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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY

TO THE MORGUE: SOME THOUGHTS ON HUMOR
AND DEATH, AND A TAXONOMY OF THE HUMOR
ASSOCIATED WITH DEATH

JAMES A. THORSON
University of Nebraska at Omaha

Literature on humor and on the humor associated with death is

reviewed, and death humor is seen to have functions both as a
defense mechanism as well as a social lubricant; it also helps people
gain some sense of control over the uncontrollable. Types of death
humor are categorized within ten types in two broad divisions.

Most would agree that the concept of humor is a difficult one to

define in simple terms, because what we find to be humorous
varies so widely in form, context, situation, and mood. Humor can
consist of any number of things, from long, engaging stories to
sight gags, from one-liners to facial expressions, from amusing
noises t o cartoons. We find a thousand things that make us laugh,
and all have elements of humor. Humor can be cruel and humor
can be healing; it can show love, loyalty, and faithfulness, just as
it can display hatred and naked aggression. Humor contains many
different things a t many different times; it is so many things that
it is difficult to define precisely.
In an extended essay on the topic, the Nobel Prize-winning
playwright Luigi Pirandello (1) goes to great lengths to say
essentially the same thing. After many a stab at the concept, he
finally pretty much throws in the towel and admits that he is not
quite sure what makes a situation amusing, as anyone who has
ever seen a play by Pirandello can readily attest. Not being
satisfied with defining humor as that which makes us laugh, other
Death Studies, 9:201-216,1985
Copyright 0 1985 by Hemisphere Publishing Corporation

201

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J. A . Thorson

authorities have made considerable effort in describing humor and

its functions.
Patricia Keith-Spiegels (2) review of the literature on early
conceptualizations of humor analyzes 159 different scholars
attempts to pin down that which tickles the funny bone. Their
collective work seems to confirm the suspicion that humor
analyzed is humor destroyed. Going Keith-Spiegel more than one
better, Goldstein and McGhee (3) provide 377 citations in an
annotated bibliography of both early and more recent research on
humor up until 1971. More has been written, of course, in more
recent years. The psychology and the sociology of humor have
been extensively researched.
One might think that, with all of this activity investigating and
explaining different conceptualizations of humor there would be a
great deal written on humor as it is associated with death, but this
is not the case. While a complete analysis of all of Goldstein and
McGhees annotations is beyond the scope of the present study,
it is obvious from a survey of their titles that an examination of
the humor associated with death has not been a popular undertaking. Of the 377 entries they list, only seven had death content
obvious in their titles (4-10).
If those who write of humor have little to say about death,
those who write of death have even less to say about humor. Of
27 general texts on death and dying surveyed, only one indexed
the topic of humor ( 1 1). That one covered the topic in less than
one page. In that analysis, DeSpelder and Strickland saw humor
as a means of reducing the anxiety that comes with an awareness
of ones own mortality, although they worry that poking fun at
death may not be genuinely confronting it (11). Confronting
death head-on in a serious manner is, presumably, a good thing.

Humor: A Grave Subject?

In an analysis of humor associated with aging, Palmore (12) argues
that humor may reveal basic attitudes. He cites the Greek
philosopher Jamblichus, who thought that humor emphasized the
ugly in order to demand a change for something preferable. The
Greeks found deviations from their ideal of youth, beauty, and
grace as being humorous.

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203

Palmore goes on with his examination of theories of humor,

dealing with comments by Hobbes and Freud. Hobbes found
humor t o have the discovery of a sudden eminence in ourselves
by comparison to the infirmity of others. By this logic, we are
able t o laugh a t the dead in celebration of our own state of living;
we assure ourselves that they are not like us. Palinore concludes
that we laugh at the aged-the pre-dead-because it makes us feel
superior by comparison. He interprets Freuds concept of humor:
We find pleasure in humor because it outwits the inhibitions of
the Superego and allows the release of the drives contained in the
Id such as sex and aggression. There can be no doubt that some
types of death jokes display a release of aggression in a more-orless socially acceptable way. That which we cannot strike
physically can be assaulted with humor.
Obrdlik (13) and Larsen (14) both saw humor as a weapon
against political repression, a defense mechanism whereby the
oppressed could in some small way take the offensive against
powerful enemies. Obrdlik in particular saw the use of gallows
humor as a means of defiance and an emotional escape from grim
realities. It is also a means of social control that bolsters the
morale of captive peoples, allowing them to cope with their
grief. Such counterpropaganda was seen by Obrdlik as gallows
humor at its best. It originates among people who constantly
face death, both providing them with a psychological escape, or
at least a means of psychological compensation, and at the same
time undermining the morale of the oppressors. Thus, humor was
seen as a kind of passive-aggressive resistance with important
implications for social group control.
Martineau ( 1 5 ) provides an elaborate classification system for
the social functions of humor, depending on whether the humor
is within a group or directed at an outgroup, and whether the aim
of the humor is to esteem or disparage. Humor that esteems the
ingroup, for example, serves to solidify the group, as does humor
that disparages an outgroup. Martineaus scheme goes on to
analyze the functions of humor according t o whether it is intragroup, internal within an intergroup situation, or intergroup
fostering interaction between groups. There is a complex system
of functions within these three overall situations that is too
extensive to repeat in this setting, especially because the classification becomes more elaborate according to the intent of the

