What comes to your mind when you see or hear the phrase “Trick-or-Treat”?
Probably kids running in the streets, knocking on every door to collect candy, right?
Well, fair enough.
But if we look at the phrase itself from a linguistic standpoint, we can see a juxtaposition of fun and mischief… or even evil.
The two complementary sides of the Trickster archetype.
Remember Lock, Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas? Or the Joker? Or the classic Harlequin and Pulcinella from the commedia dell’arte?
That’s exactly the energy I’m talking about.
Another example of that is the Jesters of Medieval Europe.
At that time, the Jester’s job was to entertain the Royal Court, not necessarily through amusing and lighthearted jokes, but by mocking the God-King’s ego, and thus, bringing him down to Earth.
Without the Jester’s offensive humour, the King’s power remains unchecked.
Without the Jester’s offensive humour, keeping the King accountable is impossible.
Like it or not, it is through free speech (given or taken) that ideas can be exposed and confronted.
Similar processes can be found in contemporary satire, caricatures and memes, which employ humour and mockery to bring forward the absurd, the ridicule, the injustice, the horrors hidden in plain sight, but which often remains unaddressed.
Some may call this “dark” or “black” humour, a type of humour that shockingly puts the spotlight on difficult and taboo topics that would normally be avoided, in a way that cannot be dismissed.
We owe the term “dark/black humour” (humour noir) to French surrealist poet and artist André Breton, who coined it in his 1940 Anthology of Black Humour.
In it are excerpts from many controversial artists and intellectuals, including some of my favorite authors: Sade, Baudelaire, Jarry, Apollinaire, all transgressing societal and moral taboos in their own way, and for their own reasons.
In German, dark humour is called Galgenhumor, “gallow humour”, in reference to the sarcastic and morbid comical comments made by many condemned before meeting the grim reaper.
Perhaps a way to lessen their burden and an attempt to regain some power over their executioners… and death itself.
The Frenchman Robert-Francois Damiens (1715-1757) is a perfect example of that.
After a failed assassination attempt on King Louis XV, Damiens was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. This meant being dragged by horses to the Place de Grève in Paris, where his public torture and execution by dismemberment would take place.
Once there, his skin was ripped with red-hot pliers, and his hands and feet were mutilated.
Throughout this torture, he reportedly screamed, ‘Again! Do it again!’, a taunt that made some of his tormentors give up and turn back, traumatized.
Damiens was then emasculated, before four horses tore his limbs from his body with great difficulty.
Finally, his still-living torso was burned at the stake.
Well guess what?
Knowing his fate months in advance, his last confirmed recorded word the morning of his brutal execution, was a sarcastic and downplaying “The day is going to be hard”.
Indeed it was, Damien, indeed it was.
Some artists also die for humour, and use it to laugh at their murderers and at death from beyond the grave.
Take for example, the 2015 terrorist attack against the French satirical left-wing journal Charlie Hebdo, where 12 were left dead and 11 injured.
Motivated by blasphemous satirical caricatures released by the journal (who mocks all), two militants, whose names aren’t worth the effort to look up and type, stormed the journal’s Parisian office and opened fire on the team.
“We killed Charlie Hebdo! We avenged the Prophet!” yelled the killers.
Murdered for blasphemy in a country whose people have unrelentingly used blasphemy and satire for centuries to successfully free themselves from the violent iron fist of the Catholic Church and of the monarchy?
The ridicule and irony of the situation are clear for anyone with an ounce of historical knowledge.
So the surviving artists immediately struck back; not with an apology, not by hiding, but by doubling down on the publishing of blasphemous caricatures.
The result was record sales and reinforcing the importance of freedom of speech and of press in segments of the population.
They overcame the atrocity of the killings by mocking the ridicule of the killings, by becoming a satirical Hydra.
By showing that fear cannot hold them down, and that violence will not keep them silent.
They “killed Charlie”? Well, millions took to the streets chanting “I am Charlie!” throughout France and the Francophone world.
Charlie thrives more than ever to this day.
That’s the power of dark humour, it can’t be stopped, no matter how hard anyone tries.
And if someone tries to repress it, it will spread even faster and more viscously in the public, and underground.
It can make people uncomfortable, and reminds us that no one’s feelings or beliefs are ever truly safe.
Not the King’s, not the executioner’s, not the grim reaper’s, not God’s.
Not even yours, dear reader.
And that’s a good thing, because it gives everyone a tool to push back against the absurdity and unavoidability of suffering and pain, be it inflicted by life circumstances or others.
–
But, “What now?” you may ask.
In Liber Null & Psychonaut, a foundational book in Chaos Magick, Peter J. Carroll places laughter as the only sustainable response to a meaningless universe.
So, here’s a suggestion:
“Seek the emotion of laughter at what delights and amuses, seek it in whatever is neutral or meaningless, seek it even in what is horrific and revolting.” (Carroll, 1987, p.17)
Next time something bad or unfortunate happens to you, respond to it using dark humour instead of ruminating over the negative feelings it creates.
Turn the bad into a joke.
Practice laughing in the face of the monsters trick-or-treating at your door.
Perhaps you’ll even be able to play a trick on them.
Oh, and happy Halloween🎃
References
Breton, A., & Polizzotti, M. (1997). Anthology of black humor. City Lights Books ; Subterranean Co. distributor.
Carroll, P. J. (1987). Liber Null & Psychonaut – An Introduction to Chaos Magick. S. Weiser.
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, October 10). Black comedy. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:16, October 10, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_comedy&oldid=1250378936
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, June 1). Charlie Hebdo issue No. 1011. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:17, October 10, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlie_Hebdo_issue_No._1011&oldid=1226736644
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, October 4). Charlie Hebdo shooting. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:17, October 10, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlie_Hebdo_shooting&oldid=1249302247
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, September 27). Robert-François Damiens. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:16, October 10, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert-Fran%C3%A7ois_Damiens&oldid=1248042555
