Take Dokuro-chan, replace the sex with more violence, add jokes from the kind Sunred made: that is the recipy for Punie-chan (Dai Mahou Touge). Jokes, actually, were ok to great — in particular I remember the suiciding potato man — but I started skipping the rest before the first episode ran out and barely dragged myself to the place where the two little bitches from Don's banner appeared. They are not even as interesting as Sabato-chan. This may be "one of the better examples of animated black humor", but it's not good enough.

BTW, Steven selected the same screencap.

UPDATE: Steven commented. I agree about different strokes for different folks, although I don't know why he ascribed me the thought that "the comedy in Gurren-Lagann was overwhelmingly funny". I scanned quickly through my category and saw no evidence of such position. Gurren-Lagann is not even a comedy to begin with; its comedy, such as it includes, is quite solid (see Yoko's jealosy on the beach), but I don't think it characterizes the show. I understand that he was looking for an example that went counter Punie-chan between us. Perhaps Azumanga would work better.

In general I'm too picky when it comes to comedy. The only comedy series that I enjoyed recently was Muteki Kanban Musume (aka RFM). And even that required a certain frame of mind courtesy of Jason Miao. Sometimes I rewatch it and yawn at Miki's antics.

This is not to say that I rejected Dai Mahou Touge undeservedly. Its humour is not just "dark", it's nasty, and characters are the same. That's the main issue here.

P.S. Since we're at it, here's what a dark humour should be:

   Дедушка в поле гранату нашел,
   с этой гранатой к райкому пришел.
   Дернул колечко, бросил в окно...
   Дедушка старый, ему все равно. [tr]

The Grandpa's self-sacrifice is none worse than potato man's: it's somewhat cheapened by having less to lose ("Grandpa is old, it's all the same to him"), but he presumably killed a few communists and so made the world a better place. The potato man made the world a better place by inspiring the other vegetables, thus making the curry a success.

UPDATE 2009/09/25: Compendium and review at Wakaranai.