What is an anti-romantic comedy?

In any context, anti- means against
or opposite. In this case, it would be the opposite of or that which is against a
romantic comedy. If we know the elements of the romantic comedy genre, we can determine
the features of its antithesis, the anti-romantic comedy.

A
romantic comedy is a love story, generally centered around a series of humorous
circumstances and characters, where love is thwarted through external events and
misunderstandigns but which finally ends happily.  There are plenty of them around in
every form, ranging from Shakespeare's romantic comedies to more modern romantic comedy
movies such as You've Got Mail; While You Were Sleeping; My Big, Fat Greek
Wedding; and Notting Hill.

An anti-romantic
comedy still has to be humorous and it must still have an element of romance; if it did
not, it would not be categorized as it is. So, that leaves two elements which change in
an anti-romantic comedy--how love is thwarted and the happy ending.  Though it is
possible to have a comedic romantic journey without a happy ending, it is not done often
and the elements comprising how love is thwarted are of a specific
nature.

In an anti-romantic comedy, the boy does not get
the girl--or vice versa--but the thwarted love comes from within the character's own
tormented psyches instead of from external influences, misunderstandings and
complications as in romantic comedy. The parting of their ways must seem amicable or
inevitable, but a reflection of reality, in order to satisfy an audience which is
expecting a comedy of sorts.  href="http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-captured/posts/the-basics-modern-romance-turns-the-rom-com-formula-inside-out">Modern
Romance is a filmatic example of an anti-romantic comedy: the hero
is kept from love by his own psychological "issues" and realism.