Gallows humor

Introduction (Arià)

Hello, TGIF everybody, we are Eloi and Arià as you probably know and we are going to explain you what kinds of humor we can find and then we will focus on the black humor also called gallows humor. We will tell you some about its history, this humor in our daily life, in the television and finally we will show you some examples of it. I hope you enjoy very much with our presentation.

Types of humour (Arià)

There are different types of jokes destinate to different people because everybody has their own taste. One important factor to consider is the geographical situation, for example if you are in Africa it’s not recommended to make a racist joke against colored people. Other factors to consider are the culture, the maturity, intelligence... For example this joke is for people with a bit of maths knowledge. If you show it to a intelligent person then he or she will make at least a little smile trying to say “Yes, I understood it” instead of being the worst joke ever.

Black humor consists on making jokes about  serious topics like death or disease. it is exactly the opposite to intelligent jokes, they usually are stupid and if they are bad the other person instead of laughing will probably watch you very bad in the best case. But on the other hand  black humor is funny.

History (Eloi) 

As its name indicates, the expression “Gallows humor” has its origin before the middle age in England, it refers to the practice of execute criminals in front of the crowd, on a stage in a gallows. People went there as an entertaining event, more or less like the actual 3D cinema with the difference that it was quite more realistic. They made comments and jokes about the murder, the thief or other type of criminals. These cruel jokes that consisted on laughing at the condemned face was called gallows humor. In usual circumstances these type of jokes weren’t funny and they were not respectuous, but people made an exception with these people because they decided that condemned people didn’t deserve their respect. We have kept the word but his meaning has changed because nowadays there are not executions like in the middle age but we laugh at modern serious problems like obesity, wars, diseases... In the past, people made the jokes at the condemned face. Now, it’s true that some people, writers, periodists, humorists make black jokes in public but the truth is that we usually hear and we use this humor in close situations at the back of the affected people, not in their faces. The main topic in the history of gallows humor was in the middle age, the serious Black plague that killed many people in Europe. That’s why we also call black humor to the gallows humor.

Black humor in our daily life. (Eloi)

In public, everybody, when we hear a black joke we put indignation face and say: “oh that’s terrible!” But admit this. All of you have laught out loud at a black joke. Even more, the funniest moments in your life when you have laughed most are with black humor. 

The truth is that black humor or gallows humor doesn’t usually appear in our daily life. It tends to appear only in small groups of friends who you have big confidence with. These type of jokes are very dangerous and can cause to you a lot of problems if you are not careful with who is listening to you; because you usually make these jokes with the objective to have a good time with your friends or people who are very close to you but it can become an offense to some people. So there are some things that you must not do: 

In general, what you mustn’t do is make jokes about some topics that can affect someone who is listening. For example, you can’t tell a joke about death if there is a person listening to you who has lost a familiar recently. Or you can’t make a joke about jews in the nazi germany if there is someone very sensitized with this conflict or someone who has a jew in the family. Or you can’t tell a joke about losers if there is a Real Madrid supporter in front of you.. that would be too cruel.

Black humor in television (aria) 

A lot of important writers have used gallows humour in literature. These writers have been  very brave because this kind of humour is accompanied by controversy. In our country, the most famous writer who has used is Quim Monzó. Oscar Wilde, who wrote “The picture of Dorian Grey” has used black humour too. Another famous writer who uses the black humor is Woody Allen. 

In cinema there also have been always gallows humor. Since black and white cinema by Charles Chaplin in his film “The great dictator” which is a parody about the Nazi conflict to actual directors like Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino. In TV, two drawers have had the protagonism of black humor in their cartoons. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, and Seth MacFarlane, the creator of American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show. Both of them uses gallows humor but Seth MacFarlane use it harder and their cartoons are a better example of black humor.

Examples of black humour videos and images (Arià)

Here we have put some examples of gallows humor, first of all we have to say that we are only showing you images and examples and our intention is not to offend anybody. Probably you will find funny some of the images or you will think that they have nothing funny. But what we don’t want is that you think that we are cruel or that we have bad intentions. Everybody has understood it? 

Conclusion (Eloi)

We made the presentation about this topic because we thought that is the funniest type of humor even though most of the people don’t recognise it. But we think that we don’t have to be afraid of using this humor (of course, only in the correct circumstances and with the correct people). Please, don’t go now in front of the President of Spain and tell him a joke of retarded people. we hope that you have enjoyed during the presentation and we are sure that, if you have paid attention, tonight you will go to sleep knowing something new. 

Self evaluation

I general, I thing we did a great job. The presentation and the structure were clear and we had good body language and eye contact. I should improve that I watch at the paper too much. The content in general wasn't very complex but it was simple and easy to understand, the same as language (I have to be careful with false friends). The other thing that I have to correct is the pronunciation of some words. 
It wasn't perfect but we did it quite good.

You can see the Prezzi here

 http://prezi.com/brl68cft49yr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share


Caused by a format mistake, I could not upload the video of the oral presentation. I apologize for this.

Eloi Güell: Gallows humor
Presentation (10%)	Do you use any resources? Are the resources relevant and attractive and focused on the topic? Do they support your presentation? Is the timing 5-7 minutes?		9
Body language and eye contact (10%)	Are you looking at your audience most of the time? Are you reading occasionally from your notes? Are you doing any gestures / movement to hold the attention of the audience?		9
Structure (10%)	Do you organize your ideas in order of importance? Do you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear?		10
Content (35%)	Do you introduce interesting, NEW information to your audience? Is your information detailed and clear? Do you give / show examples? Is your information copied from a source or is it original? Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books…?		30
Language (25%)	Is your grammar correct, complex? Is your vocabulary rich and varied? Do you use sentence linkers? Do you use pause fillers?		20
Pronunciation  (10%)	Do you know how to pronounce all your words? Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? Do you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions? Total: 8'6		8