Black comedy: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Hopscotch to oblivion.jpg|thumb|"[[Hopscotch]] to oblivion", in [[Barcelona]], Spain, possibly referringalluding to [[suicide]]]]

'''Black comedy''', also known as '''darkblack humor''', '''bleak comedy''', '''morbiddark humorcomedy''', '''gallowsdark humor''', '''blackgallows humor''', or '''darkmorbid humor''', is a style of [[comedy]] that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered [[taboo]], particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in [[fiction]], for example, the term ''black comedy'' can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Cartoonist [[Charles Addams]] was famous for such humor, e.g. depicting a boy decorating his bedroom with stolen warning signs including

"NO DIVING -– POOL EMPTY", "STOP -– BRIDGE OUT" and "SPRING CONDEMNED."

Black comedy differs from both [[ribaldry#Blue comedy|blue comedy]]—which focuses more on crude topics such as [[nudity]], sex, and [[body fluid]]s—and from straightforward [[obscenity]]. Whereas the term ''black comedy'' is a relatively broad term covering humour relating to many serious subjects, ''gallows humor'' tends to be used more specifically in relation to death, or situations that are reminiscent of dying. Black humour can occasionally be related to the [[grotesque]] genre.<ref>Merhi, Vanessa M. (2006) [http://gradworks.umi.com/32/40/3240247.html ''Distortion as identity from the grotesque to l'humour noir'']</ref> Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humour with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with [[Aristophanes]].<ref name="hobby1">''Dark Humor''. Edited by Blake Hobby. Chelsea House Press.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/67959/black-humour|title=Black humour|website=britannica.com|access-date=April 15, 2018|archive-date=January 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125106/https://www.britannica.com/topic/black-humor|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Garrick2006p175">Garrick, Jacqueline and Williams, Mary Beth (2006) [https://books.google.com/books?id=7jPyMPAsXwQC&pg=PA175 ''Trauma treatment techniques: innovative trends''] pp.175–6 175–176</ref><ref>Lipman, Steve (1991) ''Laughter in hell: the use of humor during the Holocaust'', Northvale, N.J:J Aronson Inc.</ref><ref name="Vonnegut1971">[[Kurt Vonnegut]] (1971) ''Running Experiments Off: An Interview'', interview by Laurie Clancy, published in ''Meanjin Quarterly'', 30 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 46–54, and in ''Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut'', quote:{{blockquote|The term was part of the language before Freud wrote an essay on it—'gallows humor.' This is middle European humor, a response to hopeless situations. It's what a man says faced with a perfectly hopeless situation and he still manages to say something funny. Freud gives examples: A man being led out to be hanged at dawn says, 'Well, the day is certainly starting well.' It's generally called Jewish humor in this country. Actually it's humor from the peasants' revolt, the forty years' war, and from the Napoleonic wars. It's small people being pushed this way and that way, enormous armies and plagues and so forth, and still hanging on in the face of hopelessness. Jewish jokes are middle European jokes and the black humorists are gallows humorists, as they try to be funny in the face of situations which they see as just horrible.}}</ref><ref name="Dark Humor">Bloom, Harold (2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5Vf6nC8XKWsC&pg=PA80 ''Dark Humor''], ch. ''On dark humor in literature'', pp. 80–88</ref>{{excessive citations inline|date=January 2022}}

