The 15 Best British Dark Comedy Movies Ever Made

Summary

• Dark humor in British comedy movies explores taboo topics like death and sexuality.
• British filmmakers like Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris typify the nation’s sense of humor.
• From heist comedies to zombie parodies, British films like “A Fish Called Wanda” and “Shaun of the Dead” blend humor with dark themes.

British humor has always been perfectly suited to dark comedies, and many of the funniest British movies of all time are about death, pain and suffering. Dark humor has historically provided a respite for people who otherwise wouldn’t discuss taboo topics, so it’s no surprise that it has taken hold in British society, which has gone through periods of social conservatism embodied by the national ideal of keeping a stiff upper lip.

Many of Britain’s funniest filmmakers tend to explore dark subjects. Monty Python, Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris have all used humor to explore Britain’s attitude toward death, political corruption, religious zealotry and other topics which aren’t openly discussed as often as they should be. Britain has always had a dark sense of humor, and this is reflected in some of the country’s favorite comedy movies.

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15 The Double (2013)

Jesse Eisenberg Plays Against Himself

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Richard Ayoade is a British actor, TV presenter and author, but he has also proven himself to be a great director when given the chance. After his coming-of-age comedy-drama Submarine, Ayoade’s second movie adapted a lesser-known novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Double stars Jesse Eisenberg as a sheepish man stuck in a bleak office job whose small life gets usurped by his doppelgänger. Ayoade uses the grim, dispassionate industrial landscape as the setting for plenty of dark humor about identity and fate. Fortunately, Ayoade is now making his long-awaited return to directing with an adaptation of a George Saunders story.

14 Death At A Funeral (2007)

Death At A Funeral Got An American Remake, But The British Original Is Best

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Death At A Funeral (2007)

Director Frank Oz Release Date August 17, 2007 Cast Ewen Bremner , Peter Dinklage , Matthew Macfadyen , Kris Marshall , Alan Tudyk

Death at a Funeral tracks the chaos that unfolds as a dysfunctional family are reunited following the death of their patriarch. Succession‘s Matthew Macfadyen is the middle child tasked with keeping everything together while his extended family accidentally drug one another, and he is blackmailed by his father’s former lover, played by Peter Dinklage. Death at a Funeral is a slapstick farce about the ways that people, particularly British people, grieve for their loved ones. The funeral is a social minefield, not allowing the family a moment’s rest.

13 In The Loop (2009)

Armando Iannucci Delivers A Scathing Political Satire

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Director Armando Iannucci Release Date January 22, 2009 Cast Peter Capaldi , Tom Hollander , Gina McKee , James Gandolfini , Chris Addison , Anna Chlumsky

In the Loop bridges the gap between Armando Iannucci’s two greatest political satires, The Thick of It and Veep. Peter Capaldi’s Malcolm Tucker is suddenly faced with an assortment of American “allies” for him to contend with as Britain and the USA weigh up the pros and cons of military intervention in the Middle East. The story skewers the build-up to the Iraq War, but the politicians remain focused on their own public image and their stature more than the possible effects of the war itself. James Gandolfini is outstanding as a brash American general.

12 Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Guy Ritchie’s Debut Is A Violent Delight

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Director Guy Ritchie Release Date August 28, 1998 Cast Jason Flemyng , Dexter Fletcher , Nick Moran , Jason Statham , Steven Mackintosh , Vinnie Jones , sting , Peter McNicholl

Guy Ritchie’s best movies are mostly crime capers, although he has had success in other genres. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was Ritchie’s debut, and he immediately established his confident style. The heist comedy features a complex web of unsavory characters colliding and colluding with one another on the mean streets of Ritchie’s London. Funny nicknames and creative profanity abound, but Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels saves its most tragicomic image for last, as one particularly hapless criminal is left hanging over the edge of a bridge, about to inadvertently dispose of the most valuable prize he has come across.

