Dark Humour as a Coping Mechanism - Tanisha Agarwal

Willie Sypher, an American non fiction writer, once said, “To be able to laugh at evil and error means that we have surmounted them”. On a similar note, Laurie Kilmartin, an American comedian, joked in one of her shows, “My 79-year-old mother moved in with me. It is just temporary as she is 79.” How often have comically depressive tweets and quotes like these made you laugh the first time you saw them?

“Dark humour” or “black comedy” is a comedic style where artists discuss topics that are considered to be taboo according to general societal norms. Popular themes in this genre include violence, death, abandonment, human sexuality etc. After the extensive analysis of case studies, psychologists today know why we tend to use these oxymorons to cope with difficult times. In job occupations like police officers, firefighters, military personnel, and funeral directors, dark humour is acknowledged as an acceptable coping mechanism. People in such fields have a daily dose of trauma, so instead of facing the brunt of anxiety and depression head-on, humour deflects the pain into something more manageable. A 2017 study published in the journal Cognitive Psychology concludes that people who appreciate and use dark humour automatically resist negative feelings and replace them with positive ones. They do what they have to for endorphins to be released in their body (1). Sigmund Freud, in his 1927 essay Humour (Der Humour), explains the theory of black comedy, saying that our ego insists that we not get emotionally affected by the suffering in the world and convinces us that these can be used to gain pleasure instead. In a 2017 Washington Post was trying to find out the reason for this disturbing millennial humour and posted the theory that as the economic climate has delayed milestones such as marriage, kids and home ownership, and external sources of meaning such as religion have faded away, life has started to feel unpleasantly rootless, something that is being reflected in a stranger, more chaotic form of comedy. It implied that jokes that juxtapose morbid situations with comical ones underscore the severity of the situation and help maintain positivity. In their initial Psychological Science paper, published in 2010, McGraw and a colleague established that people use dark humour as a healing process when they are unable to accept things the way they are (2). Papers published by the Humour Research Lab suggests that dark humour could be classified as a benign violation or a moral violation which means that it is unsafe. However, since the word “humour” is used, people tend to take it less seriously, thus deeming it “safe”(3). Dark humour also unconsciously gives you a feeling of security that you belong to your in-group, something beyond yourself. In “The Best Medicine: An Exploration of Laughter and Dark Comedy” by Helen Anderson at the Western Washington University, it is said that humour gives people a chance to exclude people who don’t belong to their in-group, as those outside might not understand the dark humour and might find it offensive and insensitive.

Fatalistic memes and dark memes are used by people as an outlet for depressive catharsis, taking over the most popular media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and Buzzfeed. Erika Pages, a doctoral student and teaching assistant in ASU’s social psychology program, said that there seems to be a big generation divide in the use of dark humor as Millenials find it useful and are in favour of normalising such humour, whereas other generations feel that it trivialises and creates a mockery of mental illnesses and other serious matters. This is mostly due to the difference in the way in which recent generations communicate. To express themselves, they need serious topics to be toned down which creates a light, tension-free atmosphere. This decade has been dominated by the sadcom, a strain of comedy-drama shuddering under the weight of personal hardship and the idea that actual jokes are largely unnecessary. Popular shows like “Rick and Morty” and Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman” portray dark humour about the hopelessness of life. New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum described them as portraying “bleakness and joy” in a “teeming, surreal alternative universe.”They believe that when you are completely powerless in a situation, sometimes, humour is all you’ve got.

Stand up comedians also use self-deprecating and dark humour (4). Their jokes are unsettling yet hilarious at the same time, connecting with the majority of the audience. In a paper published by McGraw in 2010, and his colleagues conducted an experiment that proved that people are likely to find jokes that go against their conventional beliefs a lot funnier, provided that it doesn’t trigger them (5). Comedians like Louis CK, Jimmy Carr, Daniel Fernandes are a few comedians whose sets are adorned with inappropriate, offensive and nasty comments on controversial and sensitive issues, but still manage to strike a chord with the audience. Although facing their fair share of backlash from time to time, they are still considered to be some of the most celebrated comedians.

Memes and jokes on one of the biggest tragedies, issues and controversies mankind has ever endured—The Holocaust, on world wars, politics, death abandonment, etc.—have ravaged not only media platforms now, but were also verbally used by people much earlier as well. A classic example that silences everyone as soon as they hear it was by murderer James Donald French. His last words before his death on an electric chair were, “How’s this for a headline? French fries.”

References

(1) Borgella,A.(2020).Why Do We Use Dark Humor to Deal With Terrifying Situations?Gizmodo.

https://gizmodo.com/why-do-we-use-dark-humor-to-deal-with-terrifying-situat-1842611642

(2) Jaffe,E.(2013).Awfully Funny.Association for psychological science.

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/awfully-funny

(3) Kolitz,D.(2020).Why Do We Use Dark Humor to Deal With Terrifying Situations?Gizmodo.

https://gizmodo.com/why-do-we-use-dark-humor-to-deal-with-terrifying-situat-1842611642

(4) Khazan,A.(2014).The Dark Psychology Of Being A Good Comedian.The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/the-dark-psychology-of-being-a-good-comedian/284104/

(5) McGraw,P.(2020).Why Do We Use Dark Humor to Deal With Terrifying Situations?Gizmodo.

https://gizmodo.com/why-do-we-use-dark-humor-to-deal-with-terrifying-situat-1842611642