# Black Humor: I get it but why don't I laugh? Who does? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570 "2005-10-23T22:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/21 "2005-10-24T04:56:32Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > I think that if the situation would have been even more horrific (say, a little girl playing plastic-bag astronaut with her sleeping daddy) it would have been funny, but I don’t know why that is. Might just a human vs. small, cute animal thing. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/22 "2005-10-24T05:05:32Z")
Black humor and gallows humor often go hand in hand. I’ve never found dead baby jokes funny, except once. I had my first visit to the morgue and there was an actual dead baby in it: someone started telling dead baby jokes and they were freakin’ hilarious! But they’ve never been funny before or since. It’s all about being presented with a horrible situation (hopefully happening to someone else) where all you can do is laugh or break down. Because the line’s in a different place for different people you’ll have different reactions to dark humor. That’s my two cents, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/23 "2005-10-24T05:29:40Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > My problem might be that I’m thinking of Of Mice and Men. It adds something to the alleged innocence to think of poor Lenny. The column reminded me of the same thing. Or, more specifically, the many cartoons of the 40’s and 50’s that featured over-sized simpletons based on the character. > [@](#): > > Lenny: I had a li’l friend once, but he don’t move no more. _[holds up a lifeless Screwy Squirrel]_ ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/24 "2005-10-24T07:50:38Z")
When I was working, dark humor got us through the night, but it was, I think, more subtle than the stuff today, or maybe I’m not as “protected” as I had to be then. I do still think Sam Gross’ Cartoon book \*I am Blind and My Dog is Dead \* is awfully funny. The title is a sign around the neck of a blind begger holding out a cup and dragging a dog with its stiff legs in the air. He did a lot of _New Yorker_ cartoons. The little match girl was one of his staples. **lissener** you nailed it. S.Gross’ book has quick and totally unexpected twists. It isn’t something one sees, ever in the real world, but close enough to allow us to laugh. There’s one that is similar the the one from the Onion, but it works so much better. Its a spinster lady ready to go over Lover’s Leap with her cat. No reality allowed. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/25 "2005-10-24T12:05:43Z")
I think the premise of the Onion article is good, but the execution fatally flawed. One problem is that the picture of the little girl is too cute. Read without imagining that particular darling in the photo doing the actions, the piece reads like the actions of an ignorant little thug whose knee-jerkreaction to a disagreeable cat is to attack it, blame the cat for the result, then be too dumb to realize the consequences of their actions. Little innocent, my ass. Also the piece goes on too long, which is a problem with many Onion articles. ---
**Author:** ![lachesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@lachesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lachesis)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/26 "2005-10-24T12:23:39Z")
another vote for “not funny”. i’m not rejecting it because i’m a cat-lover; i’m simply bored by the over-long, no-punchline pointlessness. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/27 "2005-10-24T13:07:05Z")
I thought it was pretty funny. In about the same way as the old car ad where the sun roof chops off the cat’s head. It was funnier in the first paragraph when the cat scratched her, and then when she shook the shelf. But by the end, of course you saw it coming. > [@initech](#): > > Humor tends to come from unexpected juxtaposition, and in this case it’s the fact that this poor girl’s ramblings are formatted as a newspaper column. Take it out of that context, and it loses any semblance of irony or humor. It’s just sad. The unexpected juxtaposition (“incongruity”, if you will) here is the KILLING of a cat being described in a childlike voice. And I found that funny. I find the inclusion in The Onion actually detracts slightly from this piece. That’s because when you’re reading the Onion, you’re in the “mock journalism” mindset. Occasionally they have pieces where you need to divorce yourself from that mindset and just enjoy something as a piece of humor writing – as with this piece. On that level, it worked for me. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/28 "2005-10-24T15:25:25Z")
Black humor isn’t always about making _you_ laugh. It’s about making the person next to you revolted and shocked and you laughing at that. The Onion has had stories before about little girls who innocently play with their dolls but act like coldhearted evil bitches without knowing they’re doing so. The Onion tends to like to point out the sinister side of banality. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/29 "2005-10-24T16:07:26Z")
The premise was presented a lot more artfully, succinctly and humourously in an episode of _Frasier_ in which a male caller is heard tearfully relating the end of his tragic Christmas Day memory: “…and then I said ‘Mommy… the puppy Santa brought me _won’t wake up!_’” It’s not necessary to say explicitly that the caller was responsible for the puppy’s death (I could imagine the parents sealing the puppy up in a gift box, where it promptly suffocated) to get the point across. _The Onion_’s version isn’t particularly offensive - just that the story has been told better elsewhere and long before. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/30 "2005-10-24T17:12:23Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > T. . . _The Onion_’s version isn’t particularly offensive - just that the story has been told better elsewhere and long before. Except that wasn’t the joke. The “joke,” such as it was, was that it was “formatted” as a newspaper column. It’s Andy Kauffman-style “anti”-humor; it’s meta-humor. Admittedly not gonna slay the widest audience, but it wasn’t going for the same kind of “joke” as the Frasier bit was. It was merely about the incongruity of the situation. It’s situational comedy, unlike Frasier, which was sitcom; a whole nother smoke. It would be like setting a pot roast recipe to heavy metal music. Not funny in and of itself, but the “_what the–?_” moment makes some people laugh. Other people (see above), not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/31 "2005-10-24T18:20:52Z")
