And then one day, no more jobs forever
I don’t know when I first started leaning towards dark humour. Maybe it’s something that happens as you get older and more cynical — or maybe it’s something that happens to cynical people as we get older.
The headline for this blog comes from a comedy routine by one of my favourite funny people, James Acaster. He talks about “jobs” — the life admin we do every day on a permanent cycle — as a way to know you’re alive. You wake up — jobs — go to bed — no jobs — and then finally, no more jobs ever again. Because you’re dead. It’s a very, very dark thought! And somehow that makes it even more hilarious. Right? I’m not just losing my mind..?
James Acaster performing his “Repertoire” Netflix Special.
I’m lucky to not be alone in my darkness — I have a partner who leans just as hard, and we have a lot of deep, interesting conversations. They’d probably be quite sobering, if we had the ability to properly dwell on a depressing thought. As it stands, they just keep turning into jokes.
Like the one about oak trees. Out on a nature reserve with the dog, we noticed some oak saplings had been planted next to a group of much taller oaks. JR mentioned that nobody who plants a young tree ever lives to see it that tall. (A typical English oak tree starts producing acorns at around 40 years old, peaking in productivity around 80-120 years.)
That’s how, “Do you ever think about oak trees?” became our quirky little short form for death.
And that’s how this comic strip came about:
Another one of our impromptu collaborations below — sparked by a conversation about getting older and starting to look it.
Dark, or “gallows” humour makes light of things that are often too serious or painful to talk about. Like death. The relentless passage of time. The unknowingness of existence. Etc., etc. I think that’s what makes it an amazing tool, not just in satire and social commentary, but somehow in learning to understand ourselves as well. This absurd, paradoxical existence. Did you know that it takes more information processing power from the brain to even comprehend dark humour? Here’s something super nerdy that I read on that. I personally wouldn’t go so far as to say that it makes us more intelligent than people who like a good banana peel gag. Still, it’s a nice little ego boost for the intellectual snob in me.
(I like the banana peel stuff too, but don’t tell anyone.)