Critics tend to consider art cinema a serious and challenging form of cinema. Nevertheless, contemporary Nordic art cinema includes many films by internationally recognized art film directors that frequently use (dark) comedy as an expressive mode. The article demonstrates how the art cinema of seriousness and challenge can blend with comedy. First, the concept of the art cinema is outlined with an emphasis on the films’ challenging style, ambiguity, and seriousness. Second, approaches to humor are presented and it is shown how art film comedy challenges several premises of comedy. Then follows analyses of three films: Lars von Triers The Boss of It All (2006), Ruben Östlunds Force Majeure (2014) and Grímur Hákanarson Rams (2015). These films are comic, but they are so in various, ambiguous, and challenging ways as they both violate generic expectations.