The term ''black humour'' (from the French ''humour noir'') was coined by the [[Surrealism|Surrealist]] theorist [[André Breton]] in 1935 while interpreting the writings of [[Jonathan Swift]].<ref name="Real05"/><ref name="GuardianBreton"/> Breton's preference was to identify some of Swift's writings as a subgenre of [[comedy]] and [[satire]]<ref name="Black Humor from the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 2008"/><ref name="Black Humour, The Hutchinson Encyclopedia">{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/black+humor |title=black humor – Hutchinson encyclopedia article about black humor |publisher=Encyclopedia.farlex.com |access-date=24 June 24, 2010 |archive-date=11 May 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511105047/http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/black+humor |url-status=dead }}</ref> in which laughter arises from [[Cynicism (contemporary)|cynicism]] and [[skepticism]],<ref name="Real05">Real, Hermann Josef (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=L7jEg8rQZoUC The reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe], p.90 quote: {{blockquote|At least, Swift's text is preserved, and so is a prefatory note by the French writer André Breton, which emphasizes Swift's importance as the originator of black humor, of laughter that arises from cynicism and scepticism.}}</ref><ref name="BretonSwiftIntro"/> often relying on topics such as death.<ref>Thomas Leclair (1975) [https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=589E4DCAE3AB2134D7AA2D9EBD790497.inst3_3a?docId=95258188 ''Death and Black Humor''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125110/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia?docId=95258188 |date=18 January 18, 2023 }} in ''Critique'', Vol. 17, 1975</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rowe|first=W. Woodin|year=1974| journal=The Slavic and East European Journal|title=Observations on Black Humor in Gogol' and Nabokov|volume=18|issue=4|pages=392–399|jstor=306869|doi=10.2307/306869}}</ref>

Breton coined the term for his 1940 book ''[[Anthology of Black Humor]]'' (''Anthologie de l'humour noir''), in which he credited [[Jonathan Swift]] as the originator of black humor and gallows humor (particularly in his pieces ''[[Directions to Servants]]'' (1731), ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'' (1729), ''[[Meditation Upon a Broomstick]]'' (1710), and in a few [[aphorism]]s).<ref name="GuardianBreton">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/feb/21/anthology-of-black-humour | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Nicholas | last=Lezard | author-link=Nicholas Lezard | title=From the sublime to the surreal | date=February 21, February 2009 | access-date=December 11, December 2016 | archive-date=November 16, November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116075232/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/feb/21/anthology-of-black-humour | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BretonSwiftIntro">[[André Breton]] introduction to Swift in ''[[Anthology of Black Humor]]'', quote: {{blockquote|When it comes to black humor, everything designates him as the true initiator. In fact, it is impossible to coordinate the fugitive traces of this kind of humor before him, not even in Heraclitus and the Cynics or in the works of Elizabethan dramatic poets. [...] historically justify his being presented as the first black humorist. Contrary to what Voltaire might have said, Swift was in no sense a "perfected Rabelais." He shared to the smallest possible degree Rabelais's taste for innocent, heavy-handed jokes and his constant drunken good humor. [...] a man who grasped things by reason and never by feeling, and who enclosed himself in skepticism; [...] Swift can rightfully be considered the inventor of "savage" or "gallows" humor.}}</ref> In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including both examples in which the wit arises from a victim with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) [[Marquis de Sade|Sade]].

