# How soon after a tragedy/scandal do you hear bad jokes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731 "2011-11-12T21:59:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/1 "2011-11-12T21:59:09Z")
Literally the day after the Penn State story came up, I heard some real “gems” from co-workers. Heck, there were Challenger jokes on the school bus home that day. How about you guys? Do they usually show up pretty quick? ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/2 "2011-11-12T22:19:42Z")
As you mentioned with the Challenger almost as the news is reporting it. The quicker the better I say. Humor is the best way to deal with tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/3 "2011-11-12T22:24:32Z")
Never forget the difference between tragedy and funny. Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Funny is when you fall and break every bone is your body. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/4 "2011-11-12T22:28:20Z")
I was hearing Bobby Kennedy jokes even before he was pronounced dead. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/5 "2011-11-12T22:30:01Z")
> [@obbn](#): > > As you mentioned with the Challenger almost as the news is reporting it. The quicker the better I say. Humor is the best way to deal with tragedy. Really? It was my perception that the people making Challenger jokes the next day weren’t particularly sensitive to begin with. Maybe they hid it really well. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/6 "2011-11-13T00:04:47Z")
I heard a joke about the World Trade Center very soon after the second tower collapsed. At the time, news about the attack on the Pentagon was just breaking, and reports about the crash of Flight 93 were starting to rise above the chatter. FWIW, I didn’t find the guy’s comment particularly clever or funny. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/7 "2011-11-13T02:13:46Z")
I think it was September 12th but no later than September 13th, I heard a young girl say, “That is soooo September 10th” when referring to something out of date. I found ti very clever. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/8 "2011-11-13T02:31:02Z")
Gilbert Gottfried tried to tell a joke at the roast of Hugh Heffner, about two weeks after Sept 11th. There were boos and cries of, “Too soon.” Gottfried told The Aristocrats joke instead. I think that was the official end of the national mourning period. SFC Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/9 "2011-11-13T02:37:34Z")
> [@obbn](#): > > As you mentioned with the Challenger almost as the news is reporting it. The quicker the better I say. Humor is the best way to deal with tragedy. “Gallows humor”, that is. And almost immediately after Challenger, this also became a much-discussed phenomenon in the media. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/10 "2011-11-13T02:43:49Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > “Gallows humor”, that is. > > And almost immediately after Challenger, this also became a much-discussed phenomenon in the media. (Missed edit window. Mods, you really ought allow 10 minutes!) Article (first page only): [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1499820](http://www.jstor.org/pss/1499820) ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/11 "2011-11-13T21:45:45Z")
As I heard Baxter Black say one time - “If your friend gets thrown from his horse and into the barbed wire fence, the first thing you do is check if he’s all right. If he is, you start telling the story right away. If he’s not, ya wait a couple days.” ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Obvious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Obvious)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/12 "2011-11-13T22:36:56Z")
Back after Columbine happened, when paranoia was still high, my school got a bomb threat. My friends and I were joking around about it while it was going on. I was making 9/11 jokes on 9/12. Some of us just handle stress and tragedy with humor. Yea, it’s inappropriate, yea it’s crass, and it’ll always happen. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/13 "2011-11-13T23:29:24Z")
There is a precise formula for determining this. We’ve all heard that comedy = tragedy + distance. But the “distance” component is made up of two sub-components: time elapsed since the event, and personal identification with the event. The magnitude of the tragedy also plays a role, which is inversely proportional to the magnitude of the comedy. There are still people who get offended by Holocaust jokes, even though it happened some 70 years ago, because, well, it was pretty horrible. Whereas the Inquisition was also pretty horrible, but happened long enough ago that it’s pretty safe for jokes. So a revised formula would look like this: Comedy factor = [(time elapsed since event) \* (personal distance from event)] / (magnitude of tragic event) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/14 "2011-11-14T04:24:55Z")
Back to the OP: Don’t leave us in suspense. Share some of these Penn State jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/15 "2011-11-14T04:59:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Back to the OP: Don’t leave us in suspense. Share some of these Penn State jokes. _A cover-up like that – who the hell does this Paterno think he is, a Cardinal?_ I heard that about 2 days after the news. Years ago, I visited an 84-year-ols shut-in lady. She regaled me with about 15 minutes of Jeffrey Dahmer jokes. Finally I asked her how she had so many jokes so soon – that had only been on the news on that day. She said it was easy – just change the name in [Ed Gein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein) jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/16 "2011-11-18T12:33:30Z")
Penn State jokes I’ve heard ( I make no claims as to the “humor” of these): An older woman who goes after young men is a Cougar. An older man is a Nittany Lion. WE ARE! PAEDO STATE! Apparently Sandusky was big on the huddle. And that he was just recruiting early. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/17 "2011-11-18T12:56:01Z")
As soon as I think them up 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/18 "2011-11-18T13:51:20Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Years ago, I visited an 84-year-ols shut-in lady. She regaled me with about 15 minutes of Jeffrey Dahmer jokes. Finally I asked her how she had so many jokes so soon – that had only been on the news on that day. She said it was easy – just change the name in [Ed Gein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein) jokes. That’s wonderful.😃 ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/19 "2011-11-18T14:20:24Z")
I wish I could remember all the Jim and Tammy Baker jokes. I heard Osama Bin Laden jokes almost immediately. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731/20 "2011-11-18T15:57:34Z")
I think most jokes about a tragedy/scandal are written within 1 minute of the news breaking: somebody is watching the news and the line just comes to him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-soon-after-a-tragedy-scandal-do-you-hear-bad-jokes/602731.md?page=2)