"Entering a World of Pain": the Function of Dark Humor in Films by the Coen Brothers .

Abstract

In this thesis, I have studied the use of dark humor by the Coen brothers by analyzing four of their films, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man and Inside Llewyn Davis. In my analysis, I have focused on the social commentary, the common themes, the characterization and the movie genre of each film to determine how they relate to the use of dark humor. For each film, I have chosen two scenes that clearly convey dark humor and used techniques form mise-en-scene and humor theories to explain the dark humor in them. In conclusion, I have debunked the hypothesis that the Coen brothers use dark humor out of cynicism.