I read an article a while back which suggested that the people who write all this supposedly "dark" comedy are dark types themselves: cynical, miserable old goths who see the world as an awful place, while those responsible for My Family or Last of the Summer Wine skip through meadows singing about how wonderful life is before falling backwards, giggling, arms flailing, into a village pond. My experience is different.

Peter Baynham at the Guardian, on black humour.