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J. A. Thorson

humor and how it is interpreted. To summarize, Martineau finds a

host of social functions for humor, including control of group
behavior as an overall goal. Nowhere in Martineaus analysis is the
suggestion that one function of humor is to have a good time. The
student of humor may, however, wish to refer to Martineaus work
for a most nearly complete system for classification of the social
functions of humor. An engaging idea that Martineau introduces is
that humor may be viewed from the sociological perspective as
either a lubricant, keeping the machinery of interaction running
smoothly, or as an abrasive, meant to cause interpersonal or
intergroup friction. Obvious functions of death humor as a
lubricant might be seen in efforts to displace grief, distract the
group from grim realities, or to minimize the impact of death
upon group norms. These efforts have group control motives.

Freud (16) saw analysis of ones humor as a means of gaining

insight and a sympathetic understanding of the individual. The
coarsest form of humor, the so-called humor of the gallows or
grim-humor (Gulgenhumor), may enlighten us in this regard
(16, p. 372). Freud found such humorous efforts to be most
admirable, and cites the story of the man on his way to the
gallows who requested a neckerchief to guard against taking cold.
We must say that there is something like greatness of soul in
this bluuge. . . . This form of grandness of humor thus appears
unmistakably in cases in which our admiration is not inhibited by
the circumstances of the humoristic person (16, p. 373). Thus,
Freud found that with graveyard humor, pity is inhibited, as are
the other emotions, such as anger, pain, sympathy and
compassion, resulting in a humor that smiles under its tears
(16, p. 378).
Freud went on (and on) in his examination of gallows humor,
finding in it a special technique resembling displacement through
which the liberation of affect held ready is disappointed and the
energy is deflected to other matters (16, p. 379). The situation,
so to speak, has been defused through the use of humor as displacement. Freud finds this use of humor to be commendable
(16):
When somebody succeeds in paying no heed to a painful affect
because he holds before himself the greatness of the worlds interest

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205

as a contrast to his own smallness, we see in this the function of

philosophic thinking (p. 379).

According to Freud, then, humoristic displacement can be

seen as a defense process, described as the psychic correlate of the
flight reflex that guards against the origin of pain from inner
sources. We can laugh off our troubles. Humor can now be
conceived as the loftiest variant of this defense activity (16, p.
380). This self-effacing humor, making light of ones own difficulties, was placed by Freud at a higher level than wit at the
expense of others.
In a study of gallows humor appreciation among a group of
96 undergraduates, OConnell (7) found that the kind of high
death humor described by Freud correlated negatively with death
anxiety. Perhaps the humorist is the kind of a person who neither
fears death excessively nor worships existence inordinately ( 7 ,
p. 400). OConnells interpretation was that the production or
appreciation of gallows humor was a hallmark of maturity for
Freud, and was personified by the person who does not repress or
deny the thought of his or her own death.
Vaillant (17) categorizes humor as being within the highest
level of defense mechanisms in his hierarchy, as a mature
mechanism a t the same level as altruism and anticipation:
Like hope, humor permits one t o bear and yet to focus upon
what is too terrible to be borne (17, p. 386). Vaillant differentiates humor as a defense mechanism from displacement,
which, in his categorization is on a lower level, among the
neurotic defenses. He would classify practical jokes and wit
with hidden hostile intent as displacement. Higher-level humor,
according to Vaillant, is the overt expression of ideas and feelings
without unpleasant effect upon others. Thus, aggressive wit, used
as a weapon, would be seen as displacement. At a higher level, true
humor is categorized as a more philosophical personal defense that
does not involve an attack upon others. This implies that
graveyard humor might have two different levels: an aggressive
type, that defends oneself by an attack on death itself, and a
more internal type that allows one to laugh at ones own grim
situation. In wit, clowning, and caricature, emotional affect is
displaced or concealed. True humor conceals nothing. . . . Humor

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J. A . Thorson

is one of the truly elegant defenses in the human repertoire (17,

p. 117).

