I don’t know quite what got me thinking about it, but I wonder about its relationship to pain and suffering. I remember hearing in passing before that it was a thing among holocaust survivors, which is an extreme example, but shows how it can arise as a coping mechanism.
Liberal me would probably say that outside of such extreme circumstances, dark humor is just a sort of humor preference and doesn’t necessarily mean anything on its own. But I’m not so sure about that in reevaluating it.
Is it ever “just humor”? Or is dark humor specifically tied to pain? Should it be taken as a kind of canary in a coal mine sign of suffering in people, even when they otherwise act fine on the surface?
The amount of times I have seen different sets of Jewish high school kids make holocaust jokes, shows not only that Holocaust trauma is generational, but also that dark humor is being used for trauma.
Humor, dark or otherwise, is a very common form of coping mechanism. I myself have resorted to general humor and more specifically dark humor in order to cope with heavier topics.
its great actually and i think more people should use it. it actually enables people to have serious conversations more easily