Among the first American writers who employed black comedy in their works were [[Nathanael West]] and [[Vladimir Nabokov]].<ref name="books.google.com">Merriam-Webster, Inc (1995) [https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C&pg=PA144 ''Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of literature''], entry ''black humor'', p.144</ref> The concept of black humor first came to nationwide attention after the publication of a 1965 mass-market [[paperback]] titled ''Black Humor'', edited by [[Bruce Jay Friedman]].<ref name="Dark Humor"/><ref>{{cite book | last=O'Neill | first=Patrick | chapter=The Comedy of Entropy: The Contexts of Black Humor | title=Dark Humor | editor1=Harold Bloom | editor2=Blake Hobby | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Vf6nC8XKWsC&pg=PA80 | page=82 | series=Bloom's Literary Themes | year=2010 | publisher=Infobase Publishing | location=New York, New York | isbn=9781438131023 | access-date=25 March 25, 2017}}</ref> The paperback was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the concept of black humor as a literary genre. With the paperback, Friedman labeled as "black humorists" a variety of authors, such as [[J. P. Donleavy]], [[Edward Albee]], [[Joseph Heller]], [[Thomas Pynchon]], [[John Barth]], Vladimir Nabokov, [[Bruce Jay Friedman]] himself, and [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]].<ref name="Dark Humor"/> Among the recent writers suggested as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are [[Roald Dahl]],<ref>James Carter [https://books.google.com/books?id=IQDVsfeTHeAC&q=roald+dahl+black+humour&pg=RA1-PA97 Talking Books: Children's Authors Talk About the Craft, Creativity and Process of Writing, Volume 2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125108/https://books.google.com/books?id=IQDVsfeTHeAC&pg=RA1-PA97#v=onepage&q=roald%20dahl%20black%20humour |date=18 January 18, 2023 }} p.97 Routledge, 2002</ref> [[Kurt Vonnegut]],<ref name="Black Humor from the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 2008">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-blackhum.html|title=black humor – Dictionary definition of black humor – Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=15 April 15, 2018|archive-date=20 October 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020152750/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-blackhum.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Warren Zevon]], [[Christopher Durang]], [[Philip Roth]],<ref name="Black Humor from the Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 2008"/> and [[Veikko Huovinen]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.booksfromfinland.fi/2013/05/panu-rajala-hirmuinen-humoristi-veikko-huovisen-satiirit-ja-savotat-the-awesome-humorist-the-satires-and-logging-sites-of-veikko-huovinen/|title=Panu Rajala: Hirmuinen humoristi. Veikko Huovisen satiirit ja savotat [The awesome humorist. The satires and logging sites of Veikko Huovinen] &#124; Books from Finland|date=16 May 16, 2013|access-date=21 March 21, 2021|archive-date=18 January 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125125/https://www.booksfromfinland.fi/2013/05/panu-rajala-hirmuinen-humoristi-veikko-huovisen-satiirit-ja-savotat-the-awesome-humorist-the-satires-and-logging-sites-of-veikko-huovinen/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Evelyn Waugh]] has been called "the first contemporary writer to produce the sustained black comic novel."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lynch |first=Tibbie Elizabet |date=1982 |title=Forms and functions of black humor in the fiction of Evelyn Waugh |url=https://repository.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/DISSERTATIONS-516374}}</ref> The motive for applying the label black humorist to the writers cited above is that they have written novels, poems, stories, plays, and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner. Comedians like [[Lenny Bruce]],<ref name="Black Humour, The Hutchinson Encyclopedia"/> who since the late 1950s have been labeled as using "[[sick comedy]]" by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy".

[[File:18251112 Nine-pin bowler execution - gallows humor - Sag Harbor Corrector.jpg |thumb|An 1825 newspaper used a gallows humor "story" of a criminal whose last wish before being beheaded was to go [[nine-pin bowling]], using his own severed head on his final roll, and taking delight in having achieved a strike.<ref name=Corrector_18251211>{{cite news |title=From a late German Paper |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sag-harbor-corrector-nov-12-1825-p-1/ |work=The Corrector |date=12 November 12, 1825 |location=Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, U.S. |page=1}} "Bowl" means '''''ball''''' in modern parlance. [[Nine-pin bowling]] preceded modern [[ten-pin bowling]].</ref>]]

[[Sigmund Freud]], in his 1927 essay ''Humour'' (''Der Humor''), although not mentioning 'black humour' specifically, cites a literal instance of gallows humour before going on to write: "The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure."<ref name="Freud 1927 Humor">{{cite web | author=Sigmund Freud | year=1927 | title=Humor | url=https://pdfcoffee.com/sigmund-freud-humor-1927-5-pdf-free.html}}</ref> Some other sociologists elaborated this concept further. At the same time, [[Paul Lewis (professor)|Paul Lewis]] warns that this "relieving" aspect of gallows jokes depends on the context of the joke: whether the joke is being told by the threatened person themselves or by someone else.<ref>Paul Lewis, "Three Jews and a Blindfold: The Politics of Gallows Humor", In: "Semites and Stereotypes: Characteristics of Jewish Humor" (1993), {{ISBN|0-313-26135-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4k5rE4eHjMC&pg=PA53 p. 49] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125115/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4k5rE4eHjMC&pg=PA53#PPA49,M1 |date=January 18, January 2023 }}</ref>

Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the [[morale]] of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors.<ref>Obrdlik, Antonin J. (1942) [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2769536 ''"Gallows Humor"-A Sociological Phenomenon''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125115/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2769536 |date=January 18, January 2023 }}, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 5 (Mar. 1942), pp. 709–716</ref><ref>Mariah Snyder, Ruth Lindquist [https://books.google.com/books?id=vdl4s1zHPdIC&pg=PA111 ''Complementary and alternative therapies in nursing'']</ref> According to [[Wylie Sypher]], "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them."<ref>[[Wylie Sypher]] quoted in ZhouRaymond, Jingqiong [https://books.google.com/books?id=cLTsZ39XW80C&pg=PA132 ''Carver's short fiction in the history of black humor''] p.132</ref>

Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use was widespread in [[middle Europe]], from where it was imported to the United States.<ref name="Vonnegut1971"/>{{Verify source|date=July 2021}} It is rendered with the German expression ''Galgenhumor'' (cynical last words before getting hanged <ref>Lynch, Mark [https://es.toonpool.com/cartoons/Typical%20man_236420 ''A witch, before being burned at the stake: Typical man! I can never get him to cook anything at home (cartoon)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118125124/https://es.toonpool.com/cartoons/Typical%20man_236420 |date=18 January 18, 2023 }}</ref>). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression ''rire jaune'' (lit. ''yellow laughing''),<ref>Redfern, W. D. and Redfern, Walter (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=SU0MxAMRCawC&pg=PA211 ''Calembours, ou les puns et les autres : traduit de l'intraduisible ''], p.211 quote: {{blockquote|Des termes parents du ''Galgenhumor'' sont: : comédie noire, plaisanterie macabre, rire jaune. (J'en offre un autre: gibêtises).}}</ref><ref>Müller, Walter (1961) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nws8AAAAIAAJ ''Französische Idiomatik nach Sinngruppen''], p.178 quote: {{blockquote|humour macabre, humeur de désespéré, (action de) rire jaune ''Galgenhumor'' propos guilleret ''etwas freie, gewagte Äußerung''}}</ref><ref>Dupriez, Bernard Marie (1991) [https://books.google.com/books?id=uff2N62Jx9wC&pg=PA313 ''A dictionary of literary devices: gradus, A-Z''], p.313 quote: {{blockquote|Walter Redfern, discussing puns about death, remarks: 'Related terms to gallows humour are: black comedy, sick humour, rire jaune. In all, pain and pleasure are mixed, perhaps the definitive recipe for all punning' (Puns, p. 127).}}</ref> which also has a [[West Germanic languages|Germanic]] equivalent in the [[Flemish dialects|Belgian Dutch]] expression ''groen lachen'' (lit. ''green laughing'').<ref name="Brachin85p101">{{cite book |last =Brachin|first = Pierre |date=1985|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=GeUUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA102 |title =The Dutch language: a survey|isbn = 9789004075931 |pages = 101–2 |publisher = Brill Archive}}</ref><ref name="DeGrèveDitl">Claude et Marcel De Grève, Françoise Wuilmart, ''[http://www.flsh.unilim.fr/ditl/TRADUCTION.htm TRADUCTION / Translation] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519173702/http://www.flsh.unilim.fr/ditl/TRADUCTION.htm |date=19 May 19, 2011 }}'', section ''Histoire et théorie de la traduction – Recherches sur les microstructures'', in: Grassin, Jean-Marie (ed.), [http://www.ditl.info DITL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108073314/http://ditl.info/ |date=8 November 8, 2018 }} (Dictionnaire International des Termes Littéraires), [Nov 22, November 2010]"</ref><ref>(1950) [https://books.google.com/books?id=posrAQAAIAAJ ''Zaïre''], Volume 4, Part 1, p.138 quote: {{blockquote|En français on dit « rire jaune », en flamand « groen lachen »}}</ref><ref>Chédel, André (1965) [https://books.google.com/books?id=mQBAAAAAIAAJ ''Description moderne des langues du monde: le latin et le grec inutile?''] p.171 quote: {{blockquote|Les termes jaune, vert, bleu évoquent en français un certain nombre d'idées qui sont différentes de celles que suscitent les mots holandais correspondants geel, groen, blauw. Nous disons : rire jaune, le Hollandais dit : rire vert ( groen lachen ); ce que le Néerlandais appelle un vert (een groentje), c'est ce qu'en français on désigne du nom de bleu (un jeune soldat inexpéribenté)... On voit que des confrontations de ce genre permettent de concevoir une étude de la psychologie des peuples fondée sur les associations d'idées que révèlent les variations de sens (sémantique), les expressions figurées, les proverbes et les dictions.}}</ref>

