Directors going outside their 'comfort zone'....

[Hammock Rider]

Hitchcock did a comedy called The Trouble with Harry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sG_tQ_t5dw

[zombie no.one]

hah, didn't know hitchcock had done a comedy - although that one does appear to revolve around a dead body!

although I've heard PSYCHO is supposed to be a black comedy as well...

[FatFreddysCat]

First one that came to my mind...

Stuart "Re-Animator" Gordon and Brian "Society" Yuzna co-wrote the family friendly Disney flick "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," along with sci-fi author/Charles Band associate Ed Naha.

...that always struck me as rather odd. I still wonder how those three managed to get a gig with Disney.

[BoyScoutKevin]

hah, didn't know hitchcock had done a comedy - although that one does appear to revolve around a dead body!

although I've heard PSYCHO is supposed to be a black comedy as well...

Not many do, because on its first release here in the U.S., it is regarded as one of Hitchcock's few boxoffice failures. But it did well in Europe. Playing for an year and a half in France and an year in the U.K. and Italy.

It was also Shirley Maclaine's motion picture debut.

[Pacman000]

Hitchcock did a comedy called The Trouble with Harry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sG_tQ_t5dw

It seems to be a darkly comical, like the intros to his TV show.  Mr. & Mrs Smith, also directed by Hitchcock, is a better example of a Film outside his comfort zone; it's a standard screw-ball comedy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033922/

[Jim H]

I don't know if it's his "comfort zone", but Jack Perez directed Monster Island, 666: The Child and Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus.  Then he did the quite solid low key black comedy Some Guy Who Kills People.  Never would have thought he'd be capable of it.

John Woo, for those who don't know, started off with slapstick and screwball comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHtGp6M3l_Q

[Trevor]

Our good badmovies.org buddy Dr Menard told me that Lucio Fulci had started off writing for comedies.