Summary
- Dark comedies on Netflix tackle taboo topics with uneasy humor, providing laughs in the face of suffering and death. These shows and movies follow characters who are grieving or suffering, offering a satirical take on difficult subjects.
- Netflix offers a range of dark comedies, from spoofs like “The Woman in the House Across the Street” to pitch-black films like “I Care a Lot.” These movies explore themes of mental health, addiction, and societal issues, blending comedy with unsettling and disturbing moments.
- The best dark comedies on Netflix feature talented actors like Kristen Bell in “The Woman in the House,” Rosamund Pike in “I Care a Lot,” and Paul Rudd in “Living With Yourself.” These performances captivate audiences, delivering stellar portrayals of complex characters in comedic yet unnerving situations.
The best dark comedies on Netflix offer a lot of options in movies and TV shows that offer laughs, but often in uneasy ways with dark storylines and often disturbing imagery. Dark comedies, also known as black comedy or satiric humor, can help bring a little light to suffering, death, old age, and many more generally taboo topics in comedy entertainment. The genre has been around for a while, but more recently it’s become more mainstream. Netflix has hopped on board with a number of originals in the genre, both with movies as well as some critically-acclaimed series.Generally, these shows and movies follow themes like a character who is grieving a loss, or a character who is suffering in some way. Netflix also has several classic dark comedies, including movies from Monty Python in the 1970s and dark turns by Jim Carrey that shocked his fans. There are also Oscar-nominated movies that have the darkest of humor and some TV shows that Netflix has licensed that find humor in very disturbing and depressing places, showing that sometimes it is best to laugh when things look bleakest.
25
The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window (2022)
A recent addition to the best dark comedies on Netflix features Kristen Bell in a spoof miniseries. Under the guise of a murder mystery from the perspective of a grieving woman with life-alerting phobias and addictions, The Woman in the House is a satirical look at female-driven crime dramas in modern popular culture. The series balances the dark comedic moments with a real mystery, comments on what grief looks like, discusses mental health and has great characters. The show spoofed the book and film The Woman in the Window and other books with similar titles, all stories built on formulas that make the best parodies.
24
I Care A Lot (2020)
Starring Rosamund Pike in one of her best dark comedies on Netflix, I Care a Lot follows a con artist who convinces the courts to grant her guardianship over elders who she puts in assisted living homes before stealing their money and selling their houses. It is a pitch-black comedy that will leave viewers wanting to see more of Pike commanding attention and delivering a stellar performance. She embodies a character that viewers have to convince themselves is an antagonist, not a protagonist, despite what they want to believe. The plot is brilliant, and although deeply unsettling and depressing at times, it is fully worth the watch.
23
The Dictator (2012)
The Dictator was a slight letdown when Sacha Baron Cohen released it in 2012. Fans expecting something close to Borat and Bruno were disappointed when The Dictator ended up a scripted parody. However, while it didn’t quite match up to the critical and commercial success of his previous movies, The Dictator works well as a black comedy with Cohen poking fun at dictators like Kim Jong-il and Muammar Gaddafi. Cohen plays a dictator from a fictional North African state who is anti-Western, childish, and racist, who visits the U.N. to demand they do what he wants. While the movie received average reviews, it was still a box-office success.
22
The House (2022)
The House is a unique step in a different direction for Netflix. The film is entirely stop-motion and tells three very different stories across different worlds and characters, but all within the same house. The anthology film was produced for Netflix in 2022 and was a huge critical success as one of the best dark comedies on Netflix. The stories are intriguing and the dialogue hilarious, viewers may be confused at first by its odd style and the evolution of ‘people’ into ‘cats’ not unlike those in Fantastic Mr. Fox. The creepy undertones, yet the comforting tale of the history of the house make this movie worth it. It won a Primetime Emmy for its animation.
