Dark Star is not supposed to be a 'Comedy' at all.

Correction. I meant to say, if you want quality humor, then watch Zucker brother's "Naked Gun", not "Naked Lunch", LOL. In fact now that I accidentally mentioned William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, LOL. I'd say that Dark Star, and in fact all of Carpenter's films are more like Burroughs' Naked Lunch, then any comedies at all. Which is actually a good thing. There is a time to be funny, and there is a time to be serious. Why should you try to be funny, if the message you are trying to give is far more deeper and eerie? I think that Jonhn Carpenter was well aware of this, and I don't think that it was Carpenter who was trying to make this funny at all, I think it was more Dan O'Bannon. However, what my understanding was, that Dan O'Bannon realized that after the audiences were not exactly "Laughing" during Dark Star (at least not for the comedy reasons), he realized that perhaps he shouldn't try to be funny, as not everybody exactly has the same sense of humor, like for instance one Mel Brooks, hence, not everybody should try to write comedy if that is not their strong point. However, O'Banon quickly realized that comedy was not his bliss, and that in fact the audiences were more freaked out by Dark Star in a weird kind of a way, then humorized. So Dan O'Banon rewrote Dark Star as a Horror Sci-Fi for a much bigger budget, and named it "Alien", with which he made a far more clearer effect.

There were very definite comedic elements to Dark Star but also a lot of depth and metaphors. I think it does the movie an injustice to completely deny that elements of it were intentionally comedic. The direct quote of Hal from Kubrick's 2001 is evidence enough ("just a moment").

It is definitely intended to be a comedy/satire regarding technology and people. The characters in the film are essentially flying a Death Star (Dark Star, get it?) through space and blowing up planets...but they do so with all the disinterest of a janitor punching his card and doing everything in his power to do the bare minimum. There is also a dual commentary regarding how quickly people become inured to AMAZING technological advances, and also how these advances aren't quite as AMAZING as our fore bearers imagined they would be.

I think these are all funny observations, but the film rarely pulls them off very well. 10 years later, Terry Gilliam pulls off all these themes and more in the very dense Brazil which is very entertaining. Of course, Terry Gilliam was a seasoned writer/director at this point and not a coupla film students on a shoestring budget.

I think people that like this film, like it more for the concept than the execution, it's cult status, and the fact that it's an interesting look into the start of the career of two film icons.

Oh, and the fight with the vegetable-alien/elevator shaft sequence really tried my patience. So much padding. I think the runtime of this movie would have been 30 minutes without that bit that had already made it's point in the first 2 minutes and did not effect the remainder of the movie...

It's more like anti-comedy.

The version I saw came with streaming text before the film written by O'bannon in which he states explicitly that they intended it to be a comedy

If you thought Naked Lunch is funny, your humor is questionable

"Worry about your sword, his sword and nothing else"

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Dunno about it not being a comedy --sure seems to have a number of comedic scenes & elements-- but I do know that something about the voice of Commander Powell has always given me the serious willies. In fact, the first time I saw the movie I had nightmares about that voice for a week. I remember feeling like such a dork, because very, very few things I read or see give me nightmares...& I've been a major fan of horror books & movies since I was a little kid. To get 'em from such a quirky, campy film seemed absurd. Then I watch it again & as soon as Powell speaks the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. If the frozen dead did speak, they'd sound exactly like that.
*Brrrrrrr*