If it were a joke, perhaps it’d be funnier right up to the part where she shakes the shelf-and bam! it falls on HER, rather than the cat. Then the cat, (who had jumped to safety) sniffs her, meows, and walks away. See, the little brat gets hurt, not the poor, tormented kitty. I’d laugh at that. But this…I dunno, I just wanted the cat to start scratching the bejesus out of her. I know I would, if I were Kitty. ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/32 "2005-10-24T20:23:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Mommy, kitty won’t wake up! I laughed at the stupidity of it all. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/33 "2005-10-24T22:39:51Z")
Another vote for unfunny. But here is some funny Onion black comedy: [http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28812](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28812) > [@](#): > > God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy > ‘No,’ Says God Although it probably went on 4 paragraphs too long. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/34 "2005-10-25T00:28:40Z")
> [@Knowed Out](#): > > Black humor isn’t always about making _you_ laugh. It’s about making the person next to you revolted and shocked and you laughing at that. A piece in a web newspaper is supposed to incite real-time performance art? Whaaa? It’s like going to a restaurant and being told I can only order what the person next to me throws up. Too conceptual. > [@lissener](#): > > The “joke,” such as it was, was that it was “formatted” as a newspaper column. It’s Andy Kauffman-style “anti”-humor; it’s meta-humor. _Waaay_ too conceptual. Too '70s. (And there was a LOT better humor being created in the '70s.) Lame excuse for not being able to write a decent gag, if you ask me, or in Kaufman’s case, simply not wanting to. > [@Miller](#): > > It’s the cold feeling of dread and despair that makes it funny! Well, not exactly, but black humor is a way of excising those feelings. If you can laugh at something, then in a way you’ve made it smaller than yourself: containable, managable, something you can live through, or at least with. Black humor is a way of coping with the unbearable. If the situation doesn’t make you feel incredibly uncomfortable even while you’re laughing, it’s not really black humor. > […]Of course, I also get to feel smug because I’m more “with it” than the nine squares in this thread who don’t like/get black humor. To be entirely honest, that’s also a huge part of the appeal. Getting a joke is an easy way to become part of the “in-group,” and black humor is a way of getting to be part of the in group that doesn’t really require that you be witty, or sophisticated, just tougher in a rather indefinable (and, yes, largely meaningless) way. I guess this is what I fundamentally just _don’t_ get. Maybe I’m just not honest enough to confront the unbearable in the first place. Then again, some people need to have the shit beaten out of them to enjoy sex, and I don’t get that either. So maybe it’s just my (lack of) kink. Just one more thing. What if a joke didn’t outrage the person next to you, didn’t inspire any prissy moralist fulminations for you to feel superior to, but merely made them deeply fucking depressed to the point of slack-jawed, dead-eyed, hang-dog silence? Would _that_ be just a precious a metajoke? ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/35 "2005-10-25T00:37:05Z")
Too long, but funny. I thought the source of the humor was fairly obvious. It’s the juxtaposition between the stupid kid, who can’t leave the cat alone out of affection and a need to play with it, who ends up accidentally killing the object of that affection. Having seen many children “show me the cute puppy/kitty” while the puppy or kitty, usually being inadvertently strangled while trying to get away, makes it all the funnier. Of course, I don’t like cats, so maybe that’s it. I think it would be about as funny if it were a dog, but there it would lose some of the humor of the aloof and cold animal’s desperate attempts to get away, as only cats can (by jumping on high objects where they shouldn’t be), indirectly leading to its doom. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/36 "2005-10-25T02:52:20Z")
I found it… disturbing… enough to degrade my mood a bit. I’m not entirely sure why. Might be a sensitivity to animal cruelty (even if unintentional) or perhaps playing on the innocence/purity of a little kid’s affection for a pet into something morbid. Not funny at all… just unsettling. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/37 "2005-10-25T11:03:34Z")
I chuckled. Then I got to “Don’t get your red lipstick on me”. I laughed out loud. Maybe it helps that I was “hearing” the whole thing in [Elmyra’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmyra_Duff) voice… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/38 "2005-10-25T17:19:37Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > Just one more thing. What if a joke didn’t outrage the person next to you, didn’t inspire any prissy moralist fulminations for you to feel superior to, but merely made them deeply fucking depressed to the point of slack-jawed, dead-eyed, hang-dog silence? Would _that_ be just a precious a metajoke? I didn’t say anything about outraged moralists. I was talking about precisely the same reaction you are: it makes you sad. It makes me laugh. Using the powers of Incredibly Specious Logic, that makes me “tougher” than you. Another poster here said that humor is based off a feeling of superiority, and that’s where this joke is coming from. The appeal is that, if you can laugh at this, you’re superior to those who can’t. It’s a gutcheck: can you read about the little girl killing her kitty and laugh? I can; you can’t. I’m cool, you’re not. I’m in, you’re out. I don’t mean any of that personally. It’s all juvenile bullshit, and it doesn’t actually _mean_ anything in an absolute sense. Laughing at a sick joke does not make (or indicate) that the person laughing is in any way superior to someone who doesn’t laugh in any real sense. It’s just designed to make the person who laughs _feel_ that way. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/39 "2005-10-26T05:09:07Z")
Meh, needed much tightening. Like others, I thought the idea was good but the execution sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570/40 "2005-10-26T07:06:10Z")
Another thing that’s necessary in this type of black humor, I think, is if the person who hears or sees the joke doesn’t think on the whole situation too much. For example, going on and thinking about how the girl is possibly going to be traumatized in detail ruins the joke. Imagining the details of her nightmares and sorrow makes it not funny anymore. I guess you could say that you have to momentarily turn off your empathy. A joke can make you go, “ha ha, that person’s sad now!” and it might be funny, but once you go “Wait, this person really is sad. They’ll be emotionally devestated. It’s terrible for someone to go through that” the joke has worn out. That’s just my take. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-humor-i-get-it-but-why-dont-i-laugh-who-does/327570.md?page=3)