While the concept of a dystopian society is far from appealing, comic dystopian films often paint an unrealistic picture of what society would look like if our existence became “zombified.” Take Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead; it’s just a cinematic version of a dystopian at first Grand Theft Auto, finding hilarious ways to slaughter oncoming zombies, break in, then head to The Winchester for a pint, a game of pool, and to “wait for this all to blow over”. At first glance, it’s fun and exciting.
When the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world in 2020, the transition to full frontal lockdown was initially new, although this 21st-century version of dystopia certainly didn’t replicate that of the movies. Instead, our family dynamics changed to include daily doses of Carol Baskin, Joe Exotic, Aaron Hernandez, and Michael Jordan in many a Netflix marathon, and the marathons didn’t stop there as downloads from Nike Run Club and Strava went through the roof as people put their fitness solution. The inaugural weeks of lockdown goodies, invariably and relatively quickly, lapsed into depravity, pounds began to pile up on copious amounts of homemade carrot cake, the Carol Baskin memes were exhausted, and the mindless running all in the name of health and fitness was eventually reduced to excessive enjoyment of masturbation.
Dystopian comedies have become an increasingly popular genre in recent years, with screenwriters and directors choosing to put a different spin on the traditional concept of a dystopian world, adding comedy and humor to depict the utter absurdity of police states and tyrannical against regimes. Here are some of the best dystopian comedies…
5/5 A scanner dark
Based on the king of the dystopian sci-fi genre, Philip K. Dick’s, novel and directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and confused, before midnight and boyhood), A scanner dark is a film about an undercover cop’s attempts to infiltrate a notorious drug ring; however, during his mission, he becomes a drug addict and is forced to protect his identity. It’s a surprisingly funny movie (thanks mainly to Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr.’s hilariously insane parts), even if it’s an abstractly disturbing movie.
In a dystopian society where the United States has lost the war on drugs, Bob Arctor (Reeves) is deployed as part of the nationwide surveillance of drug users to target the 20% of the US population addicted to “substance D.” The rotoscope— computer animation is as intriguing as it is surreal, sometimes producing comical, imaginative, but also morbid effects.
4/5 sorry to bother you
Focus functions
sorry to bother you Boots announced Riley to the directing circuit, with the dystopian satire as his feature film debut. Starring LaKeith Lee Stanfield as Cassius Green, an ambitious man living in his uncle’s garage with his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), who, after being threatened with eviction, lands a job at a Regalview call center. Taking on a typically nasal “white voice” to bring in sales, the dark comedy acts as a socially conscious exposé about the state of American capitalism and its racist societal undertones, culminating in a bizarre, dystopian finale. It’s a weird but important masterpiece.
3/5 idiocracy
In Mike Judge’s dystopian satire idiocracythe film inverts the idea of natural selection and the genetic modification of future generations through the breeding of intelligent humans, and is instead a demonstration of what the world would be like if the dumbest in the world had been bred indiscriminately and the most intellectual not all in the world.
Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an outspoken average soldier, voted the “most average” is paired with a prostitute, Rita (Maya Rudolph), in an experiment gone wrong, Joe and Rita’s life is for half a millennium suspended, before being reintegrated into an anti-intellectual society that is simply unrecognizable.
2/5 Sleeper
Directed by, Written by and Starring Woody Allen, 1973’s Sleeper tells the story of Miles Monroe (Allen), a health food store owner, who, after a medical procedure goes horribly wrong, is frozen and brought back to life two centuries later. Miles is tasked with challenging a brutal, tyrannical police state and discovering the whereabouts of ‘Project Aries’.
In typical early Allen style, Sleeper is a film full of razor-sharp dialogue and quirky quirks, paying tribute to the great Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd and the slapstick-quiet era of 1920s Hollywood.
1/5 The lobster
The favorite and Killing a Sacred Deer director Yorgos Lanthimos made an underestimated masterpiece in 2015 The lobster, a hilarious yet disturbing take on a dystopian form of macabre romance. Starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in the title roles, the film explores the concept of loners being placed in a hotel where they are given 45 days to find love or risk being reincarnated into an animal of their choice.
Farrell appears as David, an honest man undeterred by the idiosyncrasy of the situation he finds himself in and who has just been abandoned by his wife. The lobster is a film full of bone-dry hilarity, and these expressionless, deadpan protagonists whose straightforward literalism in the face of such calculated cruelty is ticklingly funny, yet so endearing and thought-provoking.