gallows humor
noun
: humor that makes fun of a life-threatening, disastrous, or terrifying situation
Examples of gallows humor in a Sentence
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Both alternating narratives are steeped in a poignant form of gallows humor.
—
Alida Becker, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
In a display of gallows humor at the sloppiness of the leaders’ theoretically clandestine communication, people online quickly turned those symbols into memes, and renamed their own chats Houthi PC small group.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025
The line felt dumb and flaccid, derivative in an irritating rather than with-it sense, and lacking the transgression found in good gallows humor.
—Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025
The one-time ingenue made gallows humor out of her ruination, glorying in the cracks and croaks of her voice.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 31 Jan. 2025
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Alida Becker, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
In a display of gallows humor at the sloppiness of the leaders’ theoretically clandestine communication, people online quickly turned those symbols into memes, and renamed their own chats Houthi PC small group.
—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025
The line felt dumb and flaccid, derivative in an irritating rather than with-it sense, and lacking the transgression found in good gallows humor.
—Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025
The one-time ingenue made gallows humor out of her ruination, glorying in the cracks and croaks of her voice.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 31 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gallows humor
Cite this Entry
“Gallows humor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gallows%20humor. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
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