Denis: Are tragedies a laughing matter?

Jun 15 2009 By Denis Kilcommons

WITHIN hours of a news item making the front pages people are telling jokes about it, often in bad taste.

This leaves me wondering where the gags come from and whether I should laugh, groan or chastise the teller.

Let me give you an example. The leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, was pelted with eggs when he tried to hold a press conference outside Westminster after being elected to the European Parliament.

Apparently he was fuming that the protesters hadn’t separated the whites first.

This joke appears harmless because it assumes the high moral ground. But the same principle is used in gags that are dripping with bad taste and are rarely written down and certainly not used in family newspapers.

Remember all those appalling jokes after the death of Princess Diana?

Here’s another one. A chap phoned Air France to book a flight and the assistant said: "Certainly, sir. Where would you like to be seated?" And he said: "In the shallow end."

How can anyone create humour out of tragedy and death? But they do and the jokes circulate even quicker today than previously because of the internet and text messages on mobile phones.

Is this a sick phenomenon or something peculiarly British?

I checked on the internet for bad taste jokes and found one site manager had posted his rationale for hosting gags that can make you cringe: "Being English I, along with most of my fellow countrymen, deal with tragedy and adversity in a unique way. After something terrible has happened, usually on a national level, we begin circulating very poor taste jokes."