The Death of Morbid Humor

Morbid humor is something of a staple of modern humor. Everyone knows that the world is a little fucked right now, and many people cope with that by jokingly telling people that they want to die even in relatively mundane situations, whether or not they truly mean it. It’s a sort of ironic culture-wide suicidal ideation. There can be arguments about whether or not this is healthy, the difficulties this causes in identifying early warning signs, and many, many things that are significantly more important than my admittedly personal gripe: I don’t get to partake in this kind of humor anymore after having actually attempted to commit suicide.

This is a little more complicated than just ‘I’m mad that I can’t do the thing’, but that’s what it boils down to. After having attempted suicide, people have become hyper-aware and vigilant regarding anything I say in that vein. If I make a morbid joke about my own death, friends will take me aside and ask me if I’m doing alright or if I need to talk. Don’t get me wrong, I deeply appreciate that people are so concerned about keeping me in the world. But every now and then I just want to refer to wanting to sleep as letting me die.

Now, that’s a pretty petty gripe, but it touches on an interesting issue with this culture of morbid humor. On the one hand, people are handling my attempt and the possibility that I may make another one with reasonable caution; on the other hand, it shows a GLARING issue with how people treat those who have attempted suicide in contrast to people who have not. An errant reference to wanting to die or ‘let me die’ on my part is seen as a potential cry for help, but the same humor done by people who have not made an attempt is simply seen as ironic. It creates a weird cognitive dissonance where people making these jokes don’t need to be asked about their emotional state, but they also need to be handled delicately and closely monitored, just in case.

There’s not really anything that can be done about this until the cultural zeitgeist shifts away from this cavalier attitude to death in every day life. With the world figuratively and literally on fire though…

Well, that might take awhile.