I don't want to be a killjoy

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I don't want to be a killjoy but EBOLA jokes are in pretty poor taste in light of the fact the CDC expects more health care workers who treated Mr. Duncan to come down with the virus.

Sarah Palin and her clan are funny.

Rand Paul and the raccoon on his head is funny.

John Boehner and his perma-tan is funny.

EBOLA isn't.


Just needed to get that off my chest.


Thank you for reading.

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Ebola jokes do reveal a certain pathology, I must say.

[Cleita]

2. Perhaps in a public forum.

But sometimes gallows humor gets those in the midst of unpleasant scenarios through the day.

[bigwillq]

3. I don't think they're very funny either

Neither are the the jokes poking fun at folks for taking Ebola so seriously.

Yes, I don't think Ebola is a huge threat nationally.
But a lot of folks have died in other countries. This is a serious disease. Nothing to poke fun at, imo.

[scarystuffyo]

4. Who would make a joke about this terrible disease that has taken so many lives

[FrodosPet]

20. I am hoping and praying one post in particular was a sick joke

If it was serious, it is really frightening that we have people like this in our midst:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5568774

[scarystuffyo]

23. I don't want to believe that member was serious writing something like that

[Electric Monk]

24. Worth noting: That poster has had their posting privileges revoked until the end of November

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=179578&sub=trans

[FrodosPet]

26. They do seem to have some anger issues, based on their hidden posts

I hope they find some openness and compassion if and when they return.

I can fully understand and appreciate humor which may be irreverent and inappropriate. After all, my childhood and young adulthood heroes were Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Frank Zappa, and Richard Pryor.

But if that post WAS meant to be humorous, they did not mark it as such. It was so cold and blunt I think it may have been true feelings.

[TransitJohn]

35. Humans?

Humor is very ingrained in every human culture.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I don't know if you've ever worked in health care, but

if it weren't for tasteless Galgenhumor, I think hospital & clinic staff would lose their minds just from the emotional stress of what they see every day.

If you're uninitiated and wanna get thoroughly grossed out, go join a table full of front-line staff at any hospital cafeteria table anywhere in the world. The odds are very strong that you will not feel like finishing your meal.

[redwitch]

13. True.

I have talked to some nurse friends about their jobs and dark humor helps them from curling up in the fetal position on the floor and screaming. Thank goodness for the health care workers who are dealing with this.

[eggplant]

17. You should hang around with hospice workers. :-)

Dark doesn't even begin to describe it.

[BrotherIvan]

48. Hospice caregivers are angels on this earth

I cannot say enough good things about them. If you are one, then you have my absolute deepest respect and gratitude.

[eggplant]

49. Nope, I'm just married to one.

And hang around with a disturbing number of them.

(And I agree with your sentiment.)

[BrotherIvan]

50. From me to your spouse and friends: thank you

I can never express how much I appreciate what they do. When doctors abandoned my mother's care or only catered to their egos and did not give a damn about her, hospice caregivers were always kind, compassionate, and truly knowledgable. I am so glad she was able to die at home as she wished and was surrounded by caring people rather than in a hospital. So grateful.

[eggplant]

54. I'm sorry for your loss, and I'm happy that Hospice was there for you.

Don't forget, they usually provide ongoing services for family members. Grieving can be hard, and they can help.

[BrotherIvan]

56. Thank you

It's been a year and a half and I'm getting through it. It is pretty rough. Peace to you and your family.

[TNNurse]

18. As an RN for 36 years

I assure you that there is plenty of dark tasteless humor. We need it to survive.
I have two rules: Never about children and never share with the public. The public cannot understand it as we do.

I have found no reason to joke about Ebola.

[cwydro]

22. My best friend was a nurse

She used to refer to people "circling the drain," which I found horrifying at first.

She was a dear wonderful sweet caring woman. And a great nurse.

I finally got to understand where her black humor came from. But, when she began to die from pancreatic cancer....I was unable to summon that humor. She did. Until her last days.

I miss you Elizabeth.

[TNNurse]

38. Excellent explanation.

We could not stand to deal with all that pain and suffering without some sort of release. You explain it well.

[cwydro]

44. Thank you. nt

[LawDeeDah]

29. Thank you for explaining that. I get it now.

And understand. I've always wondered how people in ER and similar deal with all that horror and pain they have to see all the time. I can understand that dark humor helps them deal with those horrors. I might not have thought so before your post.

thanks.

[hopemountain]

27. still, disrespectful of the suffering & those who love them

just because a bunch of moron healthcare workers think it's okay to make jokes does not make it okay in my book. i worked in healthcare and to this day, this type of humor is disrespectful. keep it to yourselves and have some respect.

[ballyhoo]

36. This is not a universal practice. My wife is a Georgetown RN and has

been a DON for 48 years. I just showed her this post. She has seen mild examples of this but nothing to the extent to making jokes about Ebola or those who have it.. Keep this kind of stuff to yourself and have some respect is right. My wife will be bringing this up for discussion tomorrow morning at the manager's meeting of the hospital. The caregivers cry and are very sad when their Alzheimber's Patients finally die, sometime in great pain and misery. No one makes jokes about it. I have been there and seen a lot of these deaths myself and have never heard any of this black humor being talked about here.

