Reflections on dark comedies

I want to record my thoughts on the few short comedies I saw recently at the "Short Film Festival" in Uppsala, Sweden.

I took myself to watch their "Comedy Cuts" - https://shortfilmfestival.com/en/program-2/specialprogram/comedy-cuts-2023/, and I came out thinking whether I can handle dark comedies or not.

To my understanding, dark comedy is something of comic that is about everyday problems in life and usually has some disturbing component to it.

I was caught off guard a bit when there was some violence and shootings in a few of the short films, thinking why do we start to take violence as funny now... I will highlight a few of them here, and you can refer to the link above for more information on the films:

• "Piss on patriarchy" - Germany 2023 - Director: Lena Fakler

I can relate to this one. It's about how sometimes men make things uncomfortable or more difficult for women just because they can. No other reasons. It was a bit bloody, and I can also understand the rage.

• "Plopp" - Germany 2023 - Director: Carolin Glomp

I can also relate to this one. At first, I thought it is only me who thinks so much about pooping if it is a shared bathroom with the people I work with or know. I keep reminding myself that it is just a normal human thing. So to see that someone else thought about it and even made a comedy out of it makes me feel that it is, unfortunately, a thing we normally think of.

• "A peculiar and unfortunate birth" - Spain 2022 - Director: S.J. Sánchez

This one was very good and it made me think about how society defines what normal is for a person. I recommend you watch it. I don't know how to best describe how I feel about it.

• "Said of a deer that sheds its antlers" - Belgium 2023 - Director: Salomé Crickx

I'm not sure how I feel about this film. I understand the intention, but maybe this is not my kind of funny. I don't find killing one's own parents funny. Though I understand where the director is going with this. It got a few awards already, which makes me a bit nervous that we are now laughing at things that involve killings. I don't know if I like where we are going, although I understand that I might be taking this too seriously. But I also believe that this might have or could have a bigger impact on people's perspectives on violence. We are more and more used to seeing people dying and getting killed, and I don't think that that's a good thing.

Overall, I appreciate the films. They are based on something real that might not always be talked about.