Summary

• Comedy movies can incorporate humor into different genres, making them even funnier by subverting expectations and inserting jokes into serious stories.
• Atmosphere and tone created by filmmakers can make the audience laugh without traditional jokes, relieving tension and adding levity to serious narratives.
• Movies like Pulp Fiction, Uncut Gems, and Scarface use dark comedy to highlight flaws in characters and society, allowing the audience to laugh at their selfishness and failures.

Comedy movies are always going to be a popular type of cinema, but there are many projects that manage to incorporate humor and laughs into their stories while staying firmly rooted in a completely different genre. These types of movies are often even funnier than all-out comedies, as the laughs are unexpected and subvert expectations. Whether it’s through shocking dark humor or hidden social satire, there are plenty of ways to seamlessly insert jokes into an apparently serious story.

Plenty of these projects manage to make the audience laugh without ever telling a joke in the traditional sense. It’s all down to the atmosphere and tone created by the filmmakers. Jokes tend to hit much harder when they’re unexpected, and they're a great way of relieving tension and adding levity to a serious story. The best comedies of the modern era are those that market themselves as something else, effectively misleading the audience into a false sense of comedic security.

10 Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino’s genre-defining Pulp Fiction is a perfect example of a comedic movie that's not actually a comedy. On the surface, the film seems to be a straightforward thriller about a group of criminals whose stories come together with catastrophic results. Tarantino’s signature dialogue and deadpan writing transform the story into something inexplicably funny. Jackson and Travolta are an acting duo with surprisingly good chemistry, which elevates many of their scenes beyond the words on the page and sucks the audience into their hilarious dynamic. This brings even more laughs to the otherwise serious story.

9 Uncut Gems

While Uncut Gems is an undeniably stressful and frustrating watch, the movie actually works excellently as a comedy of errors. Watching Howard’s life fall apart in real time is just as funny as it is tragic, as everything is a result of the character’s greed and desperation to succeed. The Safdie brothers take every aspect of their narrative to the extreme. Just when it seems like things might work out for Howard, he’s hit with another problem that’s laughably impossible to solve. The movie’s controversial ending also serves as one final punchline, almost poking fun at the audience for investing themselves in this man’s life.

8 Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick’s war drama might not look like a comedy on the surface, and most scenes are ittedly far from funny. However, the director manages to include some great jokes in his film, many of which poke fun at the American military and its involvement in the Vietnam War. The character of Private Pyle is essentially a laughingstock for the movie’s entire first act. He's used to show how incapable and inexperienced many soldiers are when forced to go to war for their country. Some scenes are just laughably nonsensical, but Kubrick often frames them in a way that makes society itself the punchline.

7 Scarface

Brian De Palma’s timeless story of drugs, power, and conflict is dripping with dark comedy in almost every scene. Despite being the protagonist of the film, Tony Montana is always shown to be a terrible person who’s obsessed with money and status. He's kept at a distance so that the audience can laugh at his selfishness. Tony is the kind of person who brings failure upon himself by making too many enemies, and it’s undeniably funny to watch his empire crumble as a result of his own sins.

6 American Psycho

Many audiences miss the true meaning of American Psycho because it’s hidden behind so many layers of violence and egotism. The film isn’t just about what a terrible person Patrick Bateman is; it also highlights how society chooses to ignore his egotism because it works to their benefit. The characters in American Psycho are so obsessed with themselves and their own success that it’s impossible not to laugh at them, particularly when they’re shown discussing the quality of their suits or iring themselves in the bedroom. It’s all so superficial, and that’s exactly the point the movie is trying to make about the world around us.

5 Goodfellas

Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is considered more of a comedy today. However, when it was released in 1990, the idea of blending a mobster film with such astute dry comedy was something few directors had ever attempted. The seamless combination of violence and humor was completely new, and it took audiences totally by surprise. It’s another example of terrible characters doing terrible things, leaving the audience in a perfect position to laugh at them when they’re forced to deal with the consequences.

4 Fargo

Fargo is one of the Coen brothers’ greatest movies, not just because of how well-written and engaging it is, but because of how subtly and effectively they manage to use comedy. It isn’t exactly a funny story. However, the way the characters treat murder and conspiracy so nonchalantly is always hilarious to watch. By placing a series of funny characters into a story that isn’t humorous at all, the Coen brothers create a whole new genre of crime thriller.

3 Eraserhead

David Lynch’s Eraserhead doesn’t really fit into any particular genre. It’s a twisted story about two young parents whose child turns out to be a non-human creature that won’t stop crying and causing problems for them. It’s experimental and subversive in all the ways that Lynch has mastered throughout his career, but it’s also filled with moments that are so outlandish and unpredictable that viewers can’t help but laugh. It takes every element of its story to the extreme, and the consequences can be hilarious to watch play out.

2 The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos delivers a very distinct type of dry comedy in The Lobster that’s unlike anything most people have seen before. Sequences are much longer and more awkward than they need to be, with the characters barely showing any emotion when they speak. The result is something so dystopian and unfamiliar that it becomes funny, especially as the characters act serious in situations that feel completely unrealistic. A lot of The Lobster’s great comedy is thanks to Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, who nail the eccentric tone of the film.

1 Parasite

Parasite is a movie that completely switches tone halfway through, transforming from something funny and light into a terrifying thriller that barely gives the audience a moment to breathe. It’s impossible to know exactly how you’re supposed to feel watching Parasite, but that’s the beauty of the story. The first act is easy to laugh at, with rich characters finding themselves the victims of a poorer family’s tricks. The film quickly takes this to the extreme and makes the audience question themselves for laughing at the film’s message in the first place.