The incongruity of horror and comedy that Carroll writes about, this idea that “horror and comedy are not exactly the same” because “we do not always laugh at monsters” but they work together because by definition the theory of incongruity is the “bringing together of disparate or contrasting ideas or concepts” is salient to why these two work so well together. Comedy brings levity to the terror of horror, characters exist for comedic relief to remind the audience that it’s not life or death outside of the screen, but rather a film they’ve attended for enjoyment. Or maybe that’s just my perspective as someone who doesn’t love horror movies.
From the start of The Menu there is clearly something weird going on, but it’s not until the movie gets to the third and fourth courses that you’re kind of like, oh god, I’m in danger, with the movie’s almost singular setting of the dining room making you feel as though you too are eating there. The third course is announced by one of the sous chefs stabbing the head chef Julian Slowik in the thigh with a pair of scissors after revealing that he sexually harassed her. The next course is announced with a sous chef shooting himself in the head. What makes it funny though, is the Chef’s Table-esque meal description that comes onto the screen as if nothing has happened, brazenly saying “RIP Jeremy Louden.”
Another great example is the meal card that comes up after Slowik orders the main character’s date to hang himself in the back, reading plainly, “Tyler’s Bullshit.” The matter-of-fact tone, the incongruity of the straight forwardness of the meal card with the thrilling horror at hand, is what makes this the perfect comedic relief.
I really like your outlook on The Menu! I think that what makes the movie “funny” is Tyler’s behaviour: he admires Chef Slowik so much that he does not even realise that he is in danger, along the other diners. He is so out of touch with reality that when he “disappoints” the chef, he hangs himself.
I completely agree with your highlighting of the meal cards in The Menu as anchors of comedic relief – I thought that they further added to the satirising of the societal groups at play, as they feigned an image of both authority and dry sarcasm at the same time.