 Burn After Reading's absurdity borders upon caricature, giving the film its comical categorisation.The Coen Brothers fixates on the comedy of fools, focusing predominantly on characters that are dumbed down for comedic effect, it reflects their stylistic intentions to explore a somewhat exaggerated reality.Burn After Reading takes the characters clownish behaviour and punishes them with dark penalties, which underpins the narrative with a dark undertone, an attribute common throughout the Coen Brothers’ filmography which deals with screwball-farce conventions.