I think I've lost the capacity to appreciate snark.
Not 'lost my sense of humor'. I still laugh. Give me the weirdness of Steven Wright, the musical genius of Weird Al Yankovich, the Improv of a 'Whose Line', the jokes of a John Pinette, and I'm laughing as much as I always have.
But snark- defined as 'an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm'- I don't find that stuff amusing anymore.
I used to. My basement has a collection of comedy CDs- Bill Hicks, Denis Leary. I can quote Sam Kinison as much as anyone. And yet...
The Titan Submersible story... five people take a submersible down to explore the wreckage of the Titanic. The vehicle suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five. If they were lucky, their deaths were instantaneous and painless. It's a tragedy- five people lsot their lives, including a teenager.
Supposedly, the vehicle was made of materials that weren't qualified to go that deep into the Ocean. Assuming that's true, there should be anger at the people who were so reckless to attempt something so risky.
There should be anger. Instead, there's snark. Mocking laughter at the horrific deaths of five people. Jokes about the controller, about a dead billionaire.
I've even see people try to justify their jokes- claiming that the world has gone so haywire that they have the right to make fun of a total stranger's death, that because of tragedy A, B and C went unnoticed, that we should mock this tragedy.
I don't get it. Maybe if I was younger, I would. It just comes across like people are looking for an excuse to be cruel. Whatever the problems of the world today, a lack of cruelty isn't one of them.
Robert Frost said, “If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.” Maybe. But we ought to do a better job deciding what is worth laughing about.