11 Hot Fuzz (2007)

Simon Pegg And Nick Frost Revive Their Hilarious Chemistry

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Director Edgar Wright Release Date February 14, 2007 Cast Simon Pegg , Martin Freeman , Bill Nighy , Robert Popper , Joe Cornish , Chris Waitt

The second movie in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy takes a step away from the horror genre, but there is just as much death and gore. Hot Fuzz lifts the lid on quaint English pastoral life to reveal a violent cult running their small village like a criminal empire. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are always a joy to watch, but former James Bond star Timothy Dalton is just as hilarious as a devilish supermarket baron. Hot Fuzz lovingly pokes fun at overblown action movies like Bad Boys and Lethal Weapon, contrasting the American fantasy of hero cops with Britain’s more ordinary police.

10 The Ladykillers (1955)

Ealing Comedies Aren’t Afraid To Go Dark

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The Ladykillers (1955)

Director Alexander Mackendrick Release Date February 20, 1956 Cast Alec Guinness , Cecil Parker , Herbert Lom , Peter Sellers , Danny Green , Jack Warner , Philip Stainton , Frankie Howerd

American audiences mostly know Alex Guinness as Ben Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie, but he had a long and illustrious career in British cinema before becoming a Jedi. Guinness excelled in both dramatic and comedic roles, and The Ladykillers is one of his most popular Ealing comedies. He plays the leader of a gang of thieves who realize they must reluctantly kill an elderly woman before she rats them out to the police. They draw lots to decide who should be burdened with the task, but these are not honorable men, and they quickly turn against one another in a frantic power struggle.

9 Four Lions (2010)

Chris Morris Proves That Even Terrorism Has A Funny Side

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Four Lions (2010)

Director Chris Morris Release Date May 7, 2010 Cast Riz Ahmed , Kayvan Novak , Nigel Lindsay , Arsher Ali , Adeel Akhtar

Chris Morris has been one of Britain’s sharpest satirists since lampooning the sensationalist urges of news media in the 1990s with The Day Today and Brass Eye. Four Lions is his directorial debut, and it attracted the kind of controversy that Morris must be accustomed to by now. Four Lions follows a group of dim-witted wannabe terrorists as they undergo training and plan an attack on a marathon. The premise seems to revel in bad taste, but in practice, Four Lions is a full-hearted takedown of the backward logic of fanaticism. Riz Ahmed is superb throughout, and Benedict Cumberbatch has an unforgettable role as a useless hostage negotiator.

8 The Death Of Stalin (2017)

A Star-Studded Satire About The Timeless Nonsense Of Political Bureaucracies

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Director Armando Iannucci Release Date October 20, 2017 Cast Steve Buscemi , Simon Russell Beale , Paddy Considine , Rupert Friend , Jason Isaacs

Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin tells the true story of the petty infighting among Joseph Stalin’s closest advisers and allies immediately after his death. However, the dialogue sounds decidedly contemporary, and the actors each use their natural accents. The idea is that there are plenty of parallels to be seen between the absurd bureaucracy of the Soviet Union and the modern political machine in both the UK and the USA. The various scheming politicians are played by brilliant comedic actors from both sides of the Atlantic, but Jason Isaacs delivers the most surprising performance as the bullish leader of the army.

7 Trainspotting (1996)

Danny Boyle’s Dark Comic Masterpiece Explores The Horrors Of Addiction

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Director Danny Boyle Release Date August 9, 1996 Cast Ewen Bremner , Ewan McGregor , Jonny Lee Miller , Kevin McKidd , Robert Carlyle , Kelly Macdonald

Trainspotting follows a group of heroin addicts living in poverty in Edinburgh. When one of them has the opportunity to achieve something better with their life, either by sobering up or getting a job, the others invariably drag them back into their old habits. Trainspotting is as dark as dark comedy gets, with characters glossing over the dire circumstances of their lives and the endless procession of tragedies which befall their small, run-down community. When it matters, Trainspotting also manages to deliver a devastating emotional finale.

6 Withnail & I (1987)

Richard E. Grant Shines In This Twisted Tale Of Male Friendship

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Withnail and I

Director Bruce Robinson Release Date June 19, 1987 Cast Richard E. Grant , Paul McGann , Richard Griffiths , Ralph Brown , Michael Elphick , Daragh O’Malley , Michael Wardle , Una Brandon-Jones

Withnail & I tells the story of the worst holiday imaginable, as two struggling actors take a break from London to stay in a cottage in England’s Lake District. The weather is awful, they get in fights with the locals, and one of them only narrowly avoids being sexually assaulted. Withnail & I has earned cult classic status for its endlessly quotable dialogue and its grim comedic tone. Richard E. Grant’s Withnail is now a beloved British character, as the alcoholic actor embodies hedonism and self-indulgence without restraint.

