this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
906 points (98.2% liked)

memes

14521 readers
4137 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world
The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website
906
time traveler sneezes (ani.social)
submitted 18 hours ago by MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social to c/memes@lemmy.world
43 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] heavy@sh.itjust.works 76 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Humor is also part of how we cope with reality as humans, I think.

Even when we're in the trenches, there's gonna be some jokes being cracked.

That being said, it's totally fine to feel this way too, shit is serious and it feels awful

[–] AngrySquirrel@lemm.ee 8 points 9 hours ago

Exactly. Gallows humor is a normal and healthy coping mechanism. That's why it is standard in military, first responders, hospitals, etc..

[–] underwire212@lemm.ee 21 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Well said. Agree wholeheartedly.

I am reading Man’s Search for Meaning, and the author speaks about how even in the concentration camps, where death and suffering is shoved in your face, the prisoners still joke and try to make the best of a truly horrific situation. I guess humor has evolved as a sort of coping mechanism, and as a method of keeping sane.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It’s very powerful and raw.

[–] Charapaso@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

To add to this, there's a great section in Man Without a Country by Vonnegut where he talks about his approach to humor, and he mentions the time he was in Dresden during WW2 as a prisoner of war, while it was being bombed.

True enough, there are such things as laughless jokes, what Freud called gallows humor. There are real-life situations so hopeless that no relief is imaginable.

While we were being bombed in Dresden, sitting in a cellar with our arms over our heads in case the ceiling fell, one soldier said as though he were a duchess in a mansion on a cold and rainy night, "I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight." Nobody laughed, but we were still all glad he said it. At least we were still alive! He proved it.

A bigger part of the section here: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm/kurt-vonnegut-1/excerpt-from-a-man-without-a-country