Gallows Humour

I got talking with a friend about humour in creativity. A very specific type of humour: gallows humour.

Merriam-Webster defines the term as; ‘Humour that makes fun of a life-threatening, disastrous, or terrifying situation.’

A firefighter friend told me how essential this is for mental well-being in horrific situations in his professional life on a podcast.

In my first short fiction story, All Things Nice, it entered my creativity as I wove a narrative to deal with the turmoil I felt over my fears of a friend being made homeless.

I suppose that’s the point: this world is upside down and still trying, desperately, to work itself out. We, as self-aware creatures, are tuned into a social, collective psychology, and there’s paranoia out there, rage, fear, and a longing for something better.

Creativity can serve all of this, but the paradox is that creativity doesn’t come easily when that turmoil is constant.

That’s why our industry is in flux, too.

Writing is healthy. I’d recommend writing to anyone. For yourself, to vent, to let it all out.

I recommend it to most coaching clients. It might surprise you how useul it is to understanding or releasing what’s going on in there.

PJ Richardson told me that he makes art that aspires to a near-utopian, unashamed level of happiness. Even if – like most of the time – he isn’t feeling it. I found that quite profound. Without glorifying the struggling artist stereotype, which we should not so easily accept as a given, a lot of this is indeed about aspiration. Aspirational work through acts of emotional creativity can play a part in getting us, if not to Arcadia, to somewhere better.