5 Snatch (2001)

A Complex Crime Caper Teeming With Thugs

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Director Guy Ritchie Release Date January 19, 2001 Cast Benicio Del Toro , Jason Statham , Lennie James , Alan Ford , Stephen Graham , Dennis Farina , Brad Pitt , Vinnie Jones

Snatch is a step-up from Guy Ritchie’s previous gangster movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, both in its absurd complexity and in its ability to deliver dark humor at a rapid pace. Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones lead a roster of Ritchie regulars, but the shining light in the cast of Snatch is Brad Pitt, who plays a bareknuckle boxer caught up in a twisted criminal conspiracy. He slots into Ritchie’s vision of London’s criminal underbelly with ease, and the rest of the cast master the idiosyncratic Cockney poeticism of the dialogue.

4 Kind Hearts & Coronets (1949)

A Raucous Comedy About The Funny Side Of Murder

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Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)

Director Robert Hamer Release Date June 21, 1949 Cast Dennis Price , Valerie Hobson , Joan Greenwood , Alec Guinness , Audrey Fildes , Miles Malleson , Clive Morton , John Penrose

Alec Guinness plays an entire family in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and each one gets killed off in a comedic way. The D’Ascoyne family stand between Louis Mazzini and the fortune he believes should be his rightful inheritance, so he aims to knock them off without being caught. There are poisonings, hot air balloon accidents and heart attacks. Perhaps the funniest of all is the death of Lord Horatio D’Ascoyne, who goes down with his ship without a hint of feeling on his face. Kind Hearts and Coronets is about the evils of the English aristocracy, and Lord Horatio embodies the blustering British ideal of stoicism.

3 Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Edgar Wright’s “Zom-Com” Holds Up To Repeated Viewings

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Director Edgar Wright Release Date September 24, 2004 Cast Kate Ashfield , Nick Frost , Simon Pegg , Lucy Davis , Dylan Moran

Shaun of the Dead is the perfect parody of zombie horror movies, from its punny title to its disgusting practical effects. This is only possible because Edgar Wright shows such an earnest and deep love of the genre that he is uniquely positioned to lampoon its foibles. As Shaun and Ed race across London to find solace in their local pub – the same thing many Brits do in times of crisis – they become much more than the stock characters that so often populate zombie movies, distinguished from the shambling hordes by a heartbeat alone. Shaun of the Dead‘s hilarious quotes make their friendship seem genuine right until the bitter end.

2 A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

A Dark And Messy Crime Caper

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Director Charles Crichton , John Cleese Release Date July 15, 1988 Cast John Cleese , Jamie Lee Curtis , Kevin Kline , Michael Palin , Maria Aitken , Tom Georgeson

A Fish Called Wanda is a classic heist movie featuring a gang of incompetent criminals. Michael Palin plays a soppy sentimentalist, Kevin Kline plays a petulant, insecure manchild, and Jamie Lee Curtis plays a self-interested thief who gets caught off guard by the dorky charms of a British lawyer. A Fish Called Wanda is a brilliant culture-clash comedy about Brits and Americans. It also features one of the funniest movie deaths of all time, as the witless animal-lover Ken tries to assassinate an elderly woman, but only succeeds in picking off her dogs one-by-one.

1 Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (1979)

Monty Python’s Classic Religious Farce Ends In Death

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Monty Python’s Life of Brian

Director Terry Jones Release Date August 17, 1979 Cast Graham Chapman , John Cleese , Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle , Terry Jones

Monty Python’s movies have just as many surreal interludes and bizarre characters as their sketch show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but Life of Brian tries to stay focused on its protagonist for long enough to highlight the absurd tragedy of his existence. The religious farce follows Brian as he is wrongly hailed as the new messiah by a group of mistaken imbeciles, shortly before he is sentenced to death for blasphemy and disturbing the peace. Brian’s death is the perfect punchline to his life, and the movie closes with a joyful sing-along. Monty Python suggest that life is cruel and disordered, so there’s nothing to do but laugh.

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