Oh, Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

Thus, a number of scholars have seen the humor associated with
death as a high-level defense mechanism, a means t o deflect the
pain of death or grief, a means of social control, and a means of
coping with grim realities. Freud and Vaillant, in particular, see
death humor almost as a means of transcendence, a way t o rise
above the smallness of ones personal difficulties and project
courage t o ones group. This may be related to Martineaus
concept of humor as a means of group control. The affect of the
group when confronted with the idea of death may be beneficially
manipulated through the use of humor.
Our own conclusion is that while death humor undoubtedly
is all of these things, it is something more as well. We not only
see humor as a defense mechanism, but propose that it may be
used as an offense mechanism, t o coin a term. Humor is one way
in which the layperson can go onto the offensive against the very
concept of death. By making light of death, by laughing in the
face of our own finiteness, we seek t o gain some measure of
control-however imperfect-over the uncontrollable. Although we
all must die, we have, a t least, the ability t o laugh at the Grim
Reaper. By making our own death unimportant, we make all
death less important.
This is a defense mechanism with teeth, and elevates humor
to the level of the two other areas of human endeavor, medicine
and theology, that seek t o have control over death. Humor is not
only a coping mechanism, it is also, as Obrdlik has said, a weapon,
and thus a means of control. While it cannot deny the reality of
death (with, admittedly, varying levels of success, particularly
in the realm of medicine), it can deny the importance of the
reality of death. Death personified with pie in its face has lost
its power. Tomorrow we die, but at least for now we can eat,
drink, and be merry.
This is not the denial of death, but an acceptance of the
reality of death as a part of life, and, like much of the rest of

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207

life, as funny. As we can laugh at our other frailties, we can laugh

at the fact that we must die. This defends us, and it also gives us
some means of control, meager as it might be, over the thought of
our own death.

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones,

But Names Will Kill Me
A system for classification of death humor may be helpful
for a better understanding of some of these concepts. Our
efforts to gain control over death through the use of humor
have taken many and varied forms. Sarcasm, satire, parody,
ridicule, and caricature-all of which can be used to take the
offensive-are the lower77forms of wit that Freud described.
When we poke fun at death in these ways, we are literally
giving it a poke.
Self-effacement was Freuds conceptualization of high death
humor; we make fun of ourselves because we too must die. There
is, however, a third form of death humor that Freud did not
describe: We poke fun at others who have died or who must die.
This kind of humor goes back to the Greek idea of wit, that is, we
laugh at those with human frailties to show that they are not like
ourselves. These three classifications are, however, not really
useful in constructing a taxonomy of grave humor; they all may be
found within other categories.
In an analysis of the kinds of humor associated with death,
we would propose two broad divisions within which the subjects
of death humor may be categorized: humor associated with the
body and humor associated with the personality.
Within the broad grouping of death humor associated with
the body, we would classify undertakers, funerals, burial,
necrophilia, and cannibalism. Within the second broad categorization, death humor associated with the personality, we would
classify deathbed scenes and last words, memories of the departed
and grief, suicide and homicide, executions, and the personification of death. Among these ten divisions, humor and wit vary by
type, of course, and we will explore how this happens further in
our analysis.

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J. A . Thorson

Body Humor

Undertakers
Our peculiar cultural obsession with the body is personified in
death by the funeral director, who has been the popular butt of
wit in our literature and folk wisdom for centuries. Dickens and
Twain in particular saw undertakers as absurd. Much of this humor
is biting and is used as a weapon against the person who will lay us
in our grave.
An illustration of humor holding the mortician up t o ridicule
is found in the contemporary anecdote about a widow who is
dispIeased to find her husband laid out in a brown suit; she
insists that the service be delayed so the undertaker can change
the dearly departed into the preferred blue suit. (The reader will
recognize that these examples can be stretched out for better
impact at cocktail parties.) The body is wheeled back into the
chapel after only five minutes; sure enough, the husband is now
in blue. After the ceremony the widow compliments the mortician
on his efficiency, and he replies, Oh, it was less trouble than we
thought. There was another guy in the back laid out in a blue suit,
and all we had t o do was switch heads.

