10 Incredibly Dark Comedies That Dare You To Laugh

3. God Bless America (2011)

If you mixed together the brash, biting satire of Falling Down, Network, Black Mirror and the Grand Theft Auto series, threw in an arsenal of semi-automatics, and then removed anything that could pass for good taste, you'd probably end up with something resembling God Bless America. It really is a film that takes no prisoners. Joel Murray plays Frank Murdoch, a man driven to despair by all of modern life's irritations. Noisy neighbours, a dead-end job, the endless sludge of reality TV being pumped into his living room... But help comes from the least likely of sources: being diagnosed with a brain tumour gives him the perfect excuse to seize the day. And by that I mean shoot everything -and everyone- in sight. Somewhat appropriately, the film's relentless spray of vitriol has its share of hits and misses, with everything from the death of manners to Diablo Cody in the firing line. And while taking potshots at US gun and celebrity culture is hardly original, few films would have the audacity to show a man shooting a schoolgirl at point blank range, for example. Fewer still would play it as a punchline. Much like Super (what is it with Franks and cock-eyed vigilantism, by the way?), our 'hero' soon finds himself upstaged by a sadistic teenage sidekick, Roxy (Lynne Barr), who is responsible for dragging the film into some really dark corners. Of course, rampant misanthropy has practically become the trademark of director Bobcat Goldthwait; his 2009 film World's Greatest Dad mined comedy gold from suicide notes and autoerotic asphyxiation. God knows what he'll set his sights on next... Darkest Comedy Moment: What the film lacks in subtlety it gains in sheer offensiveness. For example, less than five minutes in we're treated to a fantasy sequence in which Frank bursts through his neighbours' door with a shotgun. As the woman throws her baby into the air, Frank lifts the gun, fires and splatters the entire room. The fact that the man screaming ''f**k you'' to the entire world is Mad Men's Freddy Rumsen really doesn't help, either.