Dark comedy is a tightrope, and a short film is the perfect length to walk it without falling off. Laugh at the wrong moment and it is honest; laugh at the right one and it is art. These shorts are hand-picked, complete, and free to watch. Funny where it probably should not be.
Leading the laughs is Love Less Likely, which throws together a cursed woman, a mouthy teen, and a pile of dead guys. Love, 9 to 5 hands a freshly dumped bouncer a shift on Valentine's night, and A Smaller Big Bang ends a relationship the way it began, with a bang. A Certain Method lets a struggling actress kill at the audition of her life, literally.
The best dark comedy short films find the joke in grief, awkwardness, and quiet disaster. And Now I Lay Me Down watches a once-famous actress try to stage one perfect day that flatly refuses to cooperate. Every film here was chosen by our editors and streams free in all 193 countries, with no subscription. Press play and laugh at something you probably should not.