system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is dark humor so funny?
gpt
Humor/laughter is a defense mechanism humans evolved to deal with the hardships of reality. It diffuses stress while allowing you to examine a bad situation.

"Dark humor", aka humor that deals with very morbid, taboo or offensive topics, is the best when it comes to dealing with harsh realities. I'd argue there is no such thing as "dark humor" and that all humor has to have something edgy or semi-controversial to be funny, but one universally true factor in really good comedy is that the joke has to hurt a little. So in this case, if it hurts *more*, it's funnier.

I could talk for hours about humor and how it works in our psychologies (I studied this a lot in college), what makes a joke funny, the method of creating jokes, what happens in our brains when we laugh...if you want to know more, watch The History of the Joke from History Channel. It's fantastic! Lots of pseudo-science but most of it can be backed up if you do your own research afterwards.