LIBRARY BLOG

Obscure Genres Spotlight

The Horrors and the Humors

Surreal Humor

Also called absurdist humor, surreal humor is a form of comedy defined by its purposeful incongruence to what we’d see as “normal” reasoning, leaning towards non sequiturs, bizarre or absurd situations, and general nonsense. Surreal humor subverts what the reader thinks will happen, most often by taking a very normal situation most would be familiar with and turning it on its head.

Take this joke from the horror-comedy podcast Welcome to Night Vale, for example: “What has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? I don’t know, but I trapped it in my bedroom. Send help” (Fink). By starting out with an age-old, famous riddle, the reader (or listener, in the podcast’s case) expects the answer to be “man,” as they’ve probably heard the riddle before. Instead, the writer subverts expectations by turning the quote into something of a three-line horror story.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good
by Helene Tursten

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to
the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective
Agency by Douglas Adams

Welcome to Night Vale
by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

Cosmic/Lovecraftian Horror

Cosmic or Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre of horror literature that uses the fear of the unknown to scare readers rather than other methods popular in horror. The names of the genre come from the cosmic dread or existential dread, that defines the genre as well as H. P. Lovecraft, who made his literature career writing such horrors. Superstition, descents into madness, forbidden knowledge and discoveries, and more are all examples of intangible scares you might find in a cosmic horror novel. Possibly the most Lovecraftian horror of all is one by Lovecraft himself, The Call of Cthulhu.

The Dead Take
the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

It Rides a Pale Horse
by Andy Marino

A Study in Emerald
by Neil Gaiman

Lovecraft Country
by Matt Ruff

Comedy Horror

If regular horror stories are a bit too spooky for you, maybe a side of humor will make it more enjoyable. Whether it’s a quippy narrator, a villain who isn’t quite scary enough to make it with the big evils of the world, or an outright spoof of a classic horror story, the comedy part comes in different forms. There’s also lots of crossover with morbid humor, making you feel just a little better about the atrocities for just a little while.