[hopemountain]

59. agree, ballyhoo. but a good reminder.

the jokes on tv medical dramas/sitcoms are not the norm. but they do happen and if i may, remind medical personal, even though a patient may be sedatated or be considered to be out of it, they do hear what is heard by staff around them and it can be consious "hearing". i'm shocked & ashamed of the ugly comments i have personally heard made by some so called "professionals" around patients.

in addition, there is a culture of cronyism in the medical community where such disrespect and examples of incompetence are seen and not heard or poo-pooed when atttention or complaints are made by colleagues & are not taken seriously.

[cwydro]

45. "moron healthcare workers?"

Wow, I don't even have words to respond to this idiotic post.

[hopemountain]

58. there are caring healthcare workers who have better

sense than to sit around a table making sick jokes about the ill and suffering like their disrespectful co workers whom i do describe as morons. okay? get over it.

[ballyhoo]

32. I think you're full of crap. My wife and I have been in health care at medium

to upper levels all of our lives. We have not witnessed this supposed brand of humor you have mentioned, but if we see it, such participants will be out the door or under threat of dismissal STAT.

[Jackpine Radical]

34. I think you've just explained why you don't hear it.

[ballyhoo]

37. And you've explained why I won't hear you again...

[Egnever]

60. Weee!

pretty sure based on that exchange you are not the type of person people make jokes around ever. Non existent sense of humor STAT!

[Treant]

43. That's true

When I worked at a hospital, just reading all this stuff all day squicked me out to the point that I developed a case of gallows humor.

I cannot imagine (yes I can, I ate lunch with them) the stress level of being a nurse and the humor you develop in response. Mine was a pale shadow compared to theirs.

[FSogol]

6. Translation: Tsk, tsk.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. What if A DU member contracted EBOLA?/NT

[Electric Monk]

8. If Gee Duhbya were still President, he would've bombed the hell out of Ebola months ago.

(note to potential jury members: It's a ShrubCo joke that happens to include the word Ebola)

[Journeyman]

9. Lenny Bruce once observed that comedy is tragedy plus time. . .

Given enough time & talent, anything can be funny. . .

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. Maybe but not always, and always with time and distance./NT

[Journeyman]

14. Exactly what I just said.

[KittyWampus]

28. I was just reading some writing by Lenny Bruce>>> he was ahead of his time

or perhaps he was simply different enough from what mass- American culture was doing.

[Journeyman]

40. Read the autobiography: "How to Talk Dirty and Influence People". . .

it is a seminal document of our times.

"He paints us a picture of how we are. Not how we say we are or how we think we are or how we would like to be." ~ S.F. Chronicle

"The immortal enemy of cant and hypocrisy and pseudo-liberalism. What Lenny was saying should be said until we hear some of it." ~ George Carlin

[ballyhoo]

33. Boy, there's a real human to emulate...every other

word a four-letter swear or some despicable word salad of disgust and despair. He finally ended his own life by an overdose of narcotics.

[Journeyman]

39. "All my humor," Lenny once observed, "is based upon destruction and despair." . . .

"If the whole world were tranquil, without disease and violence, I'd be standing in the breadline right in back of J. Edgar Hoover and Dr. Jonas Salk."

[ballyhoo]

41. That would be preferable to where we are now. I've sampled destruction

and despair in scary places that haunt my nights. I would prefer the opposite. To each his own on Lenny Bruce and those like him. For some reason the older I get the less I can see any use in such people except as an example of those not to follow.

[In_The_Wind]

10. DU Rec

[City Lights]

12. Thanks for saying this, DemocratSinceBirth.

[Aerows]

15. Much needed sobriety

interjected into the conversation.

This isn't funny.

[noiretextatique]

16. thanks for posting this...i agree

crass and tasteless as can be.

[marble falls]

19. Needed to be said. Thanks.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Humor is not the most dangerous speech in a health crisis, those would be rumor, idle speculation

and spreading of incorrect or uncertain information. While it is all very nice to say 'don't joke about this' I really hope some thought is given to the fact that unfounded fear can cause unneeded suffering and outcomes no one really wishes to see.
I'd rather hear a tacky joke than some poster saying 'it will become airborne, they don't know if it is or not, the CDC are fools'.
I heard all the same rumors and speculations about HIV. 'Oh, they say you can't get it from a handshake but it could evolve, they don't know, we need to put them all in camps.'
So yeah. Jokes are the worst.

[uppityperson]

42. Exactly and I know of no DUer who thinks ebola is funny.

[Voice for Peace]

25. black humor = antidote to irrational fear

I doubt if anybody on this forum thinks Ebola is funny.