Italian comedian [[Daniele Luttazzi]] discussed gallows humour focusing on the particular type of laughter that it arouses (''risata verde'' or ''groen lachen''), and said that [[grotesque]] [[satire]], as opposed to [[irony|ironic]] satire, is the one that most often arouses this kind of laughter.<ref name="Pardo2001">Pardo, Denise (2001) [http://quattrostracci.altervista.org/SforzaItalia/intervis2.htm Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820100021/http://quattrostracci.altervista.org/SforzaItalia/intervis2.htm |date=20 August 20, 2008 }} with Daniele Luttazzi, in ''[[L'Espresso]]'', 1 February 1, 2001 quote: {{blockquote|Q: Critiche feroci, interrogazioni parlamentari: momenti duri per la satira.<br />

Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes [[police officer]]s,<ref name="wettone"/> [[firefighter]]s,<ref name="fire-chief"/> [[ambulance]] crews,<ref name="jpp">{{cite journal |last1=Christopher |first1=Sarah |title=An introduction to black humour as a coping mechanism for student paramedics |journal=Journal of Paramedic Practice |date=December 2015 |volume=7 |issue= 12|pages=610–615 |doi=10.12968/jpar.2015.7.12.610 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285582173|language=en }}</ref> [[military]] personnel, journalists, lawyers, and [[funeral director]]s,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/8162822/Funeral-directors-most-likely-to-laugh-at-Christmas-cracker-jokes.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/8162822/Funeral-directors-most-likely-to-laugh-at-Christmas-cracker-jokes.html |archive-date=January 10, January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|title=Funeral directors most likely to laugh at Christmas cracker jokes|date=November 27, November 2010|access-date=August 16, August 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> where it is an acknowledged [[coping]] mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do.<ref name="fire-chief"/><ref name="jpp"/>

A 2017 study published in the journal ''Cognitive Processing''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Willinger |first1=Ulrike |last2=Hergovich |first2=Andreas |last3=Schmoeger |first3=Michaela |display-authors=etal |title=Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence, aggressiveness and mood |journal=Cognitive Processing |date=1 May 1, 2017 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=159–167 |doi=10.1007/s10339-016-0789-y |pmid=28101812 |language=en |issn=1612-4790|pmc=5383683 }}</ref> concludes that people who appreciate dark humor "may have higher IQs, show lower aggression, and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Specktor |first1=Brandon |title=If You Laugh at These Dark Jokes, You're Probably a Genius |url=https://www.rd.com/culture/dark-sense-of-humor-and-intelligence/ |website=Reader's Digest |access-date=15 April 15, 2019 |date=15 October 15, 2017}}</ref>

{{Globalize|date=April 2024|section|reason=Almost all of the film and television examples are American or British.}}[[File:Dr. Strangelove - Riding the Bomb.png|thumb|Major "King" Kong (played by Slim Pickens) rides the nuclear bomb to oblivion in Stanley Kubrick's ''Dr. Strangelove'', widely considered one of the best dark comedy films.]]

* '''''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (film)|'''''Arsenic and Old Lace''''']]''''' (1944) -– A drama critic's engagement announcement is interrupted by the revelation that his spinster aunts and estranged brother have been independently committing multiple murders.

* '''''[[Dr.A Bucket of StrangeloveBlood]]''''' (19641959) -– A Coldbusboy Warachieves satireacclaim dealingas with the attempts ofa governmentsculptor officialsby toencasing avoidcorpses nuclearin annihilationclay.

