gallows humor
/ˈɡæloʊz ˈhjuːmər/
CommonJokes made by someone in a terrible situation, laughing at their own suffering or fate.
The person making the joke has to be the one suffering for it to count. Outsiders making the same joke is just dark humor, not gallows humor.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Three jobs, no savings, my back hurts. Life is beautiful. | Deadpan joke about personal financial and physical suffering. | x, 2024 |
| 02 | I have gallows humor because if I stop laughing I'll start screaming. | Humor is the only way to avoid confronting how bad things actually are. | tumblr, 2022 |
| 03 | My doctor told me to reduce stress. I laughed for five minutes straight. | The advice is so disconnected from reality it becomes a joke in itself. | reddit, 2023 |
| 04 | Nothing like midnight existential dread to keep things spicy. | Turning a genuinely difficult mental state into a casual throwaway joke. | x, 2023 |
Use it when
- Someone is joking about a terrible situation they are personally in.
- A person makes light of their own health problems, failures, or bad luck.
- You are describing the specific type of humor soldiers, nurses, or first responders use.
Do not use it when
- Someone is making jokes about someone else's hardship without being in it.Use “dark-humor” instead.
- The joke is shocking for its own sake with no personal stake involved.Use “dark-humor” instead.
Gallows humor vs dark humor
gallows humor
Gallows humor requires the speaker to be the one suffering. It has personal stakes.
VS
dark-humor
Dark humor is any comedy about grim subjects, regardless of who is telling it.
Origin and context
Named after the humor of condemned prisoners joking on their way to execution. The term dates to at least the 19th century in English and became a documented psychological concept through studies of soldiers and emergency workers.
- First seen
- 19th-century
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/gallows-humorUpdated: 2026-08-29License: CC BY 4.0
Related slang
dark humorself deprecating