'''Μαύρη κωμωδία''' ή '''σκοτεινή κωμωδία''' ή '''μαύρο χιούμορ''' είναι μια μορφή προσέγγισης, από την εύθυμη πλευρά, θεμάτων τα οποία θεωρούνται ταμπού, όπως ο θάνατος και η αρρώστια. Έχει σχέση με την λογοτεχνία τρόμου, πλην όμως χρησιμοποιεί κωμικά στοιχεία. Οι λογοτεχνικοί κριτικοί έχουν συσχετίσει την μαύρη κωμωδία και το μαύρο χιούμορ ήδη με τους αρχαίους Έλληνες συγγραφείς, όπως ο [[Αριστοφάνης]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Dark humor|last=Blake|first=Hobby|publisher=Chealsea House Press|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>. Η μαύρη κωμωδία αντιστοιχεί στην προγενέστερη έννοια του gallows humor (χιούμορ της κρεμάλας)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/black-humor|title=black humour {{!}} Britannica.com|last=|first=|date=|website=|dead-url=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref>.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.gr/books?id=7jPyMPAsXwQC&pg=PA175&redir_esc=y|title=Trauma treatment techniques: innovative trends|last=|first=|publisher=Garrick, Jacqueline and Williams, Mary Beth|year=2006|isbn=|location=|pages=175-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Laughter in hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust|last=Lipman|first=Steve|publisher=N.J:J Aronson Inc.|year=1991|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Running Experiments Off: An Interview|last=Vonnegut|first=Kurt|publisher=|others=interview by Laurie Clancy, published in|year=1971|isbn=|location=Meanjin Quarterly, 30|publication-place=|pages=46-54|publication-date=Autumn, 1971|quote=The term was part of the language before Freud wrote an essay on it—'gallows humor.' This is middle European humor, a response to hopeless situations. It's what a man says faced with a perfectly hopeless situation and he still manages to say something funny. Freud gives examples: A man being led out to be hanged at dawn says, 'Well, the day is certainly starting well.' It's generally called Jewish humor in this country. Actually it's humor from the peasants' revolt, the forty years' war, and from the Napoleonic wars. It's small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness. Jewish jokes are middle European jokes and the black humorists are gallows humorists, as they try to be funny in the face of situations which they see as just horrible.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.gr/books?id=5Vf6nC8XKWsC&pg=PA80&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Dark Humor|last=Bloom|first=Harold|publisher=|year=2010|isbn=|location=|pages=80-88|chapter=On dark humor in literature}}</ref><ref>Freud (1927) ''Humor''</ref>
