There’s a growing trend I’ve noticed in the past few years (to narrow it down, maybe 5 or so, but maybe longer) wherein Americans seem to enjoy a laugh or two about 9/11. Specifically on social media, there has been a tendency to share provocative jokes and memes about the incident.
I honestly have no clue why something like this attracts so much laughter from people, and that’s not really the point of this article. I’m not commenting on the moral correctness of this type of joke here, I’m more concerned with the why of it all.
The fact that so many Americans (and people around the world in general, for that matter) laugh about 9/11 speaks volumes about the human spirit. Of course it was a tragedy that should have never happened, and blah blah blah. However, the fact that it has inspired so many jokes (regardless of it being in poor taste or not) is worth thinking about for understanding what it says about people (both good and bad). It’s proof that nothing really matters, and everything can be made funny if done well.
For some people the topic will always be off-limits and completely taboo. But for others, one gets the sense there is a strange obsession with it. You don’t even have to search around that hard and you’ll find tons of memes using the iconic imagery of that awful day. It feels like it’s the internet’s favourite day. The thing that strikes me about the popularity of 9/11 humour is the fact that there are so many jokes that don’t even make sense being upset about due to the sheer absurdity. For example, one popular 9/11 meme consists of a .gif in which someone is capturing a movie poster for Mariah Carey’s Glitter, with the towers in the background. The joke isn’t the fact that the towers are falling, the humour in that situation comes from the fact that people are comparing the infamous film’s quality to one of the worst tragedies in American history. The absurdity and coincidence of such a moment is so surreal you can’t deny it’s not an unremarkable image.
Another example of an absurd joke that doesn’t really have anything to do with the unfortunate nature of the situation are jokes at the expense of George Bush. People might share an image of the towers with the text over saying some basic variation of, “Bush did it,” etc. To me, this is another instance where people are using the moment as a way of holding the people in power responsible. The people that prefer the Bush take on the 9/11 joke is usually some well-meaning person that cares about politics and probably considers themselves an intellectual.
Then of course there are other types of people that like to welcome the darkness, and embrace the dark nature of that day. Jokes about death, people falling out of towers, etc. You get the point. The interesting thing about this to me is, again: the question of why people find this funny. In the Glitter example that is obvious, but for an American to make other American people the butt of a joke suggests a strange type of self-loathing. They might not see it that way, and some people may feel zero connection to people that died in the towers that day (especially the younger generation of people who weren’t even alive when 9/11 occurred), but these types of jokes seem to display a weird level of American self-hatred. By making their fellow Americans the butt of the joke, in a roundabout way they are making themselves a punchline as well.
So what is the takeaway here? Why do Americans find 9/11 so funny despite the fact that they also know it was really sad? Is it appropriate or wrong? Does it help people to cope? Or are people just sociopathic weirdos who enjoy laughing at anything tragic that doesn’t involve them personally? I don’t know, I don’t have all the answers. Maybe one day scientists will analyze the impact 9/11 had on comedy in the future. Who knows, maybe it wasn’t even a terrorist, it was just a comedian bombing that day. (Haha).