21
Living With Yourself (2019)
In one of Paul Rudd’s best roles, Living With Yourself is a dark comedy on Netflix about a man who undergoes a procedure for a better life. Instead, he learns he was replaced by a clone of himself. This comedy points out the dark reality that people don’t love everything about themselves and there is a lot that everyone hopes to improve on. Ultimately, for every step they take in the right direction, they get in the way, or in the case of Living With Yourself, a clone might get in the way. The show is highly entertaining and gives the protagonist the opportunity to see the world through a different set of eyes and give himself a second chance.
20
Imposters (2017-2018)
Imposters tells the story of a con artist who manipulates her partners into falling in love with her and then steals all of their valuables right after the wedding. The show is incredibly smart, and many have taken it for granted through the years. It holds its own and is up there with other dark comedies on Netflix. The show is incredibly dark and manages to twist a pretty mundane plot into something more complex. At first, it’s hard to tell who viewers should be rooting for, the edge-of-your-seat chase and the humor that finds its way into the cracks make it worth watching and worth questioning what the outcome should be.
19
Death At A Funeral (2010)
Death at a Funeral is a remake of a British movie of the same name that came out just three years before the American version. However, to give it credit, the same writer penned both movies and the cast of the American version was incredible. The movie focuses on the funeral of a man named Edward and the estranged family that shows up. Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence are brothers who have very different outlooks on life while their extended family all bring their own baggage. With Danny Glover, Regina Hall, James Marsden, Kevin Hart, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson, and Tracy Morgan, there are laughs to go around.
18
Everything Sucks! (2018)
Everything Sucks! is one of the best dark comedies on Netflix, a 10-episode series that parodies the teen culture of the 1990s. In the perfectly named town of Boring, Oregon, a group of teens go to high school there in 1996 and decide they want to make a movie together. The kids from the A/V Club and Drama Club decide they want to work together on the movie. Their plans are to include hot-bed topics like mental health and sexuality, all while coming of age themselves. Everything Sucks! was praised for the ’90s depiction and received mostly positive reviews for doing so in an original and biting way.
17
This Is The End (2013)
One of the funniest of the best dark comedy movies on Netflix is This is the End, which is full of familiar faces playing over-the-top versions of themselves. The movie is an end-of-the-world horror comedy with Jay Baruchel visiting his buddy Seth Rogen on a visit back to Los Angeles. When Seth convinces him to go to a party at James Franco’s house, the end of the world begins. Several people are taken into space and those who are left battle each other and demons that show up on Earth hellbent on destruction. The movie was a huge box office success and received great reviews thanks to the cast having no problem making fun of themselves.
16
The Nice Guys (2016)
Shane Black has mastered buddy crime movies, with some of the best scripts of the last four decades. He started directing his own movies and these included crime movies that blended on dark comedy. One of the best dark comedy movies on Netflix is one of Black’s directorial efforts. The Nice Guys takes place in 1977 and stars Ryan Gosling as P.I. Holland March, a man who has to team up with a tough guy enforcer played by Russell Crowe to investigate the disappearance of a porn star. The movie only had a lackluster box office run, but it received universal acclaim with most praise going to Gosling and Crowe’s chemistry.
15
American Hustle (2013)
David O. Russell has an eclectic filmography, but his movies have always seemed to touch on the idea of dark humor, with American Hustle really playing into that part of the movie’s plot. The movie is inspired by real-life events as it tells the story of the FBI Abscam operation in the late 80s and early 80s. Since it involved con artists, it allowed the cast to really go deep into the dark comedy, with Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence all receiving praise for their performances. It picked up 10 Oscar nominations, making it one of the best dark comedies on Netflix.
14
Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
While Tom Hanks became an Oscar favorite for his roles in drama movies, he got his start in comedies and still dipped his toes into the genre here and there even after his breakout as a leading man. One of these movies that walked the line between drama and comedy was Charlie Wilson’s War. This was based on a real-life U.S. Congressman and a CIA operative during the Soviet-Afghan War. Since Aaron Sorkin wrote the script, it was full of his witty quick dialogue, and with Julia Roberts co-starring, it had the star power as well. The movie picked up five Golden Globe nominations in the comedy category.
