by Mike Usinger on January 5th, 2021 at 4:37 PM 1 of 2 2 of 2
By definition, black comedy also known as black humor, morbid humor, and gallows humor gets its laughs by finding the funny in the tragic.
Think the collected works of Lenny Bruce, Kurt Vonnegut, or Karl Kraus. Or consider the brilliance of English serial killer William Palmer stepping onto the Stafford Prison gallows in front of 30,000 people, looking at the trap door, and asking the hangman “Are you sure it’s safe?”
It took a bit of stepping back to appreciate the sentiment behind Kellarissa’s “Kensington Carol”. The video is shot in gloriously gothic black and white, that decision bringing to mind the photographs of Shirren Lim, Ansel Adams, and Sally Mann. If you’re looking for a visual encapsulation of Vancouver in November, look no further than the opening frame, where a leafless tree towers in a pre-winter sky.