Pitch Black Comedy
"Turn me over, I'm done on this side!" —St. Lawrence, whilst roasting on a spit
Gallows humor, black comedy, l'humour noir — whatever you call it, this is the place for it. This list includes André Breton's seminal anthology of dark humor, a number of the works excerpted in this anthology, and beyond. You can find a link to the complete contents of Breton's anthology in the comments.
Want more weird humor? Check out my list Nitpicky Neuroticism (Comedy Edition)!
created by teddydee
last updated August, 2026
Comments
Any faves from ones you’ve read?
The Loved One (Waugh — also one of my fave movies of all time), The Inn at the Edge of the World (Ellis), Memento Mori (Spark), The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov), everything by Nathanael West, everything by Kafka!!
EDIT: also The Threat (Stein), Sky Daddy (Folk), Eleanor Rushing (Friedmann), MYORAR (Moshfegh), everything by Roald Dahl
Also I am compelled to say this: the PB cover of McGinley's Bogmail is incredibly bad and misleading! It's not especially about postal mail, it's a play on "blackmail"
