How "dark" is a dark comedy?

"It's life and you got to take it or leave it, you either laugh or you cry......"

Have you not wondered before why this is so? We might be too concentrated on being entertained and forget about the meaning and implication behind those laughter. I especially felt about this when I watched "desperate housewives" this week. In this week's episode, Gaby was asked by Carlo to go for therapy, in which she is dreading it. Watching her trying to find all sort of excuses not to go for the therapy and not let Carlo know about it, was a bit of a good laugh.

Let's face it. Perhaps among the Americans or more precisely the celebrities, seeing therapy is no big deal. But then it could be a luxury for some. It was really funny to see that, Gaby, the character played by Eva Longoria, exclaimed to her husband that, "I like therapy, it's like a talk show". Obviously, she is saying this only to make her husband thinks she is obeying his instruction to go and "get some helps". Surely, therapy is not a joke and under normal circumstance, people would not see it as a laughing matter, perhaps people will talk about it or discuss relatively more openly these days, but won't be a joke (if you want to know the background with regards to this, you may watch the clip here. That comment was made in the 18th seconds).

Anyway, coming back to "dark" comedy. So, why do you call it a "dark" comedy then. I guess there is some therapeutic element here. Though some critics had claimed that "Desperate Housewives" is a bit too dark and sometimes a big exaggerating, I personally like the character of Gaby. She is calculative, attention seeking and argumentative. She was often portrayed as someone who like to take things the easy way, and a little selfish at times. In this episode, we learned that there's a reason as to why she is escaping the therapy. It is, to me, a very sensible reason, but you have to watch to find it out yourselves. All I can say is that, "dark" comedy brought out the problematic or sad parts in life, dramatize it and at times, though exaggerating, is worth a laugh. What left behind after the laughter is a reflection upon your own life, make you think, and you asked yourselves if that happened in real life, what would you do, would you laugh or cry. Well, a matter of choice.