black comedy

noun

comedy that employs morbid, gloomy, grotesque, or calamitous situations in its plot.

Origin of black comedy

First recorded in 1965–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

first recorded 1961, from black (adj.) in a figurative sense of "morbid;" cf. French pièce noire. In a racial sense, from 1921.