47-404: Childrens Hospital (originally titled Children's Hospital as webisodes) is an American dark comedy television and web series that parodies the medical drama genre, created by and starring actor/comedian Rob Corddry . The series began on the web on TheWB.com with ten episodes, roughly five minutes in length, all of which premiered on December 8, 2008. Adult Swim picked up the rights to
94-441: A competing offer, the show was picked up by Adult Swim after Corddry decided the comedy style was not suited for the half-hour format Comedy Central wanted. Adult Swim offered half-hour or fifteen-minute time slots, and Corddry chose the latter. The original season one webisodes began airing on Adult Swim on July 11, 2010, in groups of two with a new faux-commercial in between the groupings of two webisodes. The channel then debuted
141-451: A far ridere su un argomento talmente drammatico di cui si ride perché non c'è altra soluzione possibile, si ha quella che nei cabaret di Berlino degli Anni '20 veniva chiamata la "risata verde". È opportuno distinguere una satira ironica, che lavora per sottrazione, da una satira grottesca, che lavora per addizione. Questo secondo tipo di satira genera più spesso la risata verde. Ne erano maestri Kraus e Valentin. Ambush (ER) " Ambush "
188-494: A fictional 60 Minutes -style newsmagazine entitled Newsreaders , which was later spun off into its own Adult Swim series. These fictional cast members have stories of their own: During the first three seasons, portions of the show were filmed in North Hollywood Medical Center , the same former hospital used for filming Scrubs and several other movies and television programs, until its demolition in 2011. As
235-641: A fictional health drink called "Nutricai" turned out to be a tie-in with an episode of Eagleheart , one episode of which featured Elliott's character joining a multi-level marketing business selling the product. Some episodes of Childrens Hospital featured a fictional TV show called Newsreaders, a parody of the CBS show 60 Minutes ; this led to Newsreaders being picked up as its own show on Adult Swim, premiering in January 2013. Former Daily Show co-executive producer Jim Margolis served as showrunner , developing
282-425: A globe-spanning mission to uncover a conspiracy behind a global pandemic and find a cure. Åkerman, Bell, Cera, Corddry, Marino, and Winkler also reprised their Childrens Hospital characters as guest performers. Dark comedy Black comedy , also known as black humor , bleak comedy , dark comedy , dark humor , gallows humor or morbid humor , is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that
329-484: A literal instance of gallows humour before going on to write: "The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure." Some other sociologists elaborated this concept further. At the same time, Paul Lewis warns that this "relieving" aspect of gallows jokes depends on
376-616: A man who grasped things by reason and never by feeling, and who enclosed himself in skepticism; [...] Swift can rightfully be considered the inventor of "savage" or "gallows" humor. Des termes parents du Galgenhumor sont: : comédie noire, plaisanterie macabre, rire jaune. (J'en offre un autre: gibêtises). humour macabre, humeur de désespéré, (action de) rire jaune Galgenhumor propos guilleret etwas freie, gewagte Äußerung Walter Redfern, discussing puns about death, remarks: 'Related terms to gallows humour are: black comedy, sick humour, rire jaune. In all, pain and pleasure are mixed, perhaps
423-406: A parody of the live episode " Ambush " of ER , the season two finale (aired November 7, 2010) was promoted as a live broadcast. Despite the low ratings compared to other cable television series, Childrens Hospital still has received its highest ratings to date on its midnight (Eastern Time) slot. On Friday, September 3, 2010, it pulled in 525,000 viewers while the next Sunday yielded 551,000 (in
470-502: A rebuttal piece to Rosenberg's review, published in the October 6, 1997 issue of the LA Times . A retrospective assessment by David Sims of The A.V. Club listed it as one of the best episodes of the series. While Sims did not believe the story was memorable, he called the technical work for the episode a "substantial milestone". In 2019, Gold Derby ranked it as the 12th best episode in
517-1304: A spese di chi è più ricco e potente di te. Io sono specialista nella risata verde, quella dei cabaret di Berlino degli anni Venti e Trenta. Nasce dalla disperazione. Esempio: l'Italia è un paese dove la commissione di vigilanza parlamentare Rai si comporta come la commissione stragi e viceversa. Oppure: il mistero di Ustica è irrisolto? Sono contento: il sistema funziona. racconto di satira grottesca [...] L'obiettivo del grottesco è far percepire l'orrore di una vicenda. Non è la satira cui siamo abituati in Italia: la si ritrova nel cabaret degli anni '20 e '30, poi è stata cancellata dal carico di sofferenze della guerra. Aggiungo che io avevo spiegato in apertura di serata che ci sarebbero stati momenti di satira molto diversi. Satira ironica, che fa ridere, e satira grottesca, che può far male. Perché porta alla risata della disperazione, dell'impotenza. La risata verde. Era forte, perché coinvolgeva in un colpo solo tutti i cardini satirici: politica, religione, sesso e morte. Quello che ho fatto è stato accentuare l'interazione tra gli elementi. Non era di buon gusto? Rabelais e Swift, che hanno esplorato questi lati oscuri della nostra personalità, non si sono mai posti il problema del buon gusto. Quando la satira poi riesce
