Fun with Jerks: Why Other People's Pain Is Hilarious

Sometimes it's fun to watch awful people suffer. In movies, at least. In real life it's no fun at all but on the screen it's hilarious.

Sometimes.

As case studies, I submit two black comedies: one the recently-released apocalypse comedy (one of four this year, actually) It's a Disaster and the other Diablo Cody's most tolerable movie to date, 2011's Young Adult. Both feature good writing, solid performances, reprehensible behavior, tons of despair, and, yes, truly despicable characters for the leading roles.

One of these movies is funny.


For those of you unfamiliar with this little indie gem, It's a Disaster is about four couples meeting up for their monthly couples' brunch, a ritual none of them seem to look forward to and a few of them actively despise. On the guest list is Tracy (Julia Stiles) and her new(set) boyfriend, Glen (David Cross). While Glen struggles to mesh his own awkward self into this group of garden-variety, brittle suburban sociopaths (who are also, apparently, insatiable cheaters), a massive terrorist attack in nearby New York City isolates the group from the outside world. Trapped inside with only hours to live before they succumb to the grisly symptoms of nerve gas, the group struggles to come to terms with their impending deaths and make the most of their last moments, mostly through orgies and meth. If this scenario sounds like a barrel of laughs, I'm afraid you're almost as sick as I am.

Young Adult, a bit more widely known than Disaster but not nearly as well known as Cody's nerve-grating Juno, is about a former high school beauty queen Mavis (Charlize Theron) who goes back to her rural hometown to reconnect with her high school sweetheart. The one wrinkle in Mavis' plan is that Mavis' ex Buddy (Patrick Wilson) has already married another lady and has an infant daughter. Completely unfazed by this discovery, Mavis sets out to destroy her ex's marriage, win her man back, and regain her status as queen bee in her hometown. Oh yeah, and she's an unemployed alcoholic and she sleeps with a guy played by Patton Oswalt whose, uh, plumbing doesn't work because he was the victim of a particularly brutal hate crime. And it's a comedy.

Yes, yes, it's very sad. Don't worry, though, this is as low as the camera ever pans.

No one is getting out of the above scenarios with destroying a couple of lives, or at the very least, going out on a sour note once nerve gas has already destroyed what was left of their lives. But the first movie, Disaster, is significantly funnier than the second, because while both movies feature deeply unlikeable people, it's much, much funnier to watch terrible people punish each other rather than take it out on everyone else.

Although David Cross' character is at least a little sympathetic -- he keeps his head and tries to comfort characters who are scared and panicking -- most of the characters in Disaster are selfish jerks. They're punishing each other with their petty, narcissistic actions as well as getting punished in return, and it's as funny and satisfying as hell. It's funny to watch these people bicker and argue while, outside, the bodies of their neighbors get eaten by vultures, because we think they deserve it. They're mean-spirited, immature, shallow, and, hilarious, so watching them go out on a bad note feels like vindication. They're going to die from nerve gas, but it's funny because we think they have it coming.

Beth and Louise fully endorse the deaths of all these people.

Young Adult, on the other hand, still features strong dialogue and performances, but because it's such an amoral film it's not as satisfying. Mavis is in a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression, but she's taking everyone down wit her. And "everyone," in this case, includes her fundamentally good friends and neighbors, who seem to want nothing but the best for her. She ruins special occasions, embarrasses herself and her ex by flirting openly and publicly with him, and blows off the attention of the only people who seem to have any genuine compassion for her.

An unlikable heroine (or even a morally reprehensible but sympathetic one, as Mavis occasionally can

be) isn't necessarily a fatal flaw in a film. But the problem is that Diablo Cody, who penned this script, doesn't seem to understand how rotten Mavis can be -- especially compared to the other characters. Buddy and his wife are happily married with a beautiful daughter, and Patton Oswalt's character Matt is capable of far more kindness and sensitivity than Mavis ever shows. What is puzzling, though, is that Cody apparently agrees with Mavis, in that Mavis is better than everyone around her. In a late, triumphant monologue in the movie, Mavis "discovers" that everyone in her hometown is fat and uneducated, while Mavis is beautiful, lives in the city, and publishes books. Mavis can then do better than her ex, because she is in a class above him. Never mind that Buddy has a good family, good job, good life, and good heart. Mavis is superior because looks like Charlize Theron and has a college degree.

The moral universe of It's a Disaster, then - lousy people being lousy to other lousy people - allows it to be funnier than Young Adult - lousy people preying on decent people while the screenwriter remains oblivious to all the lousiness. If you're going to have fun with jerks on Netflix tonight -- and that's the best kind of fun, really -- it's more fun to watch jerks be jerks and die rather than be jerks and get vindicated.

So give It's a Disaster a few hours. It'll be more fun than couples' brunch, I'm sure.

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