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
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
Well, the use of gallows humor has been quite popular.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
Chock-full of brilliant gallows humor, the film caps with a wonderful mic-drop ending (of the sort that rarely gets made nowadays).
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 29 Aug. 2023
Piper is, once again, astounding as Suzie, fusing heartache with gallows humor and rage with stinging resignation.
—Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 6 July 2023
Personality tests may have it otherwise, but many of us are fluid creatures who bounce among despair, loneliness, gallows humor, and silliness, sometimes all in the same 1/60 of an hour.
—Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2023
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
Well, the use of gallows humor has been quite popular.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024
Chock-full of brilliant gallows humor, the film caps with a wonderful mic-drop ending (of the sort that rarely gets made nowadays).
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 29 Aug. 2023
Piper is, once again, astounding as Suzie, fusing heartache with gallows humor and rage with stinging resignation.
—Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 6 July 2023
Personality tests may have it otherwise, but many of us are fluid creatures who bounce among despair, loneliness, gallows humor, and silliness, sometimes all in the same 1/60 of an hour.
—Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2023
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.
Dictionary Entries Near gallows humor
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“Gallows humor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gallows%20humor. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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