Bad jokes

The snow society has revived a humorous tradition of bad taste, perhaps even bad taste (sorry): jokes about eating human flesh. My favorite tweet of this genre predates the J. A. Bayona movie and is signed by @haprostata. "It's been horrible," someone says, "we've had to resort to cannibalism." When he is reminded that "it's only been two hours since the accident," he replies: "Well, we're going to dinner now."

After the release of the film, jokes and memes have been spread that make explicit reference to the plane crash (real, let's remember) whose survivors had to feed on the victims. For example, this dialogue: "Take a nap, Steak." "Philip." "That, that, Philip." Or the classic and slightly childish "what's for dessert? Frigo Pie".

"It's been horrible, we've had to resort to cannibalism.
"It's only been two hours since the accident..."
"Well, we're going to dinner..."

— Aprostate (@haprostata) March 15, 2015

- Don't worry, take a nap, steak.
-Philip.
- That, that. Philip... pic.twitter.com/n8HwC86ScC

— Russian Spy (@Tweeterricola) January 11, 2024

I know a lot of people may find this unpleasant and little or not funny. However, humour about tragedies, catastrophes and even attacks is not exactly new, although social networks have accelerated it and given it much more visibility. According to sociologist Christie Davies, in 1986 there were 50 jokes about the Challenger shuttle accident.In 1998, Lady Di's death sparked more than 300. All this falls short in the age of Twitter: for example, you can't even think about the possibility of knowing how many memes were shared about the coronavirus.

It's not—or not always—gratuitous humor: scholars such as anthropologist Elliott Oring and neuroscientist Scott Weems remind us that these jokes are a mechanism for dealing with tragedies. Black humor is a response to anxiety and fear, it helps us manage uncertainty and find people who have the same fears. There is, to be sure, an emotional disconnect, a "temporary anesthesia of the heart," as the philosopher Henri Bergson writes in Laughter. But this anesthesia doesn't have to give way to mockery, but rather helps us put our fears into perspective and analyze them from a distance.

We don't laugh out of cruelty, but because dark humor provokes complex emotional reactions that can be contradictory, such as respect for the victims and the heroism of the survivors, and the feeling that what happened is beyond us. For example, it is difficult to imagine what we would have done in the place of the protagonists. As @chaquetumate tweets, one of them was studying medicine and tended to the sick; another engineer and fixed the radio. The Twitter user is physical: "What would I have done in the mountains? Integrate differential equations?"

I saw the snow society and it unleashed an existential crisis in me like Roberto was studying medicine and caring for the sick, Roy was studying engineering and fixed the radio with which they listened to the news, what would I have done in the mountains? Integrate differential equations?

— Fermione 💚 (@chaquetumate) January 10, 2024

Humour can help us not only when it comes to an accident from half a century ago, but, above all, when we talk about matters that touch us closely, which is always much more difficult. Last Thursday, Dani Rovira was on I don't know what you talk about, the RTVE program presented by Mercedes Milá and Inés Hernand. In one of the most shared moments on social media, Rovira tells how he faced his cancer diagnosis a few years ago, now overcome. On his podcast with Arturo González Campos, Mi año favorita, Rovira always joked that his partner would die earlier, as he was older. Shortly after learning that he was ill, he warned her that this issue had opened up more than expected.

This doesn't apply to everyone, because we don't have to be amused by black humour. But the comedian explained that being able to laugh at his illness was "a relief. Because in the end, humor is also a catharsis." He added: "Just because I crack a joke about something that affects me doesn't mean it doesn't affect me. Maybe I'll blurt out that joke because I'm scared to death."

Let's keep that in mind: many times, behind a joke that seems crude or in bad taste there is someone who does not understand what we are doing on this planet or why. Like almost everyone else.

That's how it was. Fucking Dani. Smell their eggs. He almost killed me with laughter and release. See it all. Laughter kills fear. Don't miss the whole program, it's delicious. @rtve
#NoSéDeQuéMeHablas5 pic.twitter.com/uInqCFjtvm

— Arturo González-Campos (@ArturoGCampos) January 12, 2024