gallows humor
noun
: humor that makes fun of a life-threatening, disastrous, or terrifying situation
Examples of gallows humor in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
This gallows humor amounts to a national private joke — perhaps never intended to be taken seriously (not with characters named Dementus, Scrotus, and Rictus Erectus) except by comic-book fanatics emboldened by cinematic representation.
—
Armond White, National Review, 24 May 2024
The gallows humor pervaded the Supercharging team, which had set up more than 6,200 stations and 57,000 connectors worldwide and was in the process of opening the network to other automakers, which should increase usage.
—Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 20 May 2024
There’s plenty of gallows humor about aging and dying, although the film moves slower than most comedies and the jokes are rarely laugh-out-loud funny.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 May 2024
Understandably, gallows humor prevailed in the team’s statements to reporters.
—Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, 20 Feb. 2024
As a property, Fallout has always played with a sort of gallows humor, a satirical take on how awful and complicated life could be after total nuclear annihilation.
—Marah Eakin, WIRED, 11 Apr. 2024
Full River Red enlarges the gallows humor of A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009), Zhang’s refinement of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple.
—Armond White, National Review, 22 Mar. 2023
But its gallows humor fit the Stanley perfectly, so Cullen moved Frozen Dead Guy Days here.
—Lee Cowan, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2024
Meetings are marked by occasional gallows humor about what catastrophe lurks around the corner.
—Peter Baker, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2024
Armond White, National Review, 24 May 2024
The gallows humor pervaded the Supercharging team, which had set up more than 6,200 stations and 57,000 connectors worldwide and was in the process of opening the network to other automakers, which should increase usage.
—Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 20 May 2024
There’s plenty of gallows humor about aging and dying, although the film moves slower than most comedies and the jokes are rarely laugh-out-loud funny.
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 May 2024
Understandably, gallows humor prevailed in the team’s statements to reporters.
—Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, 20 Feb. 2024
As a property, Fallout has always played with a sort of gallows humor, a satirical take on how awful and complicated life could be after total nuclear annihilation.
—Marah Eakin, WIRED, 11 Apr. 2024
Full River Red enlarges the gallows humor of A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009), Zhang’s refinement of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple.
—Armond White, National Review, 22 Mar. 2023
But its gallows humor fit the Stanley perfectly, so Cullen moved Frozen Dead Guy Days here.
—Lee Cowan, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2024
Meetings are marked by occasional gallows humor about what catastrophe lurks around the corner.
—Peter Baker, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gallows humor.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Gallows humor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gallows%20humor. Accessed 1 Jun. 2024.
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