What is "Happy Violence"?

Violence is explicit in all forms of media nowadays. Sometimes it's a necessary part of the story, intended to show the urgency and reality of the events unfolding (for example, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List). When these films approach dramatic subject matter, violence is a necessary tool to show the stakes of what's going on. But what is "happy violence"? 

To me, "happy violence" is violence, whether it be in TV or film, that is highly stylized and lacks real consequences. In some ways, it is even light-hearted and does not hold the weight of actual violence. It is violent for the sake of being entertaining, and it works. In the 2000 film "American Psycho", the main character is a rich, white-collared serial killer. The film is a dark comedy that features several scenes of Christian Bale committing horrendous acts, but it depicted in a way that we root for him and laugh as he hacks, slashes, and eats people throughout the movie. 

Christian Bale hacks Jared Leto to death in a comedic scene from American Psycho (2000)

I actually enjoy the movie a lot though, but I'm able to see the way they portray violence without any real consequence and it is actually entertaining. Christian Bale is a very handsome and charming character in the movie, so we forgive him for what he's doing. "Happy violence" indeed. 

No stranger to the "happy violence" is Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is one of the most famous and celebrated directors of our time, and he features countless amounts of violent scenes throughout his movies. One of his best films, "Inglorious Basterds", deals with a team of Jewish-American soldiers fighting Nazis in WWII. The movie features many scenes of "happy violence" where Nazis are killed. Now, no sympathy should be granted to Nazis, but it's easy to point out that the violence is meant to be entertaining and comedic. In this scene, a soldier beats a German officer to death while the characters around him cheer and laugh. A great scene nonetheless, but an example of Tarantino's stylized "happy violence". 

In the final act, They even kill Hitler in one of the funniest scenes of the movie. He is repeatedly shot in the face and while it is very graphic, we don't care because it is Hitler being killed.