How far is too far?
February 4, 2020
According to Plantz, although dark humor can be a helpful coping method, it still can be deemed as inappropriate to certain viewers.
“It can go too far and I think it can offend people. You’ve seen people in other schools, this school, being called out for doing humorous things that people didn’t find funny, and you can see people online becoming emotional about it,” Plantz said. “If people can understand that it’s a joke, it’s fine.”
Lindenberg said she believes satirical news sources are within the good side of dark humor.
“A lot of politics and social events do get processed through humor. There are a lot of satirical newspapers like ‘The Onion’ and they comment on current issues that seem to be very relevant to people,” Lindenberg said.
According to senior Zakiah Goff, as long as the majority of people think that memes and jokes are funny, then it is OK.
“It’s funny. I don’t think comedy ever goes too far. If people think it’s funny, that’s fine,” Goff said.
Miller said dark humor doesn’t bother her, but there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
“Usually, (dark humor) doesn’t affect me much. A lot of Gen-Z humor is dark humor. For the most part, I’m OK with it, unless it’s really discriminatory to a race or gender,” Miller said.