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35 Comics Proving That This Artist’s Sense Of Humor Is As Dark As The Icelandic Winters (New Pics)
Comedy is a challenging art to master. The first hurdle is getting people to laugh at all, but the next challenge can be simultaneously making sure you don’t offend anyone or touch on sensitive topics. Well, we can’t always have our cake and eat it too. So if you’re only concerned about having a laugh and don’t mind a little dark humor, we’ve got the perfect article for you!Down below, we’ve gathered some of our favorite cartoons from Icelandic comedian, writer and artist Hugleikur Dagsson. His sense of humor is as dark as an Icelandic winter, so I’ll warn you pandas now, not all of these jokes are for everyone. But if you’re interested in some cartoons that might make you feel a tad bit bad for laughing at them, you’re certainly in for a treat. Be sure to upvote all of your favorite drawings, and then if you’re looking for even more of Dagsson’s work, you can find Bored Panda’s previous article featuring the hilarious artist here.
More info: Instagram | Dagsson.com
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Hugleikur Dagsson is a master of writing, drawing and stand up comedy. He’s published “about 20 books” (according to his website), written 3 plays and 1 animated TV show and tours around performing comedy to audiences who can’t get enough of his dark humor and wit. Although some of these cartoons might make you raise your eyebrows, they are undeniably smart. And we think they’re pretty funny too. (Don't worry, we won't tell anyone you laughed at them too.) Earlier this year, my colleague Ieva wrote an article featuring Dagsson and was able to get in touch with him to discuss his work.
One thing he mentioned was how the personalities of Icelanders are informed and shaped by their country’s landscape, weather and language. “Therefore, we are harsh, unpredictable, and weird. As is our sense of humor,” he said. “Also, we’ve always been a bit desperate as a nation. We are constantly looking for validation from the rest of the world and I feel like that seeps into our comedy,” he explained. “I use comedy to cope with my own problems and the world’s problems alike. It’s very therapeutic to point at the horrors of life and laugh.”
Dagsson also told Bored Panda that a lot of his work comes from the necessity to keep creating. “If I don’t get ideas, I have to get a real job. Luckily, when you’ve been working as an artist for a long time, everything you think about becomes a potential project,” he explained. He noted that often he’ll get inspiration from the most everyday occurrences, like hearing a popular song or seeing a movie poster.
And despite all of the negatives that came from the Covid-19 pandemic, Dagsson was able to use this time to delve deeper into his work. “During the pandemic, I embraced my inner introvert and just started writing and drawing more than usual,” he said. “The timelessness of the lockdown made me think of all sorts of fun things. The one I’m most proud of is a card game called FCK CDL KLL which I created in a cabin in north Iceland. It sounds silly but is actually a very smart game. A real thinker.”
You don't want to know what he did to the jerk who wouldn't put her phone away.
Dagsson is also currently planning a short stand up comedy tour to visit fellow Nordic country Finland. Many artists who enjoy drawing aren’t necessarily eager to get up on a stage in front of people, but Dagsson does it all. In an interview for the Italian website Lo Spazio Bianco (or The White Space), he told Andrea Turel Caccese that the difference between drawing cartoons and doing stand up is that he can do whatever he wants in his drawings. “Because I’m not dependent on an audience reaction like I am on stage,” he explained. “In the cartoons, my characters do the talking. On stage I’m the one doing the talking. I can hide behind my cartoons, but on stage all eyes are on me. So I can’t become as dark on stage. But I try to be as dark as I can get away with up there.”
It's only appropriate that they're gliding towards the ocean (edit: typo... like all of my edits 😏)
Dagsson was also asked if he had received many complaints about his work, due to the nature of his subject matter. “Yes, but not nearly as many as I’d like,” he shared. “My British publishers removed three jokes from one of my books. One was about McDonald’s, one was about Scientology and one was about Muslims. The Muslim one wasn’t Islamophobic at all. It was actually a joke about the stupidity of Islamophobia, but the publishers didn’t want to take any chances. It was pretty soon after the whole Danish cartoonist death threat thingy.” Perhaps Dagsson won't be satisfied until he starts receiving death threats of his own! (Please, don't send him any. That was my own lame attempt at a joke.)
