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Black Humor

One of the most underappreciated and unrecognized forms of comedy is black humor. Black humor often deals with events that are not often associated with other forms of comedy, such as war, murder, insanity and death. The main reason that this form of comedy is so underappreciated is that it requires some thinking on the part of the audience and many people are not willing to do that. The types of humor that are popular today do not require much thinking and can be characterized as one-liners. However, black humor has been used as an effective means of satire usually towards a tragic event.
One of the biggest misconceptions about black humor is that it involves race. Black humor is not a form of African American humor but rather it "is used in literature, drama, and film to express the absurdity, paradox and cruelty of the modern world" (Black, Columbia). This form of comedy is often reflective of the situations going on in the world. One example of this is......

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Approximate Word Count: 2138
Approximate Pages: 9 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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