That’s not how these things work, if anything, the more serious an event is, the more that thing is going to be what people make jokes and memes about, to dampen the stress of the situation if nothing else. I’m not sure there’s actually such a thing as an event so serious that nobody makes jokes about it.
I heard a couple of comedians make jokes about the 787 Air India crash like two days after it happened.
They didn’t get any laughs, and even got a few mutters from the audience.
They said something like, “the plane crashed while taking off from Ahmedabad. Maybe it should be ‘Ah-plane-is-bad.’” Or maybe, “Ah-made-a-bad-plane.” I can’t remember. Crickets.
(Inside I wanted to tell them that the Boeing 787 has one of the best safety records of any commercial airliner. It’s not a bad plane. But obviously that isn’t funny either. And heckling is shitty.)
Then they said, “Miraculously one man survived. He walked off the plane, over to an ambulance, pointed back at the wreckage and said, ‘Do NOT go in there!’”
This got a few chuckles, but it was clearly uncomfortable.
I’m not sure how we know as a group what is okay and what isn’t okay to laugh about. But usually I argue humor is a good coping mechanism.
That’s not how these things work, if anything, the more serious an event is, the more that thing is going to be what people make jokes and memes about, to dampen the stress of the situation if nothing else. I’m not sure there’s actually such a thing as an event so serious that nobody makes jokes about it.
I heard a couple of comedians make jokes about the 787 Air India crash like two days after it happened.
They didn’t get any laughs, and even got a few mutters from the audience.
They said something like, “the plane crashed while taking off from Ahmedabad. Maybe it should be ‘Ah-plane-is-bad.’” Or maybe, “Ah-made-a-bad-plane.” I can’t remember. Crickets.
(Inside I wanted to tell them that the Boeing 787 has one of the best safety records of any commercial airliner. It’s not a bad plane. But obviously that isn’t funny either. And heckling is shitty.)
Then they said, “Miraculously one man survived. He walked off the plane, over to an ambulance, pointed back at the wreckage and said, ‘Do NOT go in there!’”
This got a few chuckles, but it was clearly uncomfortable.
I’m not sure how we know as a group what is okay and what isn’t okay to laugh about. But usually I argue humor is a good coping mechanism.