Horror and Humor: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Horror and Humor: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Horror and Humor: Two Sides of the Same CoinHumor brings us smiles, joy, happiness, and laughter.
Horror instills fear, dread, apprehension, and tension.
It might seem odd to say this, but the above differences bind these disparate elements of storytelling in a tight weave.
The best humor makes us laugh out loud. A good hearty laugh leaves no room for apprehension. By contrast, horror strives to carve out a pit of fear in your stomach, leaving no room for laughter. You’re not going to chuckle when death lurks around the corner (unless that horror has so affected you that you’ve started losing your mind). The complete totality of humor necessitates the absence of horror and vice versa. Thus, the stronger the horror or humor, the greater the impact of replacing one with the other. I think the easiest way to show this is with a graph.
