I didn't get that either. One of the delightful qualities is that it is a dark comedy.

took the words right out of my mouth

You, sir, are a pansy.

Violence can be funny...Cannibal! the Musical and the Sam Peckinpah sketch from MP's Flying Circus come to mind.
I don't think the earbiting thing was necessarily out of character. But then I also don't think Lebowski was all that funny. *shrug* I don't dislike 'dry' comedy, some of my favorite comedies are Woody Allen's early work, but TBL did absolutely nothing for me.
So if I had found the rest of the movie funny, I might have found the earbiting funny as well.

LOF***in'L!

Apparently the term "Black Comedy" is unknown to some (and I'm not talking about Soul Plane).

John Goodman fighting the Nihilists is one of the best parts of the movie. When he launches the bowling ball into Flea's gut/chest, I lose it every time. Him biting the ear off of Peter Stormare's adds to the character's lunacy, which is funny.

*shrug* Didn't find it funny. There were some funny bits in it, and I do like John Goodman and Steve Buscemi; Goodman's character was frightening/funny because he was so intense. But the movie as a whole left me underwhelmed, and while I can see Star Trek conventions or whatnot, I can't understand why this movie has such appeal.
Granted, Wikipedia may not be the end-all source, but there are quite a few films listed under the entry for "black comedy" that I do like...Brazil, the 'burbs, Dr Strangelove of course. There are some on that list I didn't care for--I turned off Royal Tenenbaums twenty minutes in, and American Psycho did nothing for me. I would have like Death to Smoochy but while I'm not averse to language, the language in it was entirely gratuitous and overboard [yes, I know, that's part of the "comedy", but it was overkill to me.]

this post made me sad. A know a great many people who didn't see or like or understand the humor in Fargo, but it seems obvious to me that most of the movie is played for laughs.

I think the toe thing was more disturbing than the ear biting, personally.

And I don't think Fargo is a comedy either.

Problem is, they are very different types of movies. Very Bad Things is a dark comedy from the get-go. Lebowski can be viewed as a straight ahead comedy and I can see the ear biting coming out of left field to people unfamiliar to the Coen's style.

To me, Fargo is a drama. People think its a comedy because of the way the people talk, but that's how they really talk in real life, and once I got past that, I wiped that stoopid grin off my face.

The whole concept of "Fargo" lends itself to a drama - the plot involves a car salesman who's apparently in over his head (although we're not told how or why, other than the fact that he's stupid), and has his lovely and supportive wife kidnapped for a ransom. (funny?) You have two sophisticated hit men assigned to the task who talk "normal," but have funny repartee with one another (amusing, but not hysterical), with the end result being: #1: death; #2: imprisonment; #3: bewilderment (Margie didn't understand the whole thing). I don't even see this as a dark comedy - its a regular drama...William H Macy's agonizing cry of frustration when the cops find him in the motel cinches that for me.

As far as Lebowski - I did find the majority of the film funny (I noted earlier the ashes blowing against the wind)...but the vagrant violence Goodman displayed took all the laughs out of it. If I was in a fight with somebody, I would never want or do what Goodman did - that just brings everything to a whole new level. If you find it funny...then maybe you wouldn't think twice about doing the same thing?

FARGO = DRAMEDY..which is more closer to real life than balls out comedies or straight dramas. I even discussd this with my friend about the movie INSOMNIA (just as an example out of thin air thats all) I posed that in real life even in miserable situations there is usually someone cracking a joke or making light banter. I wish there were more movies like FARGO in tone that mixes up these elements.

Yeah, that's logical math. I think it's funny when Cameron Diaz styles her hair with spunk, so I guess I just found a cheap way to look stylish, huh?

My comment was definitely a cheap shot. Shorry.

I don't understand why you can't just say "certain elements of comedy aren't for me," rather than "this empirically isn't funny."

Clearly it's a situation of feel, since you personally are fine with a bad guy going off a cliff in a car but not getting his ear bitten off.

I guess its definitely a situation of feel (whatever that means), as a guy getting his ear bitten off is very personal, while going down a cliff in a car is surreal (since Bill Murray wasn't hurt from it).

That's like saying Cheech and Chong movies aren't comedies, because stoners really talk like that.

I thought it was funny when Tyson bit off Holyfield's ear and that wasn't even a movie.

Why can't you just say these movies don't appeal to you for one reason or another, instead of insinuating that people who actually find them funny are somehow violence-hungry fiends? People have different ideas of what is funny, and while I'm tempted to say you are just ignorant for not seeing the humor in Fargo and Big Lebowski, (beyond the most on-the-nose physical comedy aspects), I won't, because I don't think you are ignorant; I think you just have different tastes.

"You're out of your element Donnie!"

Fargo is a comedy. The accents have nothing to do with why it's a comedy. Repeat...Fargo is a comedy.

Correction: the accents have very little to do with why it's a comedy. The hilarious actions of the characters in the film are what make it a comedy; that they do so with Northern Midwest accents is just icing on the cake.

I agree with FinkPish in that you're being too judgemental. You're taking what is essentially something that's subjective and internal (whether one finds certain violence in comedies to be funny) and trying to objectify and externalizing it by saying that the "problem" is with the film itself.

In reality, there is not "problem," either with the film or with yourself. There's just differing tastes. By the response of many on this thread as well as the general critical response to the film, there's nothing "wrong" with the violence displayed in the Big Lebowski, as many did actually find it amusing, or at the least not deterring to the film overall.

How is Fargo a comedy? I may be very judgmental on the eating of ears in comedy films, and that's up for opinion, but I honestly don't see anything humorous in "Fargo." Guess that's fodder for another thread.