70 Argentine people injured during terrifying piranha attack

[Jesus Malverde]

66. When do Tragedies Become Funny?

After the terror attacks on 9/11, there was a sense that comedy had died and we would never be able to laugh again. Comedians were baffled, comedy clubs closed, and no one knew when they would reopen. Late-night talk-show hosts literally stopped telling jokes, and the sentiment was that nothing would be the same again. As we all know, comedy did not die, and though it took a while, comedians slowly got their acts together. Over the years, there were even jokes about 9/11 (you can Google them yourself). This seems to confirm what Mark Twain famously quipped: “Humor is tragedy plus time.”

People seem to regularly find some tragedies and other mishaps in life funny, but there are many variables involved in the transformation of tragedy into laughter. As Erma Bombeck once said, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.” Why do so many people find tragedies and misfortune to be funny, and what makes it so?

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/humor-sapiens/201209/when-do-tragedies-become-funny