Humor And Horror

As far as film genres go, two of the most popular and distinct are horror and comedy. So, what happens when you mix them together? You get everything from the social satire of John Carpenter's They Live to the madness of the Evil Dead series, to early works from future auteur Peter Jackson, to Jordan Peele's acclaimed Get Out. Prepare yourself for an illustrated history of movies (and a few TV shows) that have mixed chills with chuckles, from Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein to Stranger Things. We'll take a look at plenty of fan favorites and cult classics, and even examine the influence of humor on the time-honored slasher genre.

Despite their opposite emotional effects, humor and horror are highly similar phenomena. They both can be traced back to (the detection, resolution, and emotional elaboration of) incongruities, understood as semantic violations through unexpected combinations of oppositional information. However, theoretical and experimental comparisons between humor and resolvable incongruities that elicit other emotions than exhilaration have been lacking so far. To gain more insights into the linguistic differences between humor and horror and the cognitive real-time processing of both, a main concern of this book is to discuss the transferability of linguistic humor theories to a systematic horror investigation and directly compare self-paced reading times (SPR), facial actions (FACS), and event-related brain potentials (ERP) of normed minimal quadruplets with frightening and humorous incongruities as well as (in)coherent stimuli. The results suggest that humor and horror share cognitive resources to detect and resolve incongruities. To better distinguish humor from neighboring phenomena, this book refines current humor theories by incorporating humor and horror in a cognitive incongruity processing model.

A recent upsurge in interest in Der Struwwelpeter, written by Heinrich Hoffman has initiated a new wave of spin-offs, parodies, and retellings of these immensely popular stories. Hoffman's style, which is instructive and moralistic, coupled with the sadistic content of his works lend a unique quality to the stories that we don't see in contemporary children's literature. Struwwelpeter: Humor or Horror? is a critical analysis of the now infamous Struwwelpeter stories. While Hoffman intended his depictions of amputated limbs and burning children to be humorous and to warn children against misbehavior, some find the punishments can be excessively vicious. Looking beyond the history of child rearing practices and children's literature, Barbara Smith Chalou considers the socio-historic context in which the book was written and makes comparisons to contemporary children's fare that is similarly violent, but intended to be humorous.

Fun and fright have long been partners in the cinema, dating back to the silent film era and progressing to the Scary Movie franchise and other recent releases. This guide takes a comprehensive look at the comedy-horror movie genre, from the earliest stabs at melding horror and hilarity during the nascent days of silent film, to its full-fledged development with The Bat in 1926, to the Abbott and Costello films pitting the comedy duo against Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy and other Universal Studio monsters, continuing to such recent cult hits as Shaun of the Dead and Black Sheep. Selected short films such as Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie are also covered. Photos and promotional posters, interviews with actors and a filmography are included.

Retired serial killer Edwyn Stoffgruppen is in love with Virginia, a girl he "met online." Her affection quiets his vile urges. Together, they tour the back roads of America in their LTD Crown Vic, eating doughnuts and enjoying their insatiable appetites for each other. Life is good until a Louisiana billionaire kidnaps Virginia, forcing Edwyn to kill again in exchange for her freedom. And the twist to all of this? Virginia is a sex doll. Writer DOUG WAGNER teams up with artists DANIEL HILLYARD and LAURA MARTIN for a chilling new crime series that ROBERT KIRKMAN reviewed by stating, "This is the weirdest s**t I've ever read. I love it!" Collects PLASTIC #1-5

Horror films strive to make audiences scream, but they also garner plenty of laughs. In fact, there is a long tradition of horror directors who are fluent in humor, from James Whale to John Landis to Jordan Peele. So how might horror and humor overlap more than we would expect? Dead Funny locates humor as a key element in the American horror film, one that is not merely used for extraneous “comic relief” moments but often serves to underscore major themes, intensify suspense, and disorient viewers. Each chapter focuses on a different comic style or device, from the use of funny monsters and scary clowns in movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street to the physical humor and slapstick in movies ranging from The Evil Dead to Final Destination. Along the way, humor scholar David Gillota explores how horror films employ parody, satire, and camp to comment on gender, sexuality, and racial politics. Covering everything from the grotesque body in Freaks to the comedy of awkwardness in Midsommar, this book shows how integral humor has been to the development of the American horror film over the past century.

Whether for entertainment, under the guise of medicine, or to propel consumerism, heinous acts are perpetrated daily on women’s bodies. In Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, award-winning journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore catalogs the global toll of capitalism on our physical autonomy. Weaving together unflinching research and surprising humor, these essays range from investigative—probing the Cambodian garment industry, the history of menstrual products, or the gender biases of patent law—to uncomfortably intimate. Moore, who suffers from several autoimmune disorders, examines what it takes to seek care and community in the increasingly complicated, problematic, and disinterested US healthcare system. A Lambda Literary Award finalist and a Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction Award shortlist title, Body Horror is “sharp, shocking, and darkly funny. . . . Brainy and historically informed, this collection is less a rallying cry or a bitter diatribe than a series of irreverent and ruthlessly accurate jabs at a culture that is slowly devouring us” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Featuring an updated introduction and new essays, as well as illustrations by Xander Marro, this new edition of Body Horror is a fascinating, insightful portrait of the gore that encapsulates contemporary American politics.

A National Indie Bestseller TIME's Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time An NPR Best Book of 2020 A Booklist's Top 10 First Novel for Youth A BookPage Best Book of 2020 A CPL "Best of the Best" Book A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020 A Buzzfeed Best YA SFF Book of 2020 A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2020 An AICL Best YA Book of 2020 A Kirkus Best YA Book of 2020 A Tor Best Book of 2020 PRAISE "Groundbreaking." —TIME "Deeply enjoyable from start to finish." —NPR "Utterly magical." —SyFyWire "Atmospheric and lyrical...a gorgeous work of art." —BuzzFeed "One of the best YA debuts of 2020. Read it." —Marieke Nijkamp FIVE STARRED REVIEWS ★ "A fresh voice and perspective." —Booklist, starred review ★ "A unique and powerful Native American voice." —BookPage, starred review ★ "A brilliant, engaging debut." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★ "A fast-paced murder mystery." —Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ "A Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set." —Shelf-Awareness, starred review A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer. Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started? A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.