gallows humor

noun

1. humor that treats serious, frightening, or painful subject matter in a light or satirical way.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gallows humor¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Lee’s combination of righteous inquisitiveness, gallows humor, authentic love for the city and eye for novel ways into events that have been dissected to death make him the perfect interlocutor for this particular story.

From Time

I love the gallows humor between rescuers and the stories patients tell us on the back of the ambulance, a confession box on wheels, that they don’t tell anyone else.

From Time

Instead, their feelings are expressed in small moments, through a tender touch, a burst of anger, or a shared laugh over a bit of gallows humor.

From Washington Blade

Finding new ways to frame this problem, with the height of internet gallows humor, became a staple of online coronavirus discourse this year.

From Time

Gallows humor has always served him and other activists well; it had to in such dark times.

From The Daily Beast

There was a lot more gallows humor and a lot less talking about your feelings.

From The Daily Beast

Over the next week, he entertained his three children and six grandchildren with his famous gallows humor.

From The Daily Beast

Needless to say, the gallows humor that is a hallmark of my former profession has lost much of its luster.

From The Daily Beast

Some would-be SEALs turn to gallows humor to endure the pain, telling themselves “the only easy day was yesterday.”

From The Daily Beast

And his bitter gallows humor had furnished a wry relief to grim reality.

From Project Gutenberg

Valentine, in fact, was seized by that desperate merriment which is known as gallows humor.

From Project Gutenberg