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Love your videos Bass. One theory psychologists have about humor is that its a social emotion designed to communicate "that surprising thing? It's cool, no need for alarm". This is why people can get upset if a sacred cow is attacked, they think it's not funny but serious, and resent people attempting to communicate otherwise.

An amazing thing follows from this. True comic artists who have something to say can get past our psychological defences with humor. George Carlin was a master of this.

Billy Wilder did both comedy and drama masterfully. nothing was spared. In The Apartment he gave us some of the best bedroom farce comedy ever and then turned right around and hit us with tyranny, cruelty, loneliness and suicide - all borne out of the same setup. In Stalag 17 he gave us two of the best comic characters since Laurel and Hardy, but he never spared us from the reality of their existence as prisoners of war inside a barracks at war.

I can’t think of any modern filmmaker who has that range. we seem to have to choose between concocted melodramas and preposterous comedies these days. or worse - romcoms.

But if anyone has any recommendations for recent films that combine comedy and drama I’m all ears…

You say, "Comedy distances you from reality." In a sense that's true. But of course many things can distance us from reality: alcohol, propriety, daydreaming, screenwriting. My experience is that great humor makes me feel most alive, most in the moment. I can laugh at someone slipping on a banana peel, or moan along with them -- two different responses -- but laughing doesn't distance me from it. In a sense it makes me more engaged; it certainly makes it more memorable. Perhaps you mean by "distances us" that it allows us to feel more safe. Whereas when we're solemn the point is to suffer along with everyone else, as a way to communicate our understanding and grief.