Funerals
Closely related to the first category, traditional funeral ceremonies
are seen as odd if not absurd by at least a minority of our
population; hence, they are a ready target for humor. As noted,
this is not necessarily a recent phenomenon; a hundred years ago,
Mark Twain had Huckleberry Finn attend a hilarious funeral as a
part of his travels down the Mississippi River. More recently,
editorial cartoonists have had a field day with the former
astronaut who has proposed disposal of cremains in earth orbit, a
real-life realization of a scene from the film adaptation of Waughs
The Loved One. The tastelessness of rocketing ashes into space
thus is emblematic of the tastelessness and resultant humor that
some people associate with the entire funeral industry.
A different kind of humor is found in the well-used funeral
joke wherein a golfer stops and holds his cap over his heart as a

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209

funeral procession passes the country club. Complimented for his

piety by his fellows, he says, Yes, we would have been married
20 years next Tuesday.
Burial
Burial jokes often typify the Greek concept of humor-something
that departs so much from the ideal of youth and beauty that we
can laugh at it. An example is found in W. C. Fields comment:
Had to bury my wife last week.
His companion of the moment merely says, Oh?
Yes.
Dead, you know.

...

A similar example can be found in the Laurel and Hardy film

Way Out West: After they have shocked the ingenue with the news
that she has inherited a gold mine from her father, she replies,
Oh, did Daddy die?
Laurel responds, Well I hope so. We buried him last week.
A wide range of popular jokes deal with the body in the coffin
without its pants, at the wake, being lowered into the ground,
being dropped, and so on. The popular comedian Bill Cosby even
built a routine out of this kind of humor (Doesnt he look like he
could just sit up and talk?) some years ago.
Epitaphs might be seen as a sub-category within the classification of burial humor. Since there are several popular collections of
this type of specialized humor (18, 19), we will confine ourselves
to but two examples. The tombstone of Isaac Bartholomew, dated
1710, in Cheshire, Connecticut (18, p. 6) reads:
He that was sweet to my Repose
Now is become a stink under my Nose.
This is said of me
So it will be said of thee.

On a similar theme of decomposition is the epitaph of Mary

Fowler, 1792, in Milford, Connecticut (18, p. 32):
Molly tho pleasant in her day
Was suddenly seized and went away
How soon shes ripe, how soon shes rotten
Laid in her grave and soon forgotten.

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J. A . Thorson

Necrophilia
Moving on from body humor associated with undertakers,
funerals, and burial, there is a category of body humor,
necrophilia, that has the potential of not only being used as a
weapon against death itself but also against the body as a symbol
of death. Necrophilia jokes are so aberrant and tend to be in such
remarkably bad taste that even we will confine ourselves to but
one illustration.
A womans body washes up on the beach on the French
Riviera. The lifeguard, seeing that the possibility of resuscitation
has passed, runs to notify the authorities. An amorous Frenchman
passes by, sees the woman lying on the beach, introduces himself,
and sits down next to her. Proceeding to use his seductive line
and finding no resistance, he finally is found by the returning
lifeguard making love to the body.
Lifeguard: Pardon, sir, but did you realize that this poor woman
has died?
Frenchman: My God! I thought she was an American!

Cannibalism
Our visions of Jack the Ripper types engaging in murder, mutilation, necrophilia, and cannibalism are repellant; they tend to be
such a wide deviation from an accepted social norm that,
paradoxically, cannibal jokes usually are rather light as death
humor goes. There is a distancing strategy that is often used here
in an attempt to show that persons who would do such a thing
are not like us. Not only is the practice foreign, but the people
engaging in it are foreign as well. Because we hate t o think of
cannibalism in our own culture, our humor about it is transplanted
to other groups. There often is an undercurrent of racism to these
jokes. An example is the Charles Adams cartoon of the black
African looking woefully into the stewpot: Not anthropologist
again. A variation has his wife saying to him, NOW,dont tell
me that you had missionary for lunch. Another cannibal joke
has the captive explorer feeding the natives pieces off of his
wooden leg to demonstrate how bad he tastes. A final variation

Thoughts on Humor and Death

211

of this lighter kind of humor has a captive being cut so the

cannibals can drink his blood: I wouldnt mind being eaten, but I
hate being stuck for the drinks.