[jtuck004]

30. That's what a lot of people say who are outside of providing care. I used to think similarly...

Before I was a medic I was offended that people called patients vegetables. After a few years I found thinking the same things. I also found myself becoming an excellent technician, one who worked damn hard at my craft and provided, with most of my co-workers, some of the best emergency care on the streets of a city for a while. Let me assure you, living day after day with what humans can do to each other, to the little small ones, the innocent people, those who are trying simply to do good, and the harm malevolent, evil people who will hurt you for nothing you have done, you realize the efforts to address it are nothing but band aids on a war, and lol is all you got.

So I didn't just get to this party. And there are few of us who are still here because of that kind of work done by millions of people all around the world every day.

May I suggest that worker in Texas who, despite precautions, is infected, will be grasping, reaching for any humor they can get. And so will all the workers around ANYONE in that position - dark or otherwise. Along with solutions. That's how it is done.

Here's an experiment - Can you imagine reading your OP there? Picture yourself in that room with that potentially dying person and their caregivers - you demanding that they see NO humor, forever, for the rest of that potentially shortened life.

No?

The REAL wrong is the disease itself, not the many human reactions to it. The "humor" you jab at is a human, and very human reaction, to fear and stress. The trained folks get the stress, because you can never do enough. The rest get the fear, probably 'cause they don't get out enough, and leave the work to everyone else. Rentiers in another form.

Sometimes humor, even dark humor, is all we have, and we rarely even hear people trying to take it away from us, just hot air going by.

And it has health benefits:

Laughter is Good for Health
. . . just another way to promote health and well being

Health Benefits of Laughter
There are many health benefits to laughter. Reseearch has shows that laughter helps to boost the immune system, reduce cravings for food and relieve stress. There are even doctors who claim that laughter helps people recover more quickly from illnesses.
Scientifically speaking laughter helps the body in the following ways:

laughter helps to reduce the release of stress hormones like adrenaline.
laughter exercises the diaphragm, the chest and abdominal muscles and give us a good body workout and it actually benefits the heart and our blood circulation.
laughter helps us to release our physical and emotional energy. Is like going to a quiet place and shout on top of your voice (without disturbing others) .You feel so much relief after a good bout of laughter.
laughter relaxes the mind and distract us from the focus, stresss, anxiety or anger we may be facing.
laughter helps to give us a lighter perspective of things and we learn to let go and not take things so seriously.
laughter helps us to connect with others socially. If you know how to tell jokes, it really helps you to socialize and connect with other people.

(From the page below)

Anyway, thought you might enjoy this:


A self righteous man consults his doctor

>>>
A self righteous man went for see his doctor because he felt terrible.

Doctor: Let me review your history first. How much alcohol do you drink a week?

Man: Is a sin to drink alcohol. I never touch a single drop

Doctor: Do you smoke?

Man: I hate smokers and I don’t smoke.

Doctor: Are you married?

Man: Nope, I want to keep myself pure in case I get AIDS

Doctor: What time do you sleep at night?

Man: 10pm on sharp every night.

Doctor: You must be having bad headache everyday.

Man: Yes, but how do you know?

Doctor: Well, the bright halo over your head is definitely too tight for you.
>>>

http://www.mhcasia.com/laughter/a-self-righteous-man-consult-his-doctor.html

How's your chest now?

[ballyhoo]

31. Part of the black humor that pervades

this place and the body politic. But this was over the top.

[Ilsa]

46. Would ebola be funny if it had something to do with

Sarah Palin?
No? Okay.

[AverageJoe90]

47. I agree, but notice how, at least in terms of the U.S., just this ONE worker has been exposed......

and not, say, half the whole hospital? And only in this one area of the country?

I don't blame the CDC for being extra cautious, but most, if not perhaps virtually all, failures were on a local and perhaps state level.

[TexasTowelie]

51. Okay, I apologize for posting the Fleabola cat meme in the Lounge.

I don't want anyone to contract the Ebola virus and hope that those that are exposed to it recover without harm.

As with all types of humor, what some people might see as amusing others will see as objectionable or crass.

[Feron]

52. It depends on the joke.

Joking that you have/might have ebola in an airplane or other public area isn't funny.

Spreading misinformation/fearmongering about the disease isn't funny.

Laughing at someone who has the disease or is in proximity to it isn't funny.

Laughing at a macro someone made especially the Ricola parodies is very funny.

There is a difference even if you can't see it.

[Iggo]

53. META!

[abakan]

55. To make light of things that scare us...

is a natural human response, and should be seen that way.
Children do it with scary stories and adults do it by trivializing what frightens them.
I find it amazing the things we should or shouldn't do on this board, now we shouldn't have natural human responses either? Really? Just how far does the political correctness have to go before we can say nothing in fear of offending someone?
I'm sure the OP is a wonderful well meaning person and this is in no way meant as an attack on them.

[bobGandolf]

57. It always happens, poor taste or not. n/t

[Rex]

61. Some people like gallows humor.

[KamaAina]

62. So three people with Ebola walk into a bar...

no punch line, yet.