Reason For Dark Humor

I have a joke for you. Shouldn’t we be waiting until after the virus runs its course to do the 2020 census? Now before you boo me and write a nasty comment, the above is an example of dark, graveyard or gallows humor. I want to tell a story. But it’s a sad story and has the potential to be a graphic one. I don’t want to go into too much detail or it might be something you may not want to read. And I want you to come back and read this blog. So I’ll be a little vague. I was in a large fighting position in Central America. I was in the middle of a firefight along with 14 other guys. The fight was getting intense. Beside the bullets coming in, the enemy was using RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades) and mortar. These guys were idiots or they had idiot commanders. Their tactics were not very good at the least. They also did not understand how mortar works and how to use it effectively, thank goodness. But it was random so that was pretty scary. One of my good friends was in the position next to me about 3 yards away. He was hit by enemy fire in the neck. I tried to stop the bleeding and the medic tried to stop the bleeding but the wound was too much. He died right there at my feet. It was a horrible experience and it adds to the other trauma I went through those few days. When we finally got out of that situation and back to a safe place I was making some jokes that someone who had not experienced something like that would not have found humorous. This is a defense mechanism that is used by military members who have seen combat and others. Law Enforcement often deal with this too. Firefighters and EMS do this also. Joking about death and destruction is dealing with having seen things that are difficult to process. Dead baby jokes and sometimes vulgar jokes are common. I won’t tell vulgar jokes so all I have left is dark, tacky humor. Talking about death in a flippant way minimizes the pain and loss that death has given you. Even Joseph Stalin famous Marxist understood (he killed enough people…). He said: “Dark humor is like food; not everybody gets it.” It’s even in pop culture. When the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” came out I remember a particular line. After looking in “The well of the souls” and seeing it filled with snakes, Indiana Jones’ friend Sallah says: “Asps! Very dangerous! You go first.” This is defined as a comic style that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. If we can joke about something, it makes it less threatening in our minds. This type of humor is all over the place, but for those who don’t deal in life or death situations, they don’t quite get it or appreciate it. After talking with a buddy of mine and discussing some past firefight my friend’s wife said to him: “You guys are sure morbid. You sound like members of the mafia!” He just laughed. When he told me what his wife said I told him we should start a business: Make Me Laugh funeral services. We put the fun in funeral! Stay sane out there. Stay healthy. Semper Paratus Check 6 Burn