An insight on Dark Humor

By: Annum Shehryar

The perception of humor or anything that you would find amusing would definitely be subjective and individualistic as the spectrum of humor ranges according to one’s age, race, ethnicity, culture and mentality. We all have different views of humor in one way or another. It is judged by either content or subject matter, time or place. What led me to discuss this topic was on how often dark humor and jokes go unnoticed, especially on social media. It is definitely not a rare sight to witness different accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and twitter which are created for the sole purpose of posting memes or different kinds of content which perpetuate dark jokes and satire humor which is not everyone’s cup of tea.

[DISCLAIMER] [TRIGGER WARNINGS!!]

(The following content will touch on sensitive topics such as discrimination, trauma, s*icide, physical and mental abuse etc, so please do read with caution)

Dark humor, also called dark comedy, derives into dark places that might make people feel uncomfortable and some might think are too serious to talk about. It is a ‘’comic style that makes light of subject matter that could generally be considered as taboo’’. It deals with controversial topics and could be offensive to many. Why do people have such twisted and dark sense of humor? Why do they play around with the most serious events, issues and topics? Are they a bad person if they have such sense of humor?

While I was speculating about the reasons on why humor is used in a seemingly inappropriate situation, some of us would believe that it is used to reduce anxiety and stress. This could be debatable but dark humor might be an equally viable method of anxiety reduction in dire situations that are out of the person’s control or make them feel hopeless. A psychology professor at Grinnell College, had researched on dark humor and found reports on the advantages of this kind of humor. Reports had said that humor is self medication when stress threatens you, laughing produces endorphins which help to elevate our mood and increase our ability to control whatever situation we may be dealing with. We would deliberately poke fun at the very things that terrify us. Research also shows that liking dark humor may not necessarily mean that you are a sick and demented person, it typically means that you are coping with your anxiety, it is a coping mechanism. Finding the light hearted side of a bad situation would require dark humor. There is a quote;

‘’Offensive humor is looking at all the wrong in the world. All the bad things and in a state of defiance we point and take a good long laugh’’

For those people who have suffered childhood trauma, abuse of any kind, depression, anxiety etc they would find ways to cope by turning these into a joke to lighten the cruelty of these situations. For these people, laughing on their own traumas and joking about it is a defense mechanism and could make them feel better than to just stay a prisoner in their own self depreciating thoughts and take whatever they have suffered very seriously to the point that they could even lose their sense of humor, even if it is dark. In some situations, those people who condemn those with a dark sense of humor, could or are actually not nice to people themselves. It all depends from person to person. Not all people with dark sense of humor are actually bad, but there is an extent to making such jokes and here are the points which cannot be crossed as it is absolutely unethical and very harmful for others.

First of all, mockery is the lowest form of laughter, no matter how delightful it is, it leaves the targeted person or a community in ruins. Anyone who mocks others do it to dehumanize them and degrade them, this is not dark humor at all, it is disrespectful and shameful. Secondly, r*pe jokes are either mocking victims or openly admitting that you think like a r*pist. People can joke about their own trauma as a coping mechanism but not on someone else’s. This just shows how much you lack empathy for others and how insensitive you are as a person. I have seen many people on twitter comment racist, homophobic, sexist and Islamophobic jokes and they justify their sayings by mentioning that it is ‘’dark humor’’ and how those who are offended are sensitive people who cannot take a joke. Making such comments which purposefully harm and demoralize those targeted people or a community is never funny because you are invalidating their beliefs, thoughts and emotions. You are treating them like they have no significance and do not deserve respect. Also, joking on disabilities when you simply do not have one is also not okay, you are making them feel as if they are not ‘’normal’’, which could lead them to self-pity and making them blame themselves as if their disabilities are their fault. Making these jokes should never be an excuse to be openly callous, cruel, narrow minded, insensitive etc.

Dark humor falls into a certain criteria on which it can be labelled as so but we have to be very mindful on the kind of audience we have and in what place and time we make the joke. One should always be considerate of the other person’s feelings and remember that their sense of humor would not be appropriate for everyone.