Laughing at tragedy: appropriate or not?

This post isn’t about the above video.  I could make it a geek ramble and discuss the fantastic parallels it draws, but that’s going to be done ad nauseum by others.  I want to talk about the underlying idea.

Originally, I found this video at Gizmodo (where I spend a lot of time reading) and laughed.  Then I began to read the comments and found an interesting debate had developed:  was the video appropriate?  Now take it a step further — is humour based on tragedy acceptable?

Side A:  Of course it is.  By laughing at tragedy and horror, we provide ourselves some sort of healing — a coping strategy to deal with situations that might otherwise be unthinkable.  One of the posters on the original thread pulled out a quote from Mel Brooks about The Producers.  When asked if comedy is a valid form of revenge, he replied:

Of course it is impossible to take revenge for 6 million murdered Jews. But by using the medium of comedy, we can try to rob Hitler of his posthumous power and myths.

In this case, we are not laughing at the deaths of millions of individuals — we are finding the comedy in an individual.  Certainly it is an individual responsible for heinous acts, but as Brooks states, by laughing at him we deny him any power his memory may have.  We can best respect the dead by ensuring that their deaths can not be used as a weapon. 

Not to make light of the concept, but this is the idea behind Dumbledore’s statement (in which Harry Potter book, I forget) — and I’m paraphrasing — that fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself.  By refusing to find the humour in tragedy, we give additional power to that tragedy.

It’s laughing at the schoolyard bully.  If they have no power over you, eventually they’ll leave you alone.

Side B:  When a situation occurs that reaches a certain level of tragedy — the Holocaust or 9/11, for example — too many peoples’ lives are affected for it to ever me made light of.   Comedy is meant to provide some sort of escape, to give some level of relief.  Making light of tragedy only brings forth the unintended emotions for those that are affected.  It is disrespectful of the dead and is hurtful for the survivors.

Although I can understand this second viewpoint, I don’t agree.  I’m a big believer in the healing power of laughter, but respect the opinion that thinks otherwise. 

Whichever side of the argument you fall on, you have to admit that the video above is carefully worded — it talks of the situation, provides different viewpoints (and theories), and not once makes light of the dead.

Oh yeah, if you check out the video on Gizmodo instead of on the embedded video above, there is an Easter Egg.