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#1732876050067564-620: Is an acknowledged coping mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do. A 2017 study published in the journal Cognitive Processing concludes that people who appreciate dark humor "may have higher IQs, show lower aggression, and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it." Examples of black comedy in film include: Examples of black comedy in television include: Examples of gallows speeches include: Military life
611-465: Is filmed by a PBS documentary film crew, capturing the staff treating patients, ranging from a dog bite attack to a good Samaritan being thrown off a bridge for stopping a gang initiation . During filming, chief of surgery and head of the ER David Morgenstern ( William H. Macy ) suffers a heart attack and gets hospitalized. Newly hired British surgeon Elizabeth Corday ( Alex Kingston ) joins
658-429: Is full of gallows humor, as those in the services continuously live in the danger of being killed, especially in wartime. For example: Workers in the emergency services are also known for using black comedy: There are several titles such as It Only Hurts When I Laugh and Only When I Laugh , which allude to the punch line of a joke which exists in numerous versions since at least the 19th century. A typical setup
705-414: Is generally considered taboo , particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction , for example, the term black comedy can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Cartoonist Charles Addams
752-439: Is that someone badly hurt is asked "Does it hurt?" – "I am fine; it only hurts when I laugh." 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,
799-504: Is the premiere episode of the fourth season of the American medical drama ER . The 70th episode overall, it was written by executive producer Carol Flint and directed by Thomas Schlamme and it was first broadcast on NBC on September 25, 1997, as a live episode , filmed twice for the East and West Coast. The episode was also pre-filmed in the event a technical issue happened. Shown through
846-655: The grotesque genre. Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humour with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes . The term black humour (from the French humour noir ) was coined by the Surrealist theorist André Breton in 1935 while interpreting the writings of Jonathan Swift . Breton's preference was to identify some of Swift's writings as a subgenre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism , often relying on topics such as death. Breton coined
893-467: The 18–34 demographic). The mock television advertisements presented with the Adult Swim broadcasts of Childrens Hospital season one tied into future Adult Swim programs. A commercial for a crime procedural parody led to the show NTSF:SD:SUV:: ( National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle ), which ran from 2011 to 2013. Similarly, a commercial featuring Chris Elliott promoting
940-460: The United States. British actress Alex Kingston made her series debut as Elizabeth Corday. The episode was shot at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank , using 11 cameras throughout, five handheld . Rehearsals for the episode began a week before, with executive producer John Wells having been quoted that the process was "more exciting than daunting". A pre-filmed version of the episode was made in
987-418: The condition they do not use the footage of him and Carter. "Ambush" was directed by Thomas Schlamme and written by executive producer Carol Flint . Inspiration for the episode came from production staffers for the show having worked in documentaries and actors Anthony Edwards and George Clooney suggesting that they should do a live episode. The episode was filmed live twice for the East and West Coast of
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#17328760500671034-454: The context of the joke: whether the joke is being told by the threatened person themselves or by someone else. Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the morale of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors. According to Wylie Sypher , "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them." Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use
1081-499: 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
1128-890: The definitive recipe for all punning' (Puns, p. 127). En français on dit « rire jaune », en flamand « groen lachen » Les termes jaune, vert, bleu évoquent en français un certain nombre d'idées qui sont différentes de celles que suscitent les mots holandais correspondants geel, groen, blauw. Nous disons : rire jaune, le Hollandais dit : rire vert ( groen lachen ); ce que le Néerlandais appelle un vert (een groentje), c'est ce qu'en français on désigne du nom de bleu (un jeune soldat inexpéribenté)... On voit que des confrontations de ce genre permettent de concevoir une étude de la psychologie des peuples fondée sur les associations d'idées que révèlent les variations de sens (sémantique), les expressions figurées, les proverbes et les dictions. Q: Critiche feroci, interrogazioni parlamentari: momenti duri per la satira. A: Satira è far ridere