Personality

Death Scenes and Last Words

This first classification within the personality grouping bridges the
gap from humor associated with the body to humor associated
with the personality.
Last words or deathbed sayings as they are reported by
witnesses are not without humor, though many that are quoted in
anthologies of such sayings often display resignation or a desire
for peace, rather than true wit (20, 21). Some may indicate humor
inadvertently. Slater and Solomita, for example, cite the final
words of Dominique Bouhours, the French grammarian: I am
about to-or I am going to-die. Either expression is correct (20,
p. 3). Another accidentally humorous last utterance by a dying
man who was a perfectly humorless person is attributed t o Dr.
Joseph Henry Green, an anatomist who monitored his own vital
signs up until the end. Taking his own pulse, he looked up
suddenly and said to his physician, Stopped! It was. He fell
back dead at that instant (20, p. 8). One further example of dying
words being characteristic of the dying man, and humorous for
that reason, belongs to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, who was
known for his habit of correcting others. As visitors surrounded
his sickbed, his nurse was heard to say that he seemed t o be
getting a little better. Ibsen looked up at her, said On the
contrary, and then died (20, p. 128).
While solemn thoughts in the face of death might seem to be
appropriate at such a time, a few dying men have displayed good
humor, even genuine wit, in the face of death. Among Sir Walter
Raleighs final words were these as he examined the executioners
ax: This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases
(20. p. 4). This is an additional example of that maturity in the
face of extinction that Freud found t o be so admirable.

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J. A . Thorson

Memories of the Departed and Grief

We rarely laugh a t grief because that would be interpreted as
humor at the expense of the grief-stricken person, and that
individual is generally treated as being vulnerable and is given
special consideration in our society. There would be a certain
unfairness in placing him or her under the same pressures as the
other victims of humor. Thus, we regard the following anecdote
as relatively sick humor; like many jokes, its humor comes in
its surprise ending: A frail older woman opens her door t o admit
the Western Union delivery boy. Before he can deliver the
message, she overflows with enthusiasm-shes never received a
singing telegram and this may be her Iast chance. Would he please
humor an old lady and sing the message? Reluctantly, the delivery
boy opens the telegram and breaks into song (to the tune of
Hernandos Hideaway) :
Dear Mrs.Jones, Your son is dead.
He died last Friday in his bed.
He had three bullets in his head.
Thats all. He died a wealthy man.

The laugh here is as much at the discomfort of the delivery boy

and the surprise ending as it is at the expense of the woman. If
she were to be pilloried in a worse fashion, this joke would lose
the little social acceptability that it has.
We are on socially safer ground laughing at the dearly departed
than at the dearly surviving. Thus the cartoon-in several iterations
by various artists-of the two professors shaking their heads over
the loss of a colleague: Poor old Smith. Published and published,
but perished anyway. Another variation of the same theme:
Poor Harold; expired the same day as his Visa card.

Suicide and Homicide

Good murder jokes are hard to come by. Perhaps, as indicative
of our television viewing habits, we find homicide to be entertaining but not humorous. Most of the humor associated with murder
comes in the form of one-liners:

Thoughts on Humor and Death

213

In the words of John Gacy, may all your troubles be little ones.
Why did Begin besiege Beirut? To impress Jodie Foster.
Whats white and flies across the ocean? Lord Mountbattens tennis
shoes.

Suicide provides riper ground. However, like cannibalism,

there is some tendency to make a transference of unacceptable
behaviors to cultures other than our own. An example is the jest
about the half-witted Kamikaze pilot who flew twelve missions.
Related, but within the culture, is the practice of placing suicidal
behaviors as characteristic of outgroups-the disabled, minorities,
or mentally ill people. Again, these are distancing strategies. An
illustration is the following racist joke: Question-A black and a
Pureto Rican jump off the Empire State Building at the same
instant. Who hits the sidewalk first? Answer-Who cares? Variant
of answer-The black, because the Puerto Rican takes longer spray
painting the building on the way down. With this kind of humor,
the bigot who feels threatened by minority groups and by death
can kill two birds with one stone. Interestingly, there seem to be
few if any suicide jokes featuring older persons as members of
an outgroup.
Perhaps as indicative of a growing social acceptance of suicide
is the increase in recent years of suicide cartoons: the man who
has his arm as well as his neck through the noose whose wife says,
George, cant you do anything right? Another example is the
cartoon of the suicidal blind man, who aims the pistol but
continually misses.