* [[FearThe andKing Loathingof in Las VegasComedy (film)|'''''FearThe andKing Loathingof in Las VegasComedy''''']] (19981982) - A drug-addleddelusional journalistaspiring andcomedian hiskidnaps insanea lawyertalk searchshow forhost theto Americanreceive Dream inhis 1970sdream Lasof Vegasfame.

* '''''[[Bad SantaHeathers]]''''' (20031989) - A drunken,high sex-addictedschool professionalgirl thiefteams posesup aswith a departmentnew storestudent Santato andkill befriendsoff athe lonelypopular youngHeathers boyclique.

* '''''[[South Park]]''''' (1997–present) -– Four grade-school friends have surreal misadventures in their not-so-quiet Colorado mountain town.

* '''''[[The CurseWilfred (American TV series)|Wilfred]]'''''The Curse''''']] (2023–present2011–2014) -– AAfter couple triesa tosuicide improveattempt, a smallyoung communityman whilesees dealinghis withneighbor's andog obnoxiousas producera andprofane anman allegedin curse ona theirdog headssuit.

* In [[Edo period]] Japan, condemned criminals were occasionally executed by expert swordsmen, who used living bodies to test the quality of their blade (''[[Tameshigiri]]''). There is an apocryphal story of one who, after being told he was to be executed by a sword tester, calmly joked that if he had known that was going to happen, he would have swallowed large stones to damage the blade.<ref name="Man2011">{{cite book|last=Man|first=John|title=Samurai|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRdqWcmZcH4C&pg=PA55|date=February 10, 2011|publisher=Transworld|isbn=978-1-4090-1105-7|page=55}}</ref>

* [[Robert-François Damiens]], a French man who attempted to [[Regicide|assassinate]] King [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]], was sentenced on 26 March 26, 1757, to be executed in a [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|gruesome and painstakingly detailed manner]]. He would first be led to the gallows, holding a torch with two pounds of burning [[wax]]. Pliers would then be used to tear his skin at the breast, arms and legs. Then his right arm, which held the knife he had used for his crime, would be burned with [[sulfur]]. The aforementioned areas with ripped skin would then be poured upon with molten [[lead]], [[Early thermal weapons|boiling oil]], burning [[Pitch (resin)|pitch]], wax and sulfur. His body would then be [[Dismemberment|dismembered]] by four horses, the members and trunk consumed in fire, and the ashes would be spread in the wind. After hearing the sentence, Damiens is reported to have replied: "Well, it's going to be a tough day."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.coutumes-et-traditions.fr/vivre-autrefois/annees-par-annees/louis-xv-victime-dun-attentat-5-janvier-1757/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610212716/http://www.coutumes-et-traditions.fr/vivre-autrefois/annees-par-annees/louis-xv-victime-dun-attentat-5-janvier-1757/|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 June 10, 2015|title=Louis XV victime d'un attentat – 5 janvier 1757 {{!}} Coutumes et Traditions|date=10 June 10, 2015|access-date=21 January 21, 2019}}</ref>

* During the [[French Revolution]], [[Georges Danton|Georges-Jacques Danton]], who had facial scars from [[smallpox]], when he was about to be [[Decapitation|beheaded]] with a [[guillotine]] on April 5, April 1794, is reported to have said to the [[executioner]]: "Don't forget to show my head to the people, it's well worth it!"<ref>A.V. Arnault, ''Souvenirs d'un sexagénaire'', librairie Dufey, Paris, 1833. Re-released : Champion, Paris, 2003. Available on Gallica.</ref>

* At his public execution, the murderer [[William Palmer (murderer)#Execution|William Palmer]] is said to have looked at the trapdoor on the gallows and asked the hangman, "Are you sure it's safe?"<ref>[http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Crime/WitticismsOf9CondemnedCrimin Witticisms Of 9 Condemned Criminals] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314054424/http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Crime/WitticismsOf9CondemnedCrimin |date=March 14, March 2008 }} at Canongate Press</ref>

* When the survivors of {{HMS|Sheffield|D80|6}}, sunk in 1982 in the [[Falklands War]], were awaiting rescue, they were reported to have sung the [[Monty Python]] song, "[[Always Look on the Bright Side of Life]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life|title=Icons of England, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717050535/http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life |archive-date=July 17, July 2011}}</ref>