13
War Machine (2017)
One of Brad Pitt’s lesser talked about movies hit in 2017 with War Machine. The dark comedy saw Pitt play against type as four-star General Glan McMahon, a war hero known for his leadership in Iraq. He was sent to Afghanistan to give his assessment of America trying to help end the long-running war. He then decides he can win the war and demands more troops, despite the United States not wanting to supply more personnel. The movie is a look at the wars that the U.S. fights in other countries, even when those countries don’t want the U.S.’s help, and how even with failures, nothing ever changes.
12
The Cable Guy (1996)
The Cable Guy is one of the best dark comedies on Netflix from the 1990s. The movie came out at an interesting time. It arrived when Jim Carrey was making his name as an A-list movie star, but this painted him as an obsessed antagonist. It was directed by Ben Stiller before he had made his name as one of Hollywood’s best comic talents. It had a post-Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick and a pre-stardom Jack Black. It ended up getting mixed reviews and was mostly seen as a letdown as a Carrey movie. However, fans reappraised it and The Cable Guy is now a beloved cult movie with an ever-growing fanbase.
11
Zombieland (2009)
Zombieland is a horror dark comedy about the zombie apocalypse, but it mostly follows the travels of four protagonists, all of who use pseudonyms of U.S. cities rather than their real names. The movie has some hilarious moments, including a can’t-miss cameo by Bill Murray, and adds in just the right amount of zombie gore for horror fans. It also has some funny dark humor, both in the kills and in the relationship between the protagonists as they struggle to get along even in the face of death. It ended up as a monster success and picked up a sequel.
10
I Am Not Okay With This (2020)
Based on the graphic novel by Charles Forsman, I Am Not Okay With This is one of the quirkiest of the best dark comedies on Netflix. The movie follows Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis), a 17-year-old girl who realizes that she has telekinetic powers. While it sounds like a superhero story, this is a coming-of-age story with the struggle to control her powers as a metaphor for puberty and the lack of control teens feel they have in their own lives. The movie received critical acclaim, with praise going to the stars, and Netflix renewed it for a second season before changing its mind during the pandemic.
9
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Coen Brothers are the masters of this genre and one of the best dark comedies on Netflix is a movie the brothers made as an original for the streaming service. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a Western anthology movie with an all-star cast, telling six vignettes set in the American West. The entire movie starts with Tim Blake Nelson as a singing cowboy who kills everyone in one bar before heading to another, killing someone there, and then singing a song to ease the tension in the room. That was just the start as the rest of the stories go even darker in a movie that landed three Oscar nominations and was on many top 10 lists for the year.
8
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Don’t Look Up was supposed to be an Oscar contender when released on Netflix in 2021, but it failed to earn much in the way of awards that season. Despite this, the movie still picked up three Oscar nominations and four Golden Globe nominations and was listed on several top 10 lists for the year. Directed by Adam McKay and with an all-star cast that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, and more, the movie tells the story of two scientists who reveal a life-ending comet is headed toward Earth but no one in the government or media can stop paying attention to the gossip news to care enough to do anything about it.
7
Russian Doll (2019-)
Russian Doll stars Natasha Lyonne in one of the best dark comedies on Netflix. It tells the story of a woman who repeatedly dies and must relive the same inescapable party until she can figure out what went wrong. The time loop she is stuck in is supported by the symbol of a Russian nesting doll, and a metaphor for the disillusionment that comes as people reach the peak of their 30s. The writers poke fun at the sense of an inescapable life that starts to loom over your head when you get into adulthood. The brilliant storytelling starts out following the classic formula of a dark comedy but eventually evolves into having even more layers.
6
Shameless (2011-2021)
Shameless is one of the longest-running of the best dark comedies on Netflix, lasting for 11 seasons on Showtime and still garnering plenty of views on Netflix. The story is as dark as it gets, with William H. Macy as the father of six kids. However, he is an almost nonfunctioning alcoholic and is a terrible parent to those kids, leaving that job up to his oldest daughter Fiona. The fact that Shameless brings the comedy out of this setup should let anyone know how dark and disturbing the show is. It picked up several Primetime Emmy Awards nominations over its 11 seasons on Showtime.
