By Katie Extine, Staff Writer
Disclaimer: Contains spoilers for ‘Nope’ (2022)
In 2009, comedian Norm Macdonald told a joke on ‘The Late Night Show with Conan O’Brien ’; the joke has this long monologue-esque lead-up and is almost 5 minutes long. The joke is about a depressed moth that ends up in a psychiatrist’s office just because the light was on, ending with a slightly unexpected punchline. When I’ve discussed the ‘comedy to horror pipeline’ with my friends and family, I’ve used this bit to explain why that exists. It’s all about the way the two genres function, with sets of unspoken rules that get followed until they get bent.
As a sketch comedy lover and self-proclaimed horror fanatic, I find myself at the center of this hypothetical Venn diagram. The two genres, on the surface, have nothing in common, but looking deeper, you find many similarities. The biggest one is the set expectations the audiences have before going in. Both genres also rely heavily on timing, and knowing when to joke or scare can make the audience either love or hate you.
Jordan Peele started out in the early 2000s at ‘The Second City’ in Chicago, a well-known theatre in the sketch comedy scene. Most people know about his sketch comedy career from the show ‘Key & Peele’, which he hosted with his long-time friend Keegan-Michael Key. This show is deeply ingrained in pop culture, whether you realize it or not, with their ‘East West Bowl’ and ‘Substitute Teacher’ sketches being quoted all the time. The two even got former president Barack Obama to indulge in their antics, with one of their sketches where Peele plays Obama and Key plays his ‘anger translator’ named Luther becoming a real-life bit during the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
In 2017, Peele’s directorial debut film “Get Out” was released in theatres, and it went on to win him an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’. His second film “US” was released two years later in 2019, and his third and most recent film “Nope” was released in 2022. The first time I watched “Get Out,” I was dumbfounded by how the same guy who made a sketch about football players having crazy names could also make a film that is so jam-packed with social commentary wrapped in a psychological thriller package.
The thing about Jordan Peele is that he knows how to subvert his audience’s expectations, while still checking the marks a horror movie ‘has to’. In my opinion, his third film “Nope” does this better than his latter two. This film is set up like any other extraterrestrial horror, with a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and a bunch of unexplained stuff going on. It hits everything the genre typically brings, until he changes its direction. There’s a line spoken by Daniel Kaluuya in the film, “What if it’s not a ship?”, six words that change the entire film and bring something new into the genre. It’s a great showing of how his comedic style translates into a genre that is arguably not funny, with his sketches breaking the typical joke to his horror breaking the typical scare.
I would assume anyone who has been on the Internet in the past year has at least heard of “Obsession.” Directed by Curry Barker, this film became an instant box office hit and horror phenomenon. Barker, alongside his best friend Cooper Tomlinson, has their own YouTube-based sketch comedy channel named ‘That’s a Bad Idea’.
Barker wrote the original script for Obsession following a fairly simple idea: be careful what you wish for. But he took this idea even further, adding supernatural elements and emotional baggage. With a spooky supernatural toy, an incompetent leading man, and disturbing visuals, “Obsession” knows exactly what the genre is asking of it. He takes the horror factor even further by writing characters that have strong, yet sometimes disturbing, morals in a way that still feels incredibly realistic. The real horror in the film isn’t the blood or gore; it’s the absurdist version of reality he brings in, similar to his sketches – except those are much more enjoyable to watch.
In 2022, Zach Cregger immediately solidified his name in the horror scene after his directorial debut “Barbarian” was released. Cregger first became known for being a founding member of the comedy group ‘The Whitest Kids U’Know’, formed originally in 1999; the group had a sketch comedy show that aired from 2007 to 2011.
Cregger’s first two original films, “Barbarian” and “Weapons”, are two of the only recent horror films to fill me with a genuine sense of dread. One thing I’ve noticed Cregger does exceptionally well is solidify the bridge between comedy and horror. While his films have all terrified me, they are also arguably funny. With certain characters of his, like James in “Weapons,” played by Austin Abrams, being main characters and comedic relief at the same time, he builds a relatable character inside of a fictional setting. Cregger is currently writing for Trevor Henderson’s adaptation of the internet-born monster “Siren Head”, which I am predicting to be another box office hit for the genre.
Finally, I have my honorable mentions. Starting with Sam Raimi, who wrote and directed the original Evil Dead trilogy. Raimi started out with horror short films in the late 70s but brought slapstick comedy into horror with “Evil Dead II” in 1987. Josh Ruben, director of “Heart Eyes”, started out with sketch comedy and still stars in original shows from the sketch comedy company “Dropout”. Lastly, Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou started on YouTube making comedy horror and parody videos. The twin brothers co-wrote and directed “Talk to Me” in 2022 and “Bring Her Back” in 2025.
With these directors, and many others, it’s clear that comedy and horror are two sides of the same coin. The similarities make the two genres open for creators to make something new, or add on to what’s been done before. Thanks to the ever-evolving nature of cinema and society, there will always be something new and exciting right around the corner for both genres, making sure they live forever.
