Do you ever see jokes about 9/11?
Memes maybe?
Maybe you laugh, maybe you don’t. You at least probably try not to.
How about the Titanic?
At least a little funny. You don’t feel as bad for laughing.
Now how about the plague in Europe in the 1300’s?
Probably doesn’t bother you at all. Who really cares if you make fun of it, right?
It seems there is some correlation between when horrible things happen and when it’s appropriate to make jokes about them. For instance, if there was a massive bomb that went off tomorrow and killed 1,000 people, no one would even think about making jokes or posting memes about it. If they did, they would probably be hunted down and murdered.
But for some reason, once we have some separation in time, it’s not as big of a deal. Making jokes about 9/11 is still not an acceptable thing to do, but you can get away with it without everyone calling you out. If you make a joke about the Titanic, I doubt you’re going to find pretty much anyone who is going to take offense to that. Of course there will always be a few, but in general, no one will care.
Why is this? Is it because we’re simply more removed from the emotions of the event the longer it is from it? Is it because less and less people were alive during the event the more time goes on? Is it because no one really cares too much but everyone pretends to for a while to make everyone think they do?
Why are deaths from 300 years ago less important than the deaths of yesterday and today?