Gallows Humor
Gallows humour is witticism in the face of – and in response to – a hopeless situation. It arises from stressful, traumatic, or life-threatening situations, often in circumstances such that death is perceived as impending and unavoidable.
Gallows humor is made by the person affected by the particular situation.
Read more about Gallows Humor: Nature and Functions, Examples, Social Uses
Other articles related to "humor, gallows humor":
... The term black humor (from the French humour noir) was coined by the Surrealist theoretician André Breton in 1935, to designate a sub-genre of comedy ... Breton coined the term for his book Anthology of Black Humor (Anthologie de l'humour noir), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of ... 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, whose suffering is trivialized, and leads ...
... It is argued that gallows humor often occurs in societies whose inhabitants have limited means of expressing discontent, yet in which significant discontent is ... In these instances gallows humor can provide an outlet for airing subjects which people may feel is safer than open dialogue ... of Everyday life in Brazil" (1993), anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes describes the use of gallows humor by the inhabitants of an impoverished shantytown in northeastern Brazil ...
Famous quotes containing the words humor and/or gallows:
“I made him a low curtsy and thanked him for the honor he intended me, but told him I had no kind of ambition to be his upper servant.... I then asked him how many offices he had allotted for me to perform for those great advantages he had offered me, of suffering me to humor him in all his whims and to receive meat, drink, and lodging at his hands; but hoped he would allow me some small wages, that I might now and then recreate myself with my fellow servants.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“For when the gallows is high
Your journey is shorter to heaven.”
—Unknown. The Night before Larry Was Stretched (l. 57–58)