1175-489: The documentary crew plot device cheapened moments such as Dr. Morgenstern suffering a heart attack. Howard Rosenberg for the Los Angeles Times was critical of the episode and its live format, calling it a cynical gimmick to attract viewers and "hardly the dramatic breakthrough and courageous theater that you would have thought from the gaseous hot air advertising it." Carol Flint and Thomas Schlamme would later write
1222-413: The event a technical issue happened on set. Flint remarked that if the episode was a success, it could lead to the rebirth of live television. Camera malfunctions and boom mics seen in the shot were said to be part of the episode. After its premiere, Eriq La Salle admitted to forgetting one of his lines and ad-libbed . According to the ratings system developed by Nielsen Media Research , "Ambush"
1269-399: The face of situations which they see as just horrible. At least, Swift's text is preserved, and so is a prefatory note by the French writer André Breton, which emphasizes Swift's importance as the originator of black humor, of laughter that arises from cynicism and scepticism. When it comes to black humor, everything designates him as the true initiator. In fact, it is impossible to coordinate
1316-408: The first American writers who employed black comedy in their works were Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov . The concept of black humor first came to nationwide attention after the publication of a 1965 mass-market paperback titled Black Humor , edited by Bruce Jay Friedman . The paperback was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the concept of black humor as a literary genre. With
1363-540: The fugitive traces of this kind of humor before him, not even in Heraclitus and the Cynics or in the works of Elizabethan dramatic poets. [...] historically justify his being presented as the first black humorist. Contrary to what Voltaire might have said, Swift was in no sense a "perfected Rabelais." He shared to the smallest possible degree Rabelais's taste for innocent, heavy-handed jokes and his constant drunken good humor. [...]
1410-416: The highest rating of the week. Seen by a total of 42.71 million viewers, it became the most-watched season premiere episode for a drama series. Reception to the episode was mixed from critics. Praise was given to the live performances but the story and script writing was criticized being lackluster. "Ambush" received four nominations at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards , winning one. The County General Hospital
1457-439: The hospital, while John Carter ( Noah Wyle ) learns he has to repeat his internship after switching from surgical to emergency medicine. The production crew hits a raw nerve with Mark Greene ( Anthony Edwards ), and he refuses to being interviewed after inquiring on his assault from last season. After Carter loses an elderly patient, Greene berates him for trying to be a hero. Greene allows the documentary crew to interview him on
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1504-487: The medical staff of Childrens Hospital, featuring an ensemble cast . These actors receive top billing in the credits: The series occasionally presents fictional "behind-the-scenes" episodes, supposedly chronicling the production of the series. These episodes portray Childrens Hospital as a long-running medical drama and typically feature interviews with the self-absorbed, eccentric cast members (also fictional characters). The first such episodes were presented as clips from
1551-439: The minimal gaffes during the episode. Variety 's Ray Richmond, while finding the episode a bit contrived, considered it a "pretty impressive, oft-compelling" episode. Caryn James of The New York Times was critical of the writing, calling the script "hackneyed", and overall summarized the episode as "terminally dull". Steve Hall for The Indianapolis News , while finding a few moments to be "undeniably powerful", felt that
1598-552: The newly produced season two episodes which began airing on August 22, 2010. On September 1, 2010, Childrens Hospital began airing on the Canadian television channel G4 . In Winter 2013, the show was picked up by Much . In Australia Childrens Hospital premiered on cable on Comedy Channel on January 26, 2011, and on ABC's free-to-air channel ABC2 during May–June 2013. The series began airing repeats on American cable channel TBS beginning October 20, 2014. The series revolves around
1645-522: The paperback, Friedman labeled as "black humorists" a variety of authors, such as J. P. Donleavy , Edward Albee , Joseph Heller , Thomas Pynchon , John Barth , Vladimir Nabokov, Bruce Jay Friedman himself, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline . Among the recent writers suggested as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl , Kurt Vonnegut , Warren Zevon , Christopher Durang , Philip Roth , and Veikko Huovinen . Evelyn Waugh has been called "the first contemporary writer to produce