* Soviet pilots in World War II joked that the true meaning of the type designation of the [[Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3|LaGG-3]] was "Лакированный Гарантированный Гроб" (romanized: ''Lakirovannyy Garantirovannyy Grob''), "varnished guaranteed coffin".<ref>{{cite book|last1=McKay|first1=Alan|author2=Herbert Léonard|title=Chronological encyclopaedia of Soviet single-engined fighters, 1939-19511939–1951 : piston-engines or mixed power-plants : studies, projects, prototypes series and variants|date=2005|publisher=Histoire & collections|pages=42–46|location=Paris|isbn=2-915239-60-6}}</ref>

* American tanks of the Second World War, such as the [[M3 Lee]] medium tank, which were supplied to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program, got sarcastic name interpretations from Soviet soldiers. Thus, the letter sign ''BM-7'' ("General Lee" model) was understood as "братская могила на семерых" (romanized: ''bratskaya mogila na semerykh''), and similarly, ''BM-6'' ("General Grant" model) as "братская могила на шестерых" (romanized: ''bratskaya mogila na shesterykh''), meaning "mass grave for seven/six crewmen" —– as penetrative hits would fragment inside the vehicles, killing the crew. Similar name reinterpretations were created for domestic multi-turreted tanks, chiefly the [[T-28 (medium tank)|T-28]] [[medium tank]] and [[T-35]] [[heavy tank]] models, for their cramped internal layouts and poor armor protection.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

* In the [[Battle of Jutland]] (31 May 31 – 1 June 1, 1916), the destroyer {{HMS|Tipperary|1915|6}} was sunk in an overnight engagement with the heavily armed German dreadnought {{SMS|Westfalen}}. Only 13 crewmen survived out of a complement of 197 officers & men. The survivors were identified in the darkness by the crew of {{HMS|Sparrowhawk|1912|6}} because they were heard in the distance, singing, "[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary|It's a long way to Tipperary]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_seawarfare_jutlandfighting.htm|title=The Fighting at Jutland|website=Kipling Society|access-date=19 July 19, 2018}}</ref>

*In 2018, a Massachusetts firefighter was reprimanded for a response to a call about a cat stuck in a tree. The firefighter told the caller that the cat would probably make its own way down as he had never seen a cat skeleton in a tree before.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.firerescue1.com/animal-rescue/articles/376309018-Firefighter-reprimanded-for-response-to-woman-who-reported-cat-in-tree/|publisher=FireRescue1|date=3 March 3, 2018|access-date=8 March 8, 2019|title=Firefighter reprimanded for response to woman who reported cat in tree}}</ref> An opinion article in ''[[Fire Chief (magazine)|Fire Chief]]'' magazine said that these kinds of jokes were common in the fire service, but would be inappropriate to share with a concerned member of the public.<ref name="fire-chief">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.firechief.com/2018/03/21/firefighter-humor-stops-being-funny-when-civilians-arent-in-on-the-joke/|magazine=[[Fire Chief (magazine)|Fire Chief]] |title=Firefighter humor stops being funny when civilians aren't in on the joke |date=21 March 21, 2018|access-date=8 March 8, 2019}}</ref>

There are several titles such as ''[[It Only Hurts When I Laugh (disambiguation)|It Only Hurts When I Laugh]]'' and ''[[Only When I Laugh (disambiguation)|Only When I Laugh]]'', which allude to the punch line of a joke which exists in numerous versions since at least the 19th century. A typical setup is that someone badly hurt is asked "Does it hurt?" &mdashndash; "I am fine; it only hurts when I laugh."<ref>Leon Rappoport, ''Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=P3HkmPhf2mYC&pg=PA83 p. 83]</ref><ref>(2006-02-17) [https://web.archive.org/web/20151003035750/https://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/the-joke-stops-here/Content?oid=1124492 The Joke Stops Here | Editorial]. ''[[Memphis Flyer]].'' Archived from [https://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/the-joke-stops-here/Content?oid=1124492 the original] on 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2023-07-22.</ref>