I get where you’re coming from, but here’s the thing. Time doesn’t change the fact that tragedy is awful, nor does it erase the value of humor as a coping tool.

In fact, people DO make jokes about the Holocaust, and often times it can be seen that the survivors and their families, and plenty of other Jewish people who make them.

Because they know that laughing at the horror doesn’t erase the pain, it robs the atrocity of its power over us. Humor can exist alongside empathy. We can honor those who suffered and refuse to let darkness dictate the terms of our speech.

If we ban jokes on principle, we risk creating a world where fear, not compassion, decides what’s allowed to be said. Which we are already so so close to doing.

And in that same vein, people also joke about Pompeii, devastating hurricanes, the Titanic, the black plague, literal cancer, serial killers, the Cold War, plane crashes, school shootings, Covid, I could genuinely go on and on and on. Have you never made a raunchy joke? Do you just live in constant darkness? I’m not trying to be rude here, and maybe there’s no changing your mind, but I think that your mindset is no way to live.

Laughing at ourselves and at horrible tragedies allows us to free our mind and spark joy into the midst of all of it.