postponement of the South by Southwest
music festival, turning its outdoor message
board into a mock dating app: “Single man
w/TP seeks single woman w/hand sanitizer
for good clean fun.”
And over here, see novelist Curtis Sittenfeld,
sharing a photo of herself eating lunch in her
wedding dress after her kids asked her to wear
it “and I couldn’t think of a reason not to.”
For centuries, laughter in tough times has been
cathartic, said Wayne Maxwell, a Canadian
psychologist who has done extensive research
on “gallows humor.” The term originated in
medieval Britain, where hangings took place in
parks near pubs and patrons told jokes at the
victims’ expense.
“Even in some of the writings of ancient Egypt,
there are descriptions of military personnel
returning from the front lines and using humor
to cope,” said Maxwell, of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
But, he warns, there exists a kind of comedy
continuum: While humor can helpfully lighten
things up, too much laughter and flippancy can
signal a person is trying to escape from reality.
There are also questions of taste. No one
wants to poke fun at medical misery or death.
Quarantining and social distancing, though,
are fair game, and self-deprecating humor is
almost always safe — though LaRoche cautions
that humor, like beauty, is always in the eye of
the beholder.
“It all depends on how your brain functions,” she
said. “Give yourself permission to find humor. It’s
almost like a spiritual practice, finding ways to
laugh at yourself.”