Dark The Crime, Darker The Humor, Darkest The Age!

 

The world has never been a stranger to murders. But humanity will never be immune to crime, no matter how many of these we see, hear and read about on a daily basis. The sane and rational human will always, always be appalled by crime.

Three of the four souls displayed in the cover picture of this blog were victims of brutal murders while one was disturbed to the extent of taking his own life after being harassed by his wife. Not only do the murders rattle the very soul, the brutality and mindlessness of the culprits shook up the very foundations of our trust in humanity. As in any crime, the questions arise – how can any human have the capability to act so viciously? What drives a human to this point that they lose all distinction between right and wrong, between compassion and extreme detachment, between empathy and antipathy?? What makes such a human what he or she is??

Time and again we have come across such questions. And time and again, we fail at finding suitable answers. Suitable, I say, not right, because there cannot be a right answer. Nothing can every justify a crime. No matter how many points of perception you adopt, nothing can provide a ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of the crime.

What appalls me even more is the dark humor that has found its way around crimes off late, especially crimes committed against men. Memes follow, apparently ‘comical’ warnings ring out in poorly caricatured ads, the culprits are portrayed as somewhat ‘in trend’, the victims themselves become faces of several memes. I cannot help wondering how grossly insensitive this is. To find humor in a crime? What is next for humanity?? How much deeper will you fall, humans, that you seek ways to wrap humor around a crime, all in the name of a meme? To gain fifteen seconds of fame?? To gain more followers, or likes? These hurtful posts even have the laughter reactions! Frankly, I cannot decide who is more vicious among these – the perpetrator of a crime, the meme-creator who posted a ‘funny’ meme featuring the weapons used for the crime, or the people who found the meme funny.

We have already seen dark humor in tv shows where people publicly body-sham their co-stars already battling body-image issues and the audience claps on seeing the ‘Clap Now’ sign. We have seen people using crude language on their co-stars and the audience dutifully applauding with laughter. People create reels showing a funeral scene and something apparently ‘comical’ about it. Where does the buck stop when it comes to dark humor?

In some of the books that I have read, I have come across a question that usually follows any reference to dark comedy. “Too soon?”, meaning it is too soon to find the funny side of the issue. How soon will it be too soon to find comedy in crime?  

Humor is essential in life, I agree. But there is a time and place for humor, people! You cannot find humor in a crime! You cannot find humor in body-shaming people already coping with health issues! You cannot find humor in being rude to someone publicly, just to gain some fake laughs and applause! There is nothing funny here, nor is there anything to applaud.

Creating memes out of crime situations reduces the sensitivity towards the crime. We are already living in a gadget-dominated world where humanity fights with all its might to win against robots, chatbots and other bots. The things that make us human – empathy, compassion, grief, solidarity, companionship – all of these are threatened when we take things far too lightly.

Instead of finding humor in dark situations, find ways to be empathetic and compassionate.

Instead of targeting other people to gain some laughs, show humor at your own cost. After all, isn’t the saying ‘Take yourself lightly’ the basis of all comedy in the world??

Instead of posting memes or hurtful content, produce and show content that portrays your indignation, shock, anger and grief at the crime committed, so that people do not achieve the highly dangerous level of immunity that will make them indifferent to everything happening around them, or worse, will instigate in them the need to find crass humor and share it with the world.

We are humans primarily, and like humans, let us grieve over losses, anger over crimes and be compassionate with our fellow beings. As for all the unfortunate souls in the picture, let us stop creating and sharing memes that show their fates in a poor light. As humans should rightly do, let us stand in silent solidarity with all the lives lost and pray for justice for them.

In memory of all the lives lost to terrible crimes 🙏 May your soul find the light soon!