 | This articledoes notcite anysources containingsignificant coverage. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to sources containing significant coverage. Articles without significant coverage do not demonstratenotability and may bedeleted. Find sources: "Comedy thriller" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Comedy thrillers are ahybrid genre that draw subject matter generally fromcomedy andthrillers, combiningsuspense with sustainedhumor. It incorporates the core elements ofthriller storytelling—high stakes, danger, escalating tension, and the possibility of death—while maintaining a comic tone throughout, a situation can be both genuinely threatening and funny at the same time. The characters are in real jeopardy, yet the film signals that the outcome will remain within the bounds ofentertainment rather than genuinehorror.
Examples range fromverbal wit andfarce to dark orabsurd humor. The comedy-thriller differs from straightcomedies with occasional danger or thrillers with brief comic relief because neither element dominates; both remain active throughout the story.
They often include a darker tone, relative to other genres, ofhumor. This tonal tightrope requires precise calibration. In these films, humor and tension do not alternate; they coexist and reinforce each other. Theaudience must believe, at least provisionally, that characters they have come to like could plausibly suffer seriousharm ordeath, yet the film simultaneously reassures them—throughperformance style, directorial flourish, ornarrative self-awareness—that the experience will remain playfully exhilarating rather than traumatically disturbing. When successful, the result is uniquely exhilarating: a heightened emotional state in which viewers find themselves laughing uncontrollably at situations that, under slightly different framing, would be cause for unmitigated terror.
In essence, thecomedy-thriller functions as the cinematic equivalent of a meticulously engineeredpractical joke involving live ammunition: the threat is authentic enough to spikeadrenaline, the execution is outlandish enough to provoke helpless laughter, and the ultimate resolution nearly always pulls the audience back from the brink with impeccable timing. The most accomplished works in the genre do not merely alternate betweenscares andpunchlines; they fuse the two impulses so completely that each laugh is edged with unease and each moment of tension is undercut—or intensified—bycomic absurdity. It is a form that demands both technical virtuosity from its creators and willingness from its audience to surrender simultaneously to dread andhilarity.
| Title | Release year |
|---|---|
| Arabesque | 1966 |
| The Big Fix | 1978 |
| Bullet Train | 2022 |
| Charade[1] | 1963 |
| Clue: The Movie | 1985 |
| Crimewave | 1985 |
| Deathtrap | 1982 |
| Dr. Strangelove | 1964 |
| The Dream Team | 1989 |
| Family Plot | 1976 |
| Fargo | 1996 |
| Foul Play | 1978 |
| Fletch | 1985 |
| Friend of the World | 2020 |
| Hanky Panky | 1982 |
| Haunted Honeymoon | 1986 |
| Hopscotch[2] | 1980 |
| In Bruges[3] | 2008 |
| The King of Comedy[4] | 1983 |
| Kingsman: The Secret Service[5] | 2014 |
| Kiss Kiss Bang Bang[6] | 2005 |
| Knight and Day | 2010 |
| Knives Out | 2019 |
| The Lady Vanishes[7] | 1938 |
| The Ladykillers | 1955 |
| Lethal Weapon | 1987 |
| Lucky Number Slevin[8] | 2006 |
| Mr. and Mrs. Smith | 2005 |
| Men at Work | 1990 |
| One Battle After Another | 2025 |
| Pulp | 1972 |
| Radioland Murders | 1994 |
| Silver Streak[9] | 1976 |
| A Simple Favor[10] | 2018 |
| A Thin Line Between Love and Hate[11] | 1996 |
| The Thin Man | 1934 |
| Welcome to Collinwood | 2002 |
| Slither[12] | 1973 |
