In any given situation, would you rather laugh or cry?
I remember being at my grandma's house around age 11, we were sitting in the living room watching T.V. A story came on the news reporting that four kids were caught setting a homeless man on fire, and if my memory serves me right, they peed on him too. I remember looking over at my grandma, noticing her appalling look as an ugly truth went from her T.V. screen into her reality. Not only was she appalled at the story, but even more so at her grandson, because I was laughing my ass off on the couch, grabbing my stomach, rolling, etc.
Hang in there, folks. There is a point.
What do I mean when I say "dark comedy"? Let's start with the form first; pure comedy. When I think of comedy, I can't help but think of Greek mythology and the masks of Thalia and Melpomene. Thalia, the muse of Comedy, and Melpomene, the muse of Tragedy, were the inspiration for those two masks we commonly see hanging over theater doors. Motley Crue depicts these masks on their album Theater of Pain. You can't have tragedy without comedy, and you cannot have comedy without tragedy. Properly blended into one unified whole, I believe we can tease out something commonly referred to as "dark comedy".
Dark comedy, to me, is simply taking tragic situations and instead of crying, choosing to laugh at them. Laughter is a sign of higher intelligence. Psychologists from the University of Mexico conducted a study on 400 men and women (200 of each). Through a series of surveys and tests, researchers learned that a sense of humor is correlated with "above average intelligence". These scientists also think that our sense of humor evolved with our ability to attract mates and reproduce. The group of males tested was found have more of a sense of humor than women. That doesn't mean men are funnier, I have met men with no sense of humor, and women who have left me squirting milk out my nipples - it just means we were monkey's trying to get a piece of ass. Regardless, just like remaining calm when events pave a bright and enticing path to anger, finding the humor in those tragic situations is a form of higher intelligence and always the healthier choice - but not the easier one.
One of the best comedians in the world is Doug Stanhope. Brutally honest, untethered to the rules of the game, this man brings ugly truths and reality right to your front door whether you want him to or not. Just recently, Stanhope wrote a book entitled Digging Up Mother: A Love Story. In this tale of debauchery, Stanhope reviews his life along with his mothers which resolve in the book with his mother committing suicide. As a part of Stanhope's comedy routine, suicide is often a topic of discussion. During his standup special, Deadbeat Hero, Stanhope goes on a rant about the contradicting nature of American's value of freedom and the reality of Americans not really being that free at all. The text of the joke is as follows (but if you click the link entitled "Deadbeat Hero", you can hear the joke at time 1:09:52): "They say if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish.... then he's gotta get a fishing license, but he doesn't have any money. So he's got to get a job and get into the Social Security system and pay taxes, and now you're gonna audit the poor cocksucker, 'cause he's not really good with math. So he'll pull the IRS van up to your house, and he'll take all your shit. He'll take your black velvet Elvis and your Batman toothbrush, and your penis pump, and that all goes up for auction with the burden of proof on you because you forgot to carry the one, 'cause you were just worried about eating a fucking fish, and you couldn't even cook the fish 'cause you needed a permit for an open flame. Then the Health Department is going to start asking you a lot of questions about where are you going to dump the scales and the guts. 'This is not a sanitary environment', and ladies and gentlemen if you get sick of it all at the end of the day... not even legal to kill yourself in this country. Thanks again, John Ashcroft, you weird bible addict, can't even handle your own drug. You were born free, you got fucked out of half of it, and you wave a flag celebrating it."
I remember hearing that joke for the first time and thinking that Stanhope was true, piece of shit, but then, one day on his Twitter account, Stanhope, who just happened to be standing nearby, can be seen talking a man down from a bridge who was about to commit suicide (link to tweet). This caused my brain to attack itself at the mere understanding of what I thought at first was a spectacle of blatant contradiction.
Back to the beginning of the story of the pissed on, emblazoned, homeless gentleman:
When my parents came to pick me up, my Grandma, with much concern, scolded my parents, along with myself and said, "I can't believe him. He was laughing at a homeless person being set on fire. That is evil... What have you been teaching him?" I don't remember if I got in trouble, but I do remember being misunderstood. Just like Stanhope, if I was there that day when those four kids pissed at set ablaze that vagabond, without a shade of a doubt, four kids would have received a similar ammonia and fire filled fate. That is to say, I would have helped.
I was not simply laughing at a homeless person being peed on or set on fire. I agree with my grandma, "That is evil," but what my family failed to recognize is that I was simply laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. That people, for whatever reason, boredom or insanity, found it necessary to do such a thing. We live in an absolutely painful and unpredictable world, so once bad things happen, I find it healthier for all parties to laugh instead of cry or get angry. In my past, I struggled with depression, and even if someone were to make fun of me for that I WOULD NOT GET MAD. People also tend to forget that the word "news" implies "already happened". Sure, get mad, get outraged, but I find humor as a more effective vehicle to provoke change - anger can be foggy and cloudy or judgments.
Dark comedy is not just for making light of bad situations, but also, to get people engaged in a discussion they wouldn't have without having first been offended. Society creates these things called taboo's which are commonly known as "things we shouldn't talk about". Sex, drugs, suicide, abortion, religion, death, magic; all these topics will most likely not manifest at the common dinner table, and I believe comedy can help earn its rightful place after saying grace.
As it follows, I would rather laugh than cry.
We do have a sixth sense; a sense of humor.
Enjoy and inspire! (And don't set homeless people on fire or pee on them)
