Making Jokes About Tragedy: Insensitive or Coping Method?

[XXXNoahXXX]

There have been numerous threads during my time on 2+2 making crude jokes about everything from 9/11, the Tsunami in South Asia, the Crocodile Hunter, Corey Lidle, etc. The standard way that these play out is that some jokes and lols follow, a "too soon" joke, and then someone that is truly offended. That is then followed by a barrage of people defending their right to make such jokes.

These defenders of jokes about tragedy often carry a smug sense of superiority (see 9/11 halloween costume thread where he talks about his friends having a "strong" sense of humour to get the joke) as if those of us offended by such jokes are somehow lacking. See how strong they are that they can find such jokes funny and not be crushed under the weight of compassion?

The next argument is that, some people cope through laughter. This is obviously true, especially when family dies, it is often important to laugh about the good times as a means of coping. This arguments fails to hold up, however, when it comes to acts such as Corey Lidle, etc. Not many if any of us were devastated by this.

I just am saddened when I read these threads and think about the families that lost loved ones that haven't even begun the grieve and already there are websites, youtubes, avatars, and joke e-mails soaring across the internet. These jokes are free, and yet I cant help but feel as though people are profiting off the death and pain of others, even if that payment is only as fodder for jokes.

I don't really know what the point of this post is, except to vent about the sad state of affairs that we cannot even give a 24 hour moratorium before making light of tragedy.

How would you feel if you were a surviving family member and came across these jokes before your loved one was even in the ground.

All I'm saying, is I know how anxious many of you can be to be first to post that link to the newest cartoon or game or to write the best "FYP", but just give pause, wait 24 hours, realize that the gleam in your eye as you type that joke was caused by someone's death.


Reminds me of a line from a poem entitled "Black Humor"

Offensively non-offensive
Interesting in it's lack
Boring in it's fretting
- So unfunny

[Dids]

Kinda wishing something bad would happen to you so I could laugh at it.

Also you have 6 x's in your name, that's too many, by about 6.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
Kinda wishing something bad would happen to you so I could laugh at it.

Also you have 6 x's in your name, that's too many, by about 6.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well good thing I held back I was thinking of maybe 8 or 10, or maybe an odd number on one side to annoy people.

Hopefully I die in something related to animals or possibly a flood. I'm guessing those would result in the most amount of easy jokes.

PS- You're fat and disgusting. (It's cool cause you aren't dead. If you were dead I would show you respect. Duh.)

[Scotty.]

In a forum where people crave trainwrecks, demand pictures of every girl a poster has hooked up with (then ruthlessly makes fun of her/him), and the word 'douche' probably appears in over 80% of threads, you are complaining about insensitivity?

You really need to find a new place to go.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
In a forum where people crave trainwrecks, demand pictures of every girl a poster has hooked up with (then ruthlessly makes fun of her/him), and the word 'douche' probably appears in over 80% of threads, you are complaining about insensitivity?

You really need to find a new place to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh. I vented. I'm over it. Now I am eagerly awaiting the next tragedy with the rest of you jackals, fingers poised over my keyboard to get it on here.

I think my strategy will be to hit up BBV real quick with a lol genocideaments or lol preschool shootingments. Then I will shoot over here for a better joke once I have time to think.

[Dids]

I have a hard time caring about stuff that happens to people that I don't know. Some things make me sad, Katrina did, the Tsunami did. Some things don't, Corey Lidle didn't, that was just weird and surreal (which isn't to say I don't recognize them as somehow objectively sad, just that it has no emotional impact on me).

It's not just stuff like that though. I've made fun of how my grandmother talked after her stroke. I don't know if "coping" is the right way to put it, but I find that humor tends to lighten any situation, and generally we can always find something to laugh about, and laughing is fun.

[Golden_Rhino]

It might be a coping thing. I have an uncontrollable urge to laugh at funerals, and I really don't find anything funny about them.

[Blarg]

OOT is full of young guys. Young guys are dicks. Heck, they make a point out of being that way. Later some of them learn there are other ways of being cool, or just being. But most of them won't come to an internet forum for it. Teh net is kind of the place to be your dumbest. So you shouldn't be too surprised.

[hawk59]

You know the guys that always make jokes about everything, but none of them are funny and everyone just gets aggravated and starts to hate them? I think those are the people that make the kinds of jokes you are talking about.

[elus2]

A man walks into a talent agent's office with his family...