Buddhist Realism and Dark Comedy: It’s Funny Because It’s True

The Buddha is believed to have taught that the fundamental nature of the human condition is suffused with feelings of existential angst and abiding dissatisfaction. Such realism is not exclusive to Buddhism, however. As any dark comedian knows this already because making jokes about the reality of life usually gets big laughs, or as they say in the business—“kills.” Like the Buddha, the comic can be a powerful medium for communicating the more disquieting and shunned truths in life.

Join me in a provocative conversation on the merits of dark comedy as a vehicle for embracing the truth of the human condition. We’ll watch video clips of comedians like Louis C.K., Tig Notaro, and Andy Kaufman. And we’ll discuss why I believe that both Buddhism and dark comedy offer a kind of therapy for eliminating the existential anxiety that comes from being the kind of animal that lives with the knowledge of their own inexorable death.

Christopher Kelley holds a doctorate in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University, where he studied under the guidance of Professor Robert Thurman. He currently teaches religion at Hunter College.