John Truby's Two Cents

John Truby, director, screenwriter and creator of the 22 step method of storytelling in screenplays (an alternative to the more commonly used three-act "Paradigm" developed by Syd Fields), in his attempts to define various genres used in film, offered this description of black comedy:

"When black comedy is used as a basis for a story's plotline, it involves a society in an unhealthy state and a main character wanting something which, for whatever reason, is not a thing that will be beneficial to himself or society. The audience should usually be able to see this for themselves, and often a supporting character within the story also sees the insanity of the situation. The main character rarely ever learns a lesson or undergoes any significant change from the ordeal, but sometimes a relatively sane course of action is offered to them."*

We can apply this definition to several of the films discussed here on this blog. It is clear that John Waters' crime-and-deviant-sex-obsessed Baltimore, or Death to Smoochy's entertainment industry bent on the destruction of the pure and wholesome illustrate a society "in an unhealthy state." William H. Macy plays a character in Fargo who desires the murder of his wife, a "thing that will [not] be beneficial to himself or society." The British officer in Dr. Strangelove represents a "supporting character within the story [who] also sees the insanity of the situation," as he is the only character actively voicing the impropriety of the launch of the nuclear attack. Divine in Pink Flamingoes ends the story as filthy and crime-driven as she began, serving as "the main character [who] rarely ever learns a lesson or undergoes any significant change from the ordeal."

Though many of the films discussed on this blog seem off-beat and totally unlike the mass-produced movies churned out by the hundreds from Hollywood, it is clear that the black comedy operates on a specific formula.

* Black Comedy, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Comedy