do older generations not get fatalistic humor?? like the other day my friend’s parents were hanging around and we were joking and i was like “well no matter what i can always fling myself off the nearest cliff” and they didn’t laugh then later the mom pulled me aside and was like “maybe you should get some help, sweetie” like stfu?? help? in this economy? i don’t think so, debra
I honestly don’t think they get it as a coping mechanism, they think it’s a cry for help rather than actually helping.
i’d even say it’s past just coping and is also now a category of Stuff Kids Got Used To When No One Was Looking; not everyone using that humor is even covering up something bigger, we just stopped thinking fatalistic = taboo/unspeakable somewhere along the line, and most parents don’t seem to know why or how ~
My boss opened a door and missed me by inches, he said “whoops, almost killed you there!” My result of “Oh, if only.” Led to an awkward end of shift debrief.
This generation shares the same humor as the goddamn Addams Family and the previous generation is the White Sixties Family™ that lives next door and runs away screaming at the end of the episode
I will say that it’s interesting because this kind of humor is very, very prevalent somewhere else…
the military.
Which is honestly a place you would expect fatalistic humor to be common and used as a coping method. You’re one “oops” away from death on the flight deck, one inch to the left and you don’t have a head anymore because the jet that just landed now owns it as a wing-tip decoration. So you joke about it because lowkey you’re fucking terrified it’ll happen, but you’re also desensitized to the danger itself because you face it every single day for 12 hours at a time.
Anyway so we all know the mindset you adopt in the military because of the danger, so to realise that an identical sense of humor has been adopted by normal people should probably tell you something very important about the amount of stress modern young folks experience in daily life.
That last one… it’s true
It was also common in previous generations that had to deal with say, war and economic depression on a massive scale.
One of my favorite movies is Singing In The Rain which came in out 1952, right on the tailcoat of two world wars and a looming cold one, and for all it’s a cheery happy musical, it’s got this really bleak witty humor too, things like “call me a cab!” “okay, you’re a cab!” or the scene where Don says he’ll be homeless by the next day and Cosmo cheerfully tells him not to be ridiculous…the bank bailiffs don’t open till Monday.
And then quite probably one of my favorite opening lines, where two young girls are watching Lina on screen and one says
“She’s so refined. I think I’ll kill myself.”
Which really resonates with a lot of the things we say now when talking about people we find personally attractive, meaning not only is fatalism not a new trend, but those two girls at the starting sequence of Singing In The Rain are totally there for Lina, not Don.
You’re welcome.
I like everything about this post
My landlady (age 75) says I have her mother’s sense of humor. Great Depression, anyone?
My family has moved past worrying when I joke like this and now jokes with me. The only thing I can afford in this economy is a sense of humor
Beautifuldifferences 