Why Are Funny Ghosts So Hot Right Now?

Since the ’90s, we’ve been obsessed with seeing supernatural dramas play out on television. Everybody loves watching a mortal teen fall in love with a centuries-old brooding vampire, but lately, another otherworldly presence has been dominating our favorite new shows. Ghosts are the new big thing, and they seem to be just getting started, as different series roll out their takes on these incorporeal creatures. While they were once seen as spooky specters onscreen, the trend of ghost comedy has been picking up recently. What makes this niche genre so primed for sitcoms?

Although vampires and witches have had their place in TV for decades with characters like the tall dark and handsome Angel (David Boreanez) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Halliwell sisters from Charmed, Ghosts aren’t exactly new to the scene either. The ghost craze started to take off in the 2000s with a paranormal sub-genre of reality TV that featured people exploring hauntings in shows like Fear or Ghost Hunters. These series relied on crafting reality television while using traditional horror film storytelling.

RELATED: 10 Paranormal TV Shows to Watch that Will Creep You Out

In the last decade, ghosts began to play a role in the classic supernatural dramas that took television by storm. Series like Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, which launched with the story of a house full of murdered spirits, brought ghosts center stage. The series went on to feature ghosts heavily, unpacking the tragic circumstances that led each group of ghouls to be trapped forever under the same roof. Shows like Being Human introduced a less dark version of ghosthood with Sally (Meaghan Rath), a recently deceased woman who explores the ups and downs of being undead with her werewolf and vampire roommates. While the series still featured plenty of tragic death and was a far cry from a comedy, it had a lot of ghostly camp that future shows have begun to build on. To see how the portrayal of ghosts in television has shifted from creepy to comical, let’s take a look at some recent comedies featuring our new favorite phantasms.

Ghosts

With a similar premise to American Horror Story, Ghosts has an entirely different take on what life would be like in a haunted house. With a huge cast of characters, the story follows Samantha (Rose McIver), who moves into a derelict estate she inherited with her husband, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar). After a near-death experience, she discovers she can see ghosts and finds her new home is packed with the souls of people who have died on the property. Unlike its predecessors, the deaths that landed the ghosts in their permanent home are more funny than scary (e.g. a camp counselor shot with an arrow and a flower-power stoner who was mauled by a bear).

Instead of selling the house and running for the hills, Sam and Jay decide to take advantage of their situation, turning the house into a bed and breakfast. While the ghosts do cause the couple trouble from time to time, they are far from a malevolent presence in the house. The way ghosts are written in this show is pretty standard, they can’t be seen or heard by living people (aside from Sam), but they do each have a special power that is linked to the traditional tropes from the horror genre (making lights flicker, moving objects, etc.) and they use this premise to get into plenty of comical situations where the ghosts use their abilities to help Sam and Jay run a successful business, and the “livings” help the ghosts get closure in return.

Boo, Bitch

Lana Condor stars in this miniseries as Erika, a high school senior who is trying to make a name for herself before graduation. When she and her best friend wake up from a night out, they discover a body crushed underneath a moose, wearing Erika’s shoes. She concludes that she has died and become a ghost, and sets out on a quest to finish any unfinished business she has, so she can move on to the other side. The twist in this show is that Erika can still be seen and interact with the living, so she goes on attending school with a new attitude, determined to become popular. This series uses death to explore the evergreen themes of teen angst and high school drama with plenty of levity.

Not Dead Yet

This series takes a campy approach to the same concept as Ghost Whisperer. Just as Jennifer Love Hewitt used her ability to see ghosts to help any lost souls she came across cross over, Gina Rodriguez does the same in Not Dead Yet. Nell (Rodriguez), is a washed-up journalist who has just moved back to California from London after giving up her promising career at a local paper to follow a man. As she tries to get her life back on track as an obituary writer at the paper, she discovers there’s more to the job than she expected. With each obituary she writes, she encounters the ghost of her subject. As she helps the spirits find closure through her writing she also deals with work politics and trying to rebuild old friendships. With an all-star cast of actors from some of the most popular sitcoms of the past decade, there is plenty to laugh at in this series.

So, why have ghosts become so funny lately? Like all monsters in media, ghosts are metaphors for the human condition. Like vampires, they were once human and provide lots of relatable struggles as they attempt to find closure and move on from their human lives. Without the blood thirst that many other creatures have, ghosts are pretty easy to market as harmless, campy creatures that offer lots of witty commentary that most of the living characters can’t hear. The ability to talk to someone that no one else can see or hear is rife with possibility for hilarious situations, but more importantly, the ghosts in these shows help the protagonists reflect on their own life and the struggles we all face with some much-needed comic relief.