5 TV Comedies Turning Scary Into Funny This October (PHOTOS)
So funny it’s scary: October is undoubtedly the creepiest time of the year, but Halloween isn’t just about doom and gloom. Take a look at the lighter, or at least funnier, side of the macabre with this fall’s dark comedies. Whether you’re cackling at a well-delivered quip about the human condition or snickering in self-defense while you hide under your covers from a cascade of campy viscera, no one is here to judge. Click through the gallery above to see five shows mixing horror and humor this October.
Ash vs. Evil Dead
It’s been more than two decades since Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell teamed up for Army of Darkness, and after accidentally bringing untold horrors on the world, Campbell’s Ash has spent those intervening years doing… nothing of interest. After lazily working in retail, drinking and picking up loose women for a spell, it’s inevitable that Ash would once again unleash evil. He is, after all, the same moron who plunged the world into darkness because he couldn’t be bothered to remember three vitally important little words. It might take some effort for Ash to get back into the gun-toting, chainsaw-handed swing of things, but it’s safe to expect a steady stream of Deadite carnage.
Scream Queens
Name a slasher movie cliché and Scream Queens revels in it. Ryan Murphy’s (American Horror Story) campy killer comedy takes all the gore and sorority girls of the genre’s classics and plays those tropes for laughs. Topping the list of horror movie callbacks is Halloween’s final girl herself, Jamie Lee Curtis, as the prickly, anti-sorority Dean Munsch. If the characters aren’t likable enough to root for, you can always take a little pleasure in watching the worst of them get what’s coming to them.
The Last Man on Earth
Surviving a cataclysmic epidemic that has thinned the world’s population to almost nothing doesn’t sound like much fun. But when two of the only people left happen to be Will Forte (Phil) and Kristen Schaal (Carol), the post-apocalypse can be a pretty funny time to (still) be alive. In Season 2, Phil and Carol are leaving Tucson to seek out new adventures and survivors. Also, Jason Sudeikis will return as Phil’s brother, who was still stuck drifting around in space as of the end of Season 1.
Rick and Morty
Cronenberg (v): To genetically mutate a person or population of people into semi-human monstrosities.
Only Rick Sanchez could turn body horror godfather David Cronenberg into a verb. In an attempt to reverse the oddly potent effects of a love potion that gets mixed up with a contagious virus, he irreversibly splices every human being on earth with DNA from voles, praying mantises, golden retrievers, sharks, dinosaurs and cacti. Exploring the vast unknowns of deep space and alternate universes is usually the least frightening thing on Rick and Morty’s agenda. Whether it’s hiding from a copyright-safe version of Freddy Krueger named Scary Terry, escaping a Jurassic Park-style theme park inside a dead man’s body, participating in a planet-wide killing spree a la The Purge or dealing with the actual Devil (played by guest star Alfred Molina), Rick, Morty and the Smith family have lived through some of the worst sci-fi horror scenarios imaginable. Fortunately they’re all too jaded, nihilistic or vapid for any of that to sink in as it should.
iZombie
Take Veronica Mars, turn her into the undead, and link her skills as a detective to her ability to gain memories from victims by eating their brains, and you have something close to iZombie’s Liv. Liv tries to lead as normal of a life as possible while fighting off a pesky craving for human flesh. Series creator Rob Thomas brings the same dry humor he’s injected in his previous cult characters like Mars to the zombie non-apocalypse in this comedy/drama/procedural TV adaptation of Chris Roberson and Michael Allred’s comic, coming back for its second season this month.
NO LAUGHING MATTER: This post is presented by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. NFID wants to remind you that dark comedies can be scary, but the flu shouldn’t be. Get your flu vaccine today to help #FightFlu.
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