5 minute read
SHEDDING THE LIGHT ON DARK HUMOR
By Doug Wallace
DARK HUMOR ISN’T COOL WHEN IT’S CRUDE OR CRUEL, BUT IT CAN BE A COPING MECHANISM OUT OF EARSHOT... A CATHARTIC SURVIVAL INSTINCT.
“Aside from being dead, he’s perfectly healthy.”
The coroners of the much-loved TV show "Law and Order" really did have all the best lines – wry comments offered in confidence within the cold confines of the morgue to the hardened, tough detectives just trying to do their job.
Everyone has joked or laughed inappropriately at some point in their lives, thanks to stress or nerves. “Too soon?” comes to mind, the punchline offered when we’ve made fun of a bad situation soon after hearing of its occurrence. Yuks all around.
But dark humor or “gallows humor” – grim or ironic fun poked in a desperate or hopeless situation, remarks made about unpleasant subjects like death and illness – is commonplace among the folks at the receiving end of 9-1-1. Firefighters, police, paramedics, emergency room nurses and doctors: you can bet that they all have experienced or contributed to gallows humor in one way or another. The military, too, of course (we’ve all watched enough action movies, not to mention the TV classic MASH). The terminally ill can be included here, too, another subgroup finding levity amid bleak reality.
In the study "Whatever Gets You Through Today: An Examination of Cynical Humor Among Emergency Service Professionals", researchers Alison Rowe and Cheryl Regehr write that “the theoretical and research literature on humor, and specifically dark humor, suggests that it is not only almost universally utilized by emergency personnel, but that it is vital to their profession. In stressful life-and-death situations, individuals use dark humor as a method of venting their feelings, eliciting social support through the development of group cohesion, and distancing themselves from a situation, ensuring that they can act effectively.” While it may seem wrong or illtimed, morbid humor steps in, often instinctively, to hammer a bad feeling into submission, like a form of comic relief. This is a cathartic way to cope with the stresses of the job, a psychic survival tactic.
“Emergency professionals in several studies have reported that humor in highly demanding situations can break the tension and allow them to refocus on the important tasks at hand,” the report states. “Laughter in this situation can function to disrupt physiological stress responses by increasing exhalation and reducing muscle tension.”
THIS IS JUST BETWEEN US
So when is it OK to be the comic narrator of someone’s misfortune? This depends on the audience. The majority of gallows humor takes place within the confines of confidence. In reading the audience, the jokester knows he or she is in a safe place. And language that seems OK backstage or among friends often isn’t appropriate in front of the injured or the unfortunate.
“Many groups develop a backstage language not meant to be understood by outsiders,” writes American ethics professor Katie Watson in her Hastings Center Report piece, Gallows Humor in Medicine. “It's how they talk ‘when it's just us.’ Teachers in the teachers’ lounge, firefighters in the firehouse, war correspondents in the hotel bar – none of what they say ‘backstage’ is meant to be heard by anyone outside the group,” she writes. “Backstage humor might be a demographic postscript on ‘you had to be there’ to think it's funny; it's also ‘you had to be us.’ ”
Rowe and Regehr have determined that the language employed in dark humor can indeed be viewed as highly offensive to others. “For instance, paramedics have their own terms to describe the definitive state of the victim – for example, a ‘crispy critter’ is the code word for a body that has been badly burned, while a 'greenie’ is used to define a body that is in an advanced state of decay. While such terms may seem outrageous to individuals who are not directly involved, the use of humor in these situations provides an effective coping mechanism against stress and prevents professional burnout in individuals confronted with death, bereavement and human suffering.”
“It’s like a deflection,” says one Toronto firefighter. “You’re pushing away the gruesome details that you’re seeing so you can think about something else, something lighter, so it doesn’t get stored in your brain. You shirk it off with a comment. My wife sometimes says: ‘You’re so cold!’ But if I didn’t let off the steam, I’d lose my mind,” he says.
Spouses are accustomed to sharing details about each other’s work, of course. And while the emergency worker’s spouse can often be grouped with the “in crowd,” a boundary may need to be outlined, to ward off over-sharing.
“You’re pushing away the gruesome details that you’re seeing so you can think about something else, something lighter.” Speaking of which, when does the joke go too far? There’s a fine line. In its mildest form, dark humor is not meant to belittle the subjects, but to bring levity to a tense day. In its most severe, it is a definite no-no. Many fire departments have a zero tolerance policy on talk that is merely crude, like making fun of a person’s body parts, or that is used as a weapon for humiliation. Or bullying. But gallows humor is not derogatory humor. In the long run, human reaction is just that – human – and humor plays a role in any job, the firehouse being no exception. Laughing creates unity and the feeling that you are conquering a bad situation together. It helps firefighters develop a distance that protects their emotional state so they can concentrate on the dangerous and unpleasant tasks at hand, relieving both psychological and physiological stress. And if you’re not laughing a little bit, you may not be coping.
