【Big Think】Gallows humor: The surprising benefits of dark laughter

“In Treblinka, where a day’s food was some stale bread and a cup of rotting soup, one prisoner cautions a fellow inmate against gluttony. ‘Hey Moshe, don’t overeat. Think of us who will have to carry you.’” — Elie Wiesel, Night

These are examples of gallows humor. They take something sacred — in this case, maternal love and the protection of children — and they turn it upside down to embrace some great taboo. Some readers will find them funny. Others will find them repulsive. A few might even be penning a complaint to my editor. Why, then, do some people gravitate to gallows humor? And what can it teach us about the human condition?

One form of gallows humor is the surreal and absurdist acceptance of the pointlessness of it all. A common song that men would sing was, “We’re here, because we’re here, because we’re here, because we’re here.” Long had the young boys and idealistic patriots been disabused of the notions of heroism and nobility. There were no heroes here, only fatalism and death. And, into this, the only power soldiers had left to them was to meet both with a mocking grin.

Most people today do not live with the constant fear of death. Most of us are not the PTSD survivors of warzones, torture rooms, and the fear of death. And yet, people still like sick humor. There’s a large proportion of society who enjoy upending sacred values and laughing at that which will obviously cause offense to people.

I think I gravitate best to the superiority and relief theories, and I suspect Phillip Gibbs might have, too. When we make sick jokes or enjoy gallows humor, we are building up armor. We are venting our fear of the world so that we can return to it calmer.