Gallows Humor
Humor associated with executions is more socially acceptable
than most of the humor in other categories for two reasons:
First, the individual about to be executed is almost by definition
a member of an outgroup; and, second, like Freud, we can admire
courage and wit in the face of the gallows. Raleighs last words as
well as Freuds anecdote about the neckerchief serve as examples.
Another fine illustration of the wit of the condemned can be
found in a short story from the 19th century, Parker Adderson,
Philosopher, by Ambrose Bierce, as cited by Wilcox and Sutton

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J . A. Thorson

(22). Told that he will be shot at sunrise, Adderson, a Union spy,

says to his Confederate judge: I hope, General, that the spectacle
will be intelligently arranged, for I shall attend it myself (22, p.
11). Asked if he would care tb see a chaplain, Adderson says, I
could hardly secure a longer rest for myself by depriving him of
some of his (22, p. 12).
Not all humor is, by any means, verbal or visual, and within
the present category is a well-known example of musical humor.
Richard Strauss, in his tone poem Till Eulenspiegels Merry Pranks,
has the condemned Till farting in fear-via bassoon in the orchestration--as he mounts the steps of the scaffold. This lower-leveI
humor, wit at the expense of anothers pain, is not generally
characteristic of gallows humor.

Death Personified
The final category in our brief taxonomy of death humor has to
do with the personification of death: the Grim Reaper or the
Angel of Death. It is here that we can see most clearly the use
of death humor on the offensive, making fun of Death personified.
The recent film Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life has a scene
of Death coming to a dinner party (the diners have all partaken
of a bad salmon loaf). None of the guests take him seriously,
much to his frustration. More widely seen, perhaps, are the recent
television commercials for the Prudential Insurance Company
featuring two angels in white suits. One ad has a recently departed
policy holder ascending the celestial escalator while still holding
his bowling ball. The Carl Reiner and Me1 Brooks comedy routine
of the 2000-year-old man gives this secret for long life: Before
going t o bed, I eat aclove of garlic. Then, when the Angel of Death
comes for me, I breathe into his face: Whos there?
The alpha and omega of life are personified by newspaper
cartoons of the New Years baby and the death of the past year
characterized by the Grim Reaper. A final illustration comes from
a recent cartoon: A man at a doorway confronts a short, fat, Grim
Reaper and says, Somehow, I always expected someone tall and
thin. Being abIe to tweak the nose of Death can be seen, variously, as both false bravado and admirable courLge in the face of the
Destroyer. We cannot destroy Death, but can give Death a hot foot.

Thoughts on Humor and Death

215

Running Out of Space and Time

Thus we have proposed ten categories that provide logical classifications for the types of humor that are associated with death,
and have placed them within two broad categories of body humor
and personality humor. The reader may find need for refinement
and do some shifting about; it is clear that some kinds of death
humor can be placed in more than one category. Looking at this
way of coping with our existential problem may help us understand the ways in which we behave.
The so-called lower form of humor, humor at the expense of
others, might be seen also as a vehicle for humor at the expense of
Death. And, for this reason, it might be thought of as a defense
mechanism whereby the wit can go upon the offensive. In this
way, we seek t o control the uncontrollable, to place a whoopie
cushion under the bottom of Death the Destroyer and shake
Deaths hand with a joy buzzer.
Death humor serves as a social lubricant as well. We have the
vision of Robert Oppenheimers words as he witnessed the first
atomic explosion, a quotation from the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita:
I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds! (23, p. 453). The
rational man has two choices when confronted with this terrible
thought: t o shudder and hide his face in horror, or t o think that
Oppenheimer might have been eating cactus buttons. We may be
incinerated this afternoon, but at least we can laugh about it.

References
1. Pirandello, L. On Humor. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press, 1960.
2. Keith-Spiegel, P. Early conceptions of humor: Varieties and issues. In
Goldstein, J., & McGhee, P. (Eds.), The Psychology of Humor. New
York: Academic Press, 1972,3-39.
3. Goldstein, J., & McGhee, P. An annotated bibliography of published
papers on humor in the research literature and an analysis of trends:
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Received January 30,1985

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