Awfully funny: Humour is one of the main coping mechanisms during periods of sickness

By Aamirah Thayibah

Comedian Amy Schumer, in her recent Las Vegas, stand-up show revealed the joke that she wasn’t allowed to say during her time as co-host at the 2022 Oscars. Schumer believed that her joke would’ve provided the much needed “comfort” post the Will Smith and Chris Rock debacle, an event she called “triggering and traumatising”.

Her disallowed joke was referencing the accidental death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who was tragically killed in October, last year, when Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a shot for a movie that involved him cocking a gun. Schumer was going to say: “Don’t Look Up is the name of a movie? More like don’t look down the barrel of Alec Baldwin’s shotgun.” She then added: “I wasn’t allowed to say any of that [at the Oscars], but you can just come up and slap someone.”

A casual scroll on Twitter or Instagram will show some questionable joke material that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. dark humour, also known as gallows humour, is a type of comedy that makes light of issues that are ordinarily considered taboo and subjects that are considered painful to discuss. It is frequently used by writers and comedians to explore obscene subjects by creating a mix of discomfort, and enjoyment in their audience. Death, crime, poverty, suicide, violence, terrorism, discrimination and disease, are all popular topics in the genre.

While it’s not cruel to enjoy the occasional morbid joke. There is a line that must be drawn. “It is not ‘dark humour’ unless you yourself have experienced the trauma you are joking about. I shouldn’t be reliving my traumas while trying to have a fun night with my friends” writes Twitter user, @hydrateyrself about a comedy routine by a popular comedian that made light of sexual assault.

Humour’s significance in the development of the foundations of language and intellect, has long baffled evolutionists and anthropologists. However, it seems odd to believe that exhaling air and blurting out a series of “Ha ha” has anything to do with surviving in an African savanna. So, what is comedy’s evolutionary purpose?

Comedy, according to Plato and Hobbes, could only be acquired at the expense of another’s sorrow or to make us feel superior to others. This is known as the Superiority Theory. Kant, on the other hand, thought humour provided a cognitive shift that transitioned from tragedy to jollity. Kant was correct, but he failed to provide a scientific explanation as to why.

Behavioural scientists, Peter McGraw and his colleague Caleb Warren recently published a paper on the purpose of humour and why we laugh. According to their Benign Violation theory, a good joke, is a threat characterised by a wicked twist and good timing, which, most crucially, reveals itself to be empty. McGraw believes that jokes are funny because they violate your beliefs, but turn out to be something insignificant. The violation, as the name implies, must be benign, but enough to hit a sweet spot.

The theory further explains that cavemen were constantly surrounded by physical threats, so finding a frog behind rustling bushes – rather than a tiger – was a huge relief. According to McGraw, tickling is a physical threat encountered suddenly, but it makes you burst out laughing because it is done by someone you trust. 

As per the theory, it seems that laughter signals this form of relief. Comedians exploit this peculiarity and threaten us, but introduce a twist that annuls the awful, making it silly and delivering relief. Violation, in this case, would mean challenging one’s ethical beliefs and making a statement that unsettles your moral compass.

Dark humour frequently compels listeners to examine fresh viewpoints, yet some jokes are harmful. However, what may be dangerous to you may not be dangerous to someone else... So, what makes a joke dangerous?

A 2012 study by the Association for Psychological Science points out the role of distance, physically and temporal, in our taste in humour. Distance determines the extent of the violation. Tragedies seem to be tragic depending on how physically far away they occur, whereas mishaps seem to be funnier when they are physically closer. The brain also processes distance psychologically in terms of time. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was publicly hissed at for joking that he was taking a flight that would make a stop at the Empire State Building just after 9/11 occurred. Jokes about such tragedies can be deemed “too soon” when made just after the tragedy occurs.

For instance, however unethical, people find Holocaust jokes funny, not only due to their faraway physical distance but also due to their temporal distance,simply the time that has passed.