1692-691: The particular type of laughter that it arouses ( risata verde or groen lachen ), and said that grotesque satire , as opposed to ironic satire, is the one that most often arouses this kind of laughter. In the Weimar era Kabaretts , this genre was particularly common, and according to Luttazzi, Karl Valentin and Karl Kraus were the major masters of it. Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes police officers , firefighters , ambulance crews, military personnel, journalists, lawyers, and funeral directors , where it
1739-408: The perspective of a PBS documentary film crew, the emergency room is filmed as a day in the life of the doctors. The episode introduced British actress Alex Kingston as Elizabeth Corday to the cast. Inspiration for the episode came from production staffers having worked in documentaries, with Anthony Edwards and George Clooney suggesting to do it live. In its initial airing, "Ambush" received
1786-446: The series with Childrens Hospital creators Wain, Corddry, and Jonathan Stern. In 2011, Corddry stated that the cast and creative team of Childrens Hospital were working on doing a movie together, separate from Childrens Hospital , with a different story and characters. In 2020, Netflix premiered Medical Police , a ten-episode spinoff of Childrens Hospital. The show stars Hayes and Huebel as Lola and Owen, who are recruited into
1833-503: The show in 2009 and began airing episodes in 2010. The storyline centers on the staff of Childrens Hospital, a children's hospital named after Dr. Arthur Childrens. The hospital sporadically (and usually without reason) is mentioned as being located within Brazil despite making virtually no effort to conceal that the series is shot in Los Angeles, California , except for the fifth season, which
1880-638: The show's run, eventually joining the main cast for the fifth season. The show ran for seven seasons; its final episode aired on April 15, 2016. Childrens Hospital is a product of TheWB.com. Its webisodes are about 10–12 minutes long, each narrated by mainly Dr. Cat Black ( Lake Bell ) in Season 1, and by Dr. Valerie Flame ( Malin Åkerman ) in Season 2. The show mocks such medical dramas as St. Elsewhere , House , Grey's Anatomy , General Hospital , Private Practice , Chicago Hope , ER , Scrubs , and Holby City . Though Comedy Central made
1927-538: The sustained black comic novel." The motive for applying the label black humorist to the writers cited above is that they have written novels, poems, stories, plays, and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner. Comedians like Lenny Bruce , who since the late 1950s have been labeled as using " sick comedy " by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy". Sigmund Freud , in his 1927 essay Humour ( Der Humor ), although not mentioning 'black humour' specifically, cites
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1974-439: The term for his 1940 book Anthology of Black Humor ( Anthologie de l'humour noir ), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor (particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1710), and in a few aphorisms ). In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including both examples in which
2021-403: The wit arises from a victim with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) Sade . Among
2068-611: Was famous for such humor, e.g. depicting a boy decorating his bedroom with stolen warning signs including "NO DIVING – POOL EMPTY", "STOP – BRIDGE OUT" and "SPRING CONDEMNED." Black comedy differs from both blue comedy —which focuses more on crude topics such as nudity , sex , and body fluids —and from straightforward obscenity . Whereas the term black comedy is a relatively broad term covering humour relating to many serious subjects, gallows humor tends to be used more specifically in relation to death, or situations that are reminiscent of dying. Black humour can occasionally be related to
2115-454: Was set at an American military base in Japan. Corddry is part of an ensemble cast portraying the hospital's doctors, which also includes Lake Bell , Erinn Hayes , Rob Huebel , Ken Marino and Megan Mullally . Henry Winkler and Malin Åkerman joined the cast starting with the second season as a hospital administrator and a doctor, respectively. Zandy Hartig and Brian Huskey recurred throughout
2162-658: Was the highest-rated television episode of the week from September 22 to September 28, 1997, in front of episodes from Seinfeld (" The Butter Shave ") and the series premiere of Veronica's Closet that aired the same week. the NBC episode was watched by 42.71 million viewers, making it the most watched season premiere of a drama series in television history. It also placed it among the top three most-watched dramas of all time, behind Dallas (" Who Done It ", November 21, 1980) and Magnum, P.I. ("Resolutions", May 1, 1988). The ER episode received mixed reviews from critics, praising
2209-592: Was widespread in middle Europe , from where it was imported to the United States. It is rendered with the German expression Galgenhumor (cynical last words before getting hanged ). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression rire jaune (lit. yellow laughing ), which also has a Germanic equivalent in the Belgian Dutch expression groen lachen (lit. green laughing ). Italian comedian Daniele Luttazzi discussed gallows humour focusing on
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