#comedy noir

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[irishauthor3]

The Rise of Comedy Noir

Why does Neo-Noir persist in our society? You can turn on almost any dramatized cop show, movie, or Netflix program, and see the Neo-Noir styles and storylines. These movies and shows borrow the plot points from the great 1930s Film Noir Movement. It’s the look at the gritty underworld, suppressing the lone hero (or even anti-hero). It’s the unfairness of the world-beating down on our protagonist as they try to stand against the misery and wrath.  We see ourselves as the underdog hero who is fighting for the little guy. It is in this expanse that these stories have continued and will continue.

As I was watching The Happytime Murders[1] the other day, I could not help but be amazed at the prevalence of Film Noir / Neo-Noir still in our pop culture references to this day. That fact that this style of film that started almost 100 years ago is still being made to this day is astounding to me. I remember that when The Happytime Murders came out, you had a lot of people complaining since it wasn’t a comedy Muppet movie such as the trailer led them to believe it was going to be. To which I say of course it was a comedy. It was a comedy laid on top of a gritty Neo-Noir movie, and if you went into the movie expecting that then you were satisfied. This is the birth of a new genre that I call a Comedy Noir movie.

            So you might be asking what is a Comedy Noir movie. The Happytime Murders falls into the Comedy Noir much in the same way, Who Framed Roger Rabbit[2] does.  Comedy noir would borrow from the best of those genres. You get the Noir storyline of the grizzled, overworked down on their luck detective, who is given a big case, just the case to get the detective back on their feet, their client is a once-famous character in the industry, & the detective is sidelined by false leads and misdirection. You are also given the classic Femme Fatale who under instructions seduces the Detective, thus trying to get insider information that can be used against the detective. All of these are tropes and almost clichés of the Film Noir but make for engaging crime drama.

Where the comedy comes in is the wacky way that some of the false leads or misdirection’s come in, or in the case of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, from the antics of the client turned sidekick. These comedic moments come to break up the monotony of the classic Neo-Noir Film and give us the much-needed break. We need to be able to laugh. Now that’s not to say there are no funny moments in classic Noir movies, but that is not the driving force of the movie.

I want to see the rise of future movies that would fall into this Comedy Noir genre. This could be easily done by following the above examples. You keep the Noir elements and juxtaposition them with a comedic mise-en-scene, such as puppets, cartoons, or other childhood memories. Voila, you would be at the starting of a Comedy Noir film.

The Happytime Murders, Directed by Brian Henson, STX Films, 2018

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Touchstone Films, 1988

[1] The Happytime Murders, Directed by Brian Henson, STX Films, 2018

[2] Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Touchstone Films, 1988