions here. How do you mix the two?

First, there's gallows humour. Gallows humour doesn't undermine the dark tone of the situation. If anything - it drives it home. At the same time, there's strength in being able to laugh at a hard situation, which is why people resort to it.

You can use the notion of gallows humour, and take it one step further, turning your whole story into dark comedy. Such a work, I think, would be at least a little surreal - the sharp juxtaposition of funny and horrifying becoming the reality in which you write.

As a final, brilliant example, I would point you towards Roberto Benigni's film _[La Vita è Bella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful)_. It is a comedy. About a Jewish family in a concentration camp. It is funny and chilling at the same time, and there's more heart in it than in any Holocaust movie I can think of. Where _Schindler's List_ and _The Pianist_ leave me somewhat overloaded, _La Vita è Bella_ invariably makes me cry - it's softer tome penetrates deeper.  
How does Benigni do it? Gallows humour is self-aware: both the person telling the joke, and the person hearing it are aware of the horror. As such, it is usually cynical. Benigni avoids this cynicism entirely, instead presenting us with a father who tries to hide the meaning of what's going on from his child. The tension, the danger - it's always there. And in the face of it, there's the father being a clown. And each time you laugh, you also know he's just put himself and the child in that much more danger - you don't get to laugh at the Nazis. So, you have the humorous situation building tension, instead of breaking it like it usually does.

Original score: 35