Commentary: The Rise Of The Crime Comedy
by Frank Martin
Crime and comedy are two genres that go surprisingly well together. Of course, this is all heavily dependent on tone. There are tons of crime stories that take the subject matter very seriously and refrain from cracking jokes. But even when they do, these jokes still exist within the framework of a dark-and-grim setting. It isn’t until a story firmly roots itself in its comedic foundations that it crosses over into a mash-up genre. Films like The Departed and Goodfellas have comedic moments, but they aren’t comedies. This is in contrast to a film like In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, or any of Guy Richie‘s work, which are serious crime stories that have funny moments that could qualify them as a comedy.
This pseudo crime comedy genre has seen an explosion in recent years. Two great examples of this are the series Barry starring Bill Hader and the FX anthology series Fargo. Both are undoubtedly stories about crime. Barry is a hitman and Fargo is all about murder investigations, as well. But there are moments of pure dry comedy that wouldn’t exist in a film sticking close to reality. These dark comedic moments stand out as pure fantasy, but they work because the audience has an understanding that comedy plays an important role in these stories. If these moments were portrayed in any of Martin Scorsese‘s films, they would immediately take the audience right out of the setting.
Of course, there is a challenge of veering too far in one direction or the other. Corky Romano comes to mind as a film that placed comedy front and center. It tried to work as a crime film, but it was always going to be a comedy first and foremost. And it can work in the other direction, too. Barry started off great as it had many funny and darkly serious moments in the beginning. It managed to form a nice balance between the two. But as the series wore on, it began getting a little too serious with heavy drama. Its final season, especially, abandoned a lot of its comedy in favor of a stricter tone. So while the crime comedy genre continues to expand and grow, storytellers are going to have to stay vigilant to thread a very fine needle between the two.
Barry is now streaming on Max.
