We shouldn’t joke about death
December 3, 2017
Laughing and cracking jokes with friends should always be encouraged, but there is a difference between laughing together and laughing at someone else’s expense. At Bowie, students constantly hear jokes that aren’t always in good taste, the worst of which being the insensitive jokes regarding death that students make.
It is not okay for any students at Bowie to be making these kind of jokes. This type of buffoonery desensitizes people from all types of negative death experiences and turns it into something that people can feel comfortable poking fun at.
According to Medical News Today, approximately one million people commit suicide each year worldwide. That means about one suicide occurs every 40 seconds, or 3,000 suicides occur daily. Jokes promoting suicide are not appropriate, especially not in a high school setting.
It’s thanks to the United States Constitution that we as citizens of this country have freedom of speech, meaning individuals can’t censor one another from saying what is said as an opinion. We, as students, have the right to express ourselves through any jokes we may please. That’s freedom of speech. But do we really want to abuse our right by making harmful jokes at another’s expense? We must remember to have compassion towards our peers’ experiences and feelings, especially since death is a very delicate topic.
People tend to laugh at things that they don’t fully understand or relate to. When people don’t understand their peers problems, it keeps them for feeling compassion or pity towards them. These uninformed people don’t understand their colleagues experiences, so they have no idea how others will react to their ignorant laughter. Our ignorance and insensitivity towards others’ deaths need to stop now.
There is a simple solution to this insensitivity issue. Students at Bowie need to stop making these jokes right now. All of them. All of the “I am going to kill myself” or “Go die” comments have got to permanently be put to an end. Even though some students at Bowie may not find them offensive, I can guarantee you someone else will.
We need to know our limits and put a stop to these kind of jokes. It’s not always obvious who is struggling with depression or who has experienced a loss, so at least stop making these jokes here at school.
Kenny • Sep 22, 2022 at 11:12 am
I remember one time in 6th grade I told my friend to “off herself” as a joke, and I didn’t realize how bad it was until her mom told yelled at me for it. I felt really bad about it, and I still do…
Thankfully my friend didn’t actually do it, and she and I are still good friends, but at the time I didn’t realize what could have happened or if she had taken it seriously…
Ava • Aug 6, 2021 at 5:38 pm
Ah.. So I see now. Recently today I made a death joke, and didn’t even realize it until someone told me. I feel really bad about it, if you want to know what it was, it was based off of a game character, I said, “Hey Kayayday! (Kaede). Where’s your friend Sayori?” Both characters from different games died the same way technically, and I didn’t realize it was a death joke. I’ll try to be more careful on what I joke about from now on.
PATRICIA • Dec 2, 2019 at 8:13 am
I lost my 14 year old daughter and at my workplace there’s a woman obsessed with death jokes. She make them and glances at me. I started having an anxious attack and till getting to my drawer to take the phones, I was feeling terrible and crying. Please, stop with it, Makng jokes about death, they don’t realize, it’s making jokes about themselves.