Dagsson also shared what he likes the most and the least about his job with Lo Spazio Bianco. When it comes to the positives, he said, “That I can do what I want. I can basically go for any idea I have as long as it doesn’t cost too much. And doing things cheap has always been my favorite challenge.” And when it comes to what he hates? “Hate is a strong word, but I dislike the attention sometimes. I live in a small country and being recognized in the streets sometimes makes me anxious. But that’s a minor complaint.”
Oh I so want to know what he is doing. I count on you fellow pandas to come up with ideas!
When you first see these cartoons, they might be shocking, as they are a far cry from the comics found in the newspaper on Saturday mornings. But dark humor is extremely popular in many different vessels, so why not use it for drawings too? According to Peter McGraw, co-author of The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, people tend to laugh at things that are “wrong yet okay,” “threatening yet safe,” or what he refers to at his Humor Research Lab, “benign violations”. He also says that dark humor is often used as a coping mechanism. “As for why people pursue dark comedy: there’s what I call the ‘thermostat approach’, in which you’re using a joke to change the temperature in the room (i.e., that you are using comedy to cope).”
Sorry to be the party poop, because it's funny - but wrong on so many levels
He's basically a trained,methodical marksman with deadly aim shooting arrows into random victims
What does that even mean anymore? I feel like it's one more term that's totally misused and covers up real problems.
McGraw also says that people can surprisingly find humor in almost anything. “People’s ability to cope and the value of humor is profound,” he told Gizmodo. “In my first book, The Humor Code, my co-author and I spoke to a Holocaust survivor, who talked about how there were, at times, moments of laughter and levity in her concentration camp. So if the victims of the worst genocide in history were able to cope with that, we should be able to deal with the threat of this virus—as most of the fear, in this situation, has to do with its uncertainty. So, send your friends memes—or check out that romcom that you have been meaning to watch."
The asteroid is going to give you its heart, but the very next day you'll give it away
Alex M. Borgella, an assistant professor of psychology at Fort Lewis College who studies humor, also shared with Gizmodo, “Though it seems even more counterintuitive, dark humor might be an equally viable method of anxiety reduction in dire situations that seem completely hopeless or out of a person’s control. This type of humor is typically found alongside death and destruction—amongst doctors and nurses in hospital ERs and oncology units, soldiers in the trenches during wars, wartime refugees, first responders, and many others—and serves an important, albeit a seemingly callous, function: to keep spirits high, stress low, and maintain a sense of humanity where none seems to exist. The jokes told by folks in these situations might seem inappropriate or even intolerable to an outside observer, but are commonly reported to be integral to the well-being of the humorists themselves."
They say it's not difficult to make splits - it's tricky to get up :P
We hope you’re enjoying these cartoons that are as harsh and as dark as an Icelandic winter. We know they’re not for everyone, but Dagsson said he hasn’t received as many complaints as he would like, so feel free to let us know what you think about his crude humor in the comments. And if you've become a fan of his work while laughing your way through this list, don't forget you can find our previous articles featuring his cartoons right here and here.
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Considering this is Bored Panda there's a surprising amount of uncensored Love Sausage in these comics.
Speaking of naughty Santa, once I was in improv class and the teacher starts a scene by making a circle with one hand and a poking a finger through it while saying “this is how we make toys for Santa!” We all started giggling (becuase you just can’t say that in front of a bunch of teens and not get that reaction) while one of my friends starts singing “ he sees you when you sleeping…” and we were all laughing our asses off ( i mean rolling around on the ground kind of laughing) and the teacher gave us “a moment to get the giggles out” when we couldn’t stop laughing we almost got kicked out of improv. I just realized how unfunny this is but here you go.
Considering this is Bored Panda there's a surprising amount of uncensored Love Sausage in these comics.
Speaking of naughty Santa, once I was in improv class and the teacher starts a scene by making a circle with one hand and a poking a finger through it while saying “this is how we make toys for Santa!” We all started giggling (becuase you just can’t say that in front of a bunch of teens and not get that reaction) while one of my friends starts singing “ he sees you when you sleeping…” and we were all laughing our asses off ( i mean rolling around on the ground kind of laughing) and the teacher gave us “a moment to get the giggles out” when we couldn’t stop laughing we almost got kicked out of improv. I just realized how unfunny this is but here you go.