| There is a reason that you rarely hear the words "revenge" and "comedy" in the same sentence. It is an extremely difficult combination to successfully pull off.
Sure, it’s been done before. In fact, it’s done constantly. Plenty of comedies (like Police Academy, for example) might contain a hint of a revenge subplot, while the best revenge dramas (such as Kill Bill) are likely to contain a funny moment or two, if only to relieve the tension. Such moments are not necessarily difficult. The challenge comes when revenge is the primary plotline of a film that relies on comedy and humour to succeed. Such films often have their bleak endings hastily redone at the last minute after failing to impress test audiences. This explains why comedies like Splitting Heirs (1993), and What’s the Worst That Could Happen? (2001) tend to conclude in a forced, unconvincing manner with everybody forgetting their grudge and becoming friends.
Consider the classic revenge plotline born of Thomas Kyd’s Jacobean revenge play The Spanish Tragedy, and immortalized by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The hero or "Revenger" is determined to get even with an evil monarch or authority figure for a crime committed in the past. While the Revenger broods and plots, the full extent of the villain’s perfidy is revealed and minor characters begin to die. Finally, the Revenger takes action on his victim, resulting in a cast-depleting bloodbath and his own death. The hero doesn’t survive the story, because his actions have made him as villainous as the antagonist, but also because, as a symbol of vengeance, there is nothing left for him to live for once the target of his rage is dead.
Hilarious!
Well, actually there is comic possibility in this scenario. Jacobean revenge tragedies are so over-the-top and melodramatic, they practically beg to be satirized. Even Hamlet can be made funny in the hands of skilled comedians. I once saw a comedy troupe perform an extremely streamlined "10-minute Hamlet" that got big laughs by shooting through Shakespeare’s plot and dialogue at a breathless pace. As an encore, they performed an even more impressive "30-second Hamlet"! Most films, however, are much longer than 10 minutes – long enough to start to care about the characters’ misfortunes.
Consider that all characters in comedies, both heroes and villains, tend to be more likable than their dramatic counterparts. Even if they seem despicable on paper, they are likely to be played by appealing performers in order to make the comedy work. This is fine for the beginning of the film, but becomes problematic in the end, in which the long-delayed revenge must finally be either taken or abandoned. If the Revenger follows through on his plan, he becomes cruel and less likable than he previously was, and the audience will be unhappy. Even though audiences are initially attracted by the concept of revenge, they also value maturity and forgiveness in their heroes.
Revenge comedy can be seen as a subgenre of black comedy, itself one of the most difficult genres to pull off successfully. Can Revenge Comedy be done well? Absolutely – The War of the Roses (1989) arguably succeeds, even though it’s more of a drama than a comedy. Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: White (1994) is marvellous, even if it isn’t as acclaimed as its brilliant sister films Three Colours: Blue (1993) and Three Colours: Red (1994), as if that were any kind of criticism. Bill Plympton’s animated short Push Comes to Shove (1991) takes revenge to new heights of surrealism as two businessmen dish out all manner of bodily cruelty to one another, before a simple nose flick causes one man to burst into tears, and the fight ends on a conciliatory note. This perhaps tells us something about the nature of successful revenge comedy – rather than taking the grudge to its logical extreme, it might be wise to take it far beyond the logical extreme into the realm of pure nonsense (stretching facial features like silly putty or shortening the other’s head with a lawnmower, etc.), before allowing the characters to reconcile. |
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