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Original poster

Jokes about death

28 replies

tigerlillyd02 · 12/02/2012 22:33

I get fed up at seeing jokes roll in over the death of a famous person! Less than 24 hours after being informed of Whitney Houston's death facebook is full of jokes about it.

I couldn't help but challenge one and of course it's turned into a big argument, with their friends jumping in to defend this person (I'm in the wrong, of course). But I just think that it's downright disrespectful. At best, it's unneccessary.

Why do people feel the need to do this? Surely it isn't too difficult to just keep your mouth shut, even if you didn't like the person in question.

Is it just me?

OP posts:
jesuswhatnext · 12/02/2012 22:35

no, its not just you, i have no particular love for whitney/jackson/amy..... but i HATE those jokes - just no need for it, oh, and i dont think its 'black humour' either, its just a bit sick!

GoingForGoalWeight · 12/02/2012 22:38

Not everybody cares about the same things we do or has the same etiqutte etc.. :( I haven't heard/read any jokes but people on a chatsite that i frequent were less than nice about Whitney's death. That's the internet for ya!

Original poster
tigerlillyd02 · 12/02/2012 22:50

I 'get' the argument that some people use about some of these famous people have brought it on themselves through drug use etc. But, to me, any death is tragic, no matter what the circumstances - and certainly nothing to joke about, especially so soon after. If nothing else - they still have family and others close t them who will be devestated. At least respect them.

OP posts:
McHappyPants2012 · 12/02/2012 22:54

Yanbu I hate these types of joke.

Faverolles · 12/02/2012 22:55

I think some people can't face the reality of death, can't face the inevitability, so make stupid jokes to cover up their immaturity.

A woman at school made an inappropriate death joke to DH when we picked up our dc after his mothers funeral. No doubt she'll be full of jokes tomorrow about Whitney Houston.

It's ignorant, and best ignored.

yellowraincoat · 12/02/2012 22:59

I think it's all part of a culture where people try to prove how they don't care about anything and how "hard" they are.

I really don't like it. It makes me feel sad.

GirlWithALlamaTattoo · 13/02/2012 13:44

Many people find them funny. It wouldn't do for us all to be the same.

mojitomania · 13/02/2012 13:46

Doesn't bother me, I just roll my eyes usually. Certainly doesn't make me cross though.

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll · 13/02/2012 13:50

I'm not a fan of these types of jokes personally, I just find them distasteful.

But I can see the humour in some of them, and I don't think they should be censored. Death is too big a part of life for us to be barred from having a sense of humour about it.

Nagoo · 13/02/2012 13:53

I don't find them funny, but like most things on facebook its not worth wading in and having a row over.

On MN I will have a bunfight over a non-issue, as I don't know the people and it's fun. On FB these are your RL friends and it's not worth falling out with them over a bad joke.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 13/02/2012 13:58

They don't bother me one way or the other. But I have a big problem with the notion that everyone should bow their heads because a person they have never met and means nothing to them, has died. I couldn't stand Amy Winehouse. That didn't change just because she died. I can't see why it's expected that everyone should go into mourning over someone they didn't know from Adam.

The families of these people are hardly likely to be hanging around on MN so it's left to the professionally offended once more.

fortifiedwithtea · 13/02/2012 14:22

I don't have a problem with death jokes. DD1 had a friend sleeping over and this morning friend burst out laughing at joke sent to her on her phone. She read the joke out, we all had a good laugh.

I am not immature. Death is a part of life that we should not be quimmish about. I was with my Dad when he died, it was the most special/important thing I could ever have done for him and I would have been gutted had I not been there for him.

I don't hold with fake mourning for people we don't know personally.

Tiredtrout · 13/02/2012 15:14

I'm not bothered about these jokes as I am not personally linked to anyone likely to have jokes circulated about them. Sometimes though when dealing with death jokes are used to cope. Some of them are wholly inappropriate and I would never use them around the bereaved

CogitoErgoSometimes · 13/02/2012 15:58

It's just the timeline of tragedy...

Day 1... tragedy
Day 2... sick jokes
Day 3... conspiracy theory

In other words, expect the conspiracy theory as to how she was murdered/silenced/still alive and living in Reno any minute now.

aldiwhore · 13/02/2012 16:00

Absolutely Cognito

I don't like the jokes but sometimes the play on words is interesting and witty... though I wouldn't repost them, they are disrespectful.

The only thing that's made me giggle at the whole Whitney FB sensation was the picture of OPRAH with the RIP Whitney comments...!!!

StrandedBear · 13/02/2012 16:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

dandelionss · 13/02/2012 16:02

I think it's a bit sad.Especially when she has a young daughter of 18

HappyCamel · 13/02/2012 16:06

YANBU, but it was ever thus. People use humour to deal with what scares them or makes them feel powerless (eg premature death), it's a coping mechanism. They are just being human.

redyam · 14/02/2012 20:11

So we all have to be upset and in mourning when a filthy rich, boozed up, drugged 'celebrity' that we have never met and didn't know or care for us, manages to cause her own death.
Sorry for not taking part.

MissSayuri · 14/02/2012 20:16

I get more annoyed at the howls of 'what a tragedy'. In the space between Whitney dying and now 25,000 kids will have died through lack of access to clean water. That's a tragedy in my eyes.

MaybeSheWill · 14/02/2012 20:18

I agree with redyam

I bet everyone knows someone in their own lives that could do with a bit of that caring going their way. It's clear just from posts I've seen on here in the last few days that there are loads of people out there feeling isolated and lonely or struggling with life for whatever reason and they could probably really do with a phonecall, or a text or an email from someone showing a bit of caring. It's sad that people put so much energy into showing concern and grief for someone they don't even know when there's ways that energy could be used to really make a difference to someone they actually know.

NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes · 14/02/2012 21:38

Redyam there is a big difference between 'having to be upset and in mourning' and not finding cruel and disrespectful jokes funny and saying they shouldn't be posted.

A person has died. You might not know them, you might not mourn them, you might even think that they brought it on themselves and deserved it in some way. But surely you can have enough empathy to those who are mourning them (family and friends) to see the middle ground between being forced to mourn them and being immature enough to post sick jokes.

Her daughter is going to hear those jokes and be hurt by them. Maybe not on your Facebook page but somewhere, because people think it's funny to pass them on and they will get back to her somehow.

Facebook has several groups that were set up to share jokes about dead babies, including children like Baby P. They don't just tell jokes, some of them actually target grieving parents and abuse them, they have copied photo's and photoshopped them, they send sick messages. My friend had a photo of her dead son taken and photoshopped to look like he was a clown. They used his photo as the group profile picture and sent her a lot of abuse, then accused her of having no sense of humour. I would be devastated if someone targeted me and my children in this way.

These people don't know her, they aren't mourning her son. It's not forcing them to be upset and in mourning to expect them to leave her and her son alone and show them both some respect.

The jokes are cruel, not funny and real people do suffer because of them.

ilovesprouts · 14/02/2012 21:44

sick if ya ask me

theinets · 14/02/2012 21:45

I actually just heard that Whitney isn't dead. she's just Waiting to Exhale!

Onesunnymorningin2012 · 14/02/2012 22:18

I don't have a problem with death jokes as a rule. I heard my first Whitney joke today and I laughed. Bleak humour ican be a way of dealing with death and not necessarily immature. My best friend killed herself and for a while I coped by making grim light of everything.

However, I would not pick on grieving strangers as Noone has described above. That's revolting.

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