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Top Comments: Notebook #79: In (partial) defense of "gallows humor" [1]
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Date: 2023-06-23
I have a joke for you.
Q: What’s the weather like for today? A: Two inches of snow and six inches of space shuttle.
I have an attraction for the macabre and the grotesque so, to be honest, I didn’t find the joke, itself, distasteful as I heard it. I did find the timing of the joke to be a bit...off.
I will never forget when I first heard this joke: January 29, 1986 at around 10 am: the day after the the space shuttle Challenger exploded upon liftoff. I had just rode the escalator up at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City and I heard the joke from the two guys that were behind me on the escalator.
It’s too soon for this, I thought.
So when I read and/or hear jokes about, for example, the implosion of the Ocean Gate’s submersible Titan, I have a strong stomach for those jokes, in light of that experience.
I’ve also read a little bit of the scholarship about “gallows humor” or black comedy, so at times like these, I even expect some gallows humor.
What I don’t have much of a tolerance for is the lecturing and hectoring from on high.
Peter Suciu/Forbes
Did you hear the one about Ocean Gate's 'Titan' submersible? Chances are if you've been on social media at all this week you've seen at least a few jokes that are in very bad taste—none of which are truly worth repeating. Likewise, comments made by people continue to go lower than ever—such as those who thought it was funny to suggest pop singer Bebe Rexha was hit by an "eye phone" during her performance in New York City on Sunday after a fan threw his mobile device at her. It was hardly a joking matter, but clearly, there were plenty who feel that the comment section on various news sites is the place to try out new material for their future stand-up careers. The sad part is that many people think these jokes "landed."
Had Mr. Suciu studied any of the scholarship on this subject? Does he even know that “gallows humor” began to receive extensive scholarly study because of The Holocaust?
I can gloss over that; maybe Mr. Suciu doesn't know about the studies but what I can’t gloss over is that Mr. Suciu seems to feel as if social media is at the root of these utterly evil jokes.
Humor has always been subjective, especially following a tragedy, but in the social media era, such ill-timed jokes aren't just in bad taste, they can be truly hurtful. "Humor that has been in questionable taste has been around forever—and today many may cringe at the jokes made by the comedians in the 50's and early 60's. There were the Borscht Belt comedians that were vulgar and made fun of themselves and their families, friends and neighbors or the early TV comedians that nowadays would seem like they were making racist jokes," said Susan Schreiner, technology industry analyst at C4 Trends. "Despite the crudeness of the joke—there was still a kindness of spirit," Schreiner continued.
Really?
That Challenger joke is from a pre-internet time.
Knowing that human behavior hasn’t really changed all that much over the millennia I had a thought: Why...I’d be willing to bet that people made humor out of the sinking of the Titanic back when it happened in 1912.
Hmph. Didn’t even have to look hard for jokes and “gallows humor” about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
More on what I found after I tell you who we are and what we do here at Top Comments.
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One of the first GoogleBoomTube hits that I came across was a 2019 essay titled “Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?” by a Professor Jan Chovanec of Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.
In it, Mr. Chovanec translates Titanic gallows humor published only 13 days after the sinking of the Titanic by Jaroslav Hašek, the world-famous satirist best known for his unfinished satirical novel The Good Soldier Švejk.
I could tell you, my editor friend Pelant, about the disaster of the Titanic.But you may have read it in the Právo lidu newspaper, where the chaplain Josef Ptáček explained the matter to a girl from the fifth grade of the basic school in Hostivice. He said that two big ships made a bet about which one would get to America first. One of them hit an iceberg and sank because they [the passengers] were not praying on its board throughout the voyage.They did so only when the ship was sinking but God punished them, it was too late and of no use to them and they all drowned. I also have an opinion on this matter. The iceberg prayed and so nothing happened to it. Personally, I know another case illustrative of what mild religious feelings can lead to….(Jaroslav Hašek, A letter from Prague, Vršovice 28. IV. 1912; Source:A Gallery of Caricatures)
There were also editorial cartoons published at the time
“Hey man, what are you doing on that iceberg?”
Photographer for a biograph:“I’m waiting for some new disaster. With that “Titania”, we missed the chance to make quite some money…” I then found this amazing Twitter thread from 2021 with Titanic jokes that someone in the comment thread called “sick burns” I’ll allow you to be judge. Do take note of the dates.
This is satire but it was true then and it is true now.
So...sure, “gallows humor” is usually distasteful and sometimes even goes over the decency lines (that mermaid joke). But it is long established that black humor is something that we do as a people and there is not much anyone of us can do about.
And I don’t think that I even want to.
Comments below the fold.
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