Dark laughter: How Israelis are using humour in a time of war
“They’re cockroaches. Instead of Iron Dome we need a big Iron Shoe to stomp out every one of them,” the mild-mannered pediatrician grinned at me after he had examined my daughter’s ailing foot. “Give her Nurofen for three days after meals. That should do the trick.”
Gidon Ben-Zvi
As my nine-year-old was putting her sneakers back on, her new favourite doctor, a Christian Arab born and raised in Nazareth, replied to my comment about the fine autumn weather we were experiencing in the northern Israeli city of Haifa with another quip: “Over there, in Europe, they eat baguettes. We eat pitot here. But they keep trying to cram it down our throats…until we choke on their kindness.” He winked, we shook hands, and my daughter and I left his office for home.
Israelis are trying to go about their lives. Doctors have resumed their office hours. Children, back at school, try to get out of class by suddenly developing pains in their foot. Parents, many of whom are now working from home full time, play along to avoid a child’s tantrum right before a Zoom meeting with co-workers is about to begin.
But these and a thousand other daily scenes are now playing out in an utterly transformed reality, one lived minute by minute because the alternative is to stop and think about how much worse things could get.
On October 7, Hamas unleashed a massacre on Israel: 1,400 murdered, approximately 240 hostages taken hostage, thousands wounded, and over 200,000 people displaced internally. Since then, a lack of leadership, skyrocketing antisemitism around the world, and a shift in the international community from sympathy to increasingly harsh criticism have added to the emotional burden Israelis are bearing.
In this slow-motion nightmare, anxious civilians are finding comfort and gaining strength in diverse ways: everything from volunteering to serve in the Israeli military to clearing out bomb shelters to donating to the rapidly multiplying number of organizations that are being set up to support the thousands of Israelis forced to leave their homes behind.
During this darkest hour, one characterized by short periods of tense quiet shattered by the boom of rockets launched by terrorists in Gaza – sending people running to safe rooms or bomb shelters – Israelis are also turning to biting humour to cope with a world gone mad.
Like the way the good doctor treated my daughter’s sore foot with kindness and empathy, the dark laughter derived from gallows humour is a soothing balm.
A recent skit on Israel’s most widely viewed sketch comedy program that skewered the BBC’s biased coverage of the war has gone viral. One in a series of YouTube Shorts produced by an IDF soldier serving on the frontlines gleefully mocks the growing calls for a ceasefire. When Israel expanded its operations in Gaza late last week, residents of the Strip temporarily lost their internet. This resulted in a popular online meme featuring an image of a customer services representative with this text: “Gaza: My internet is not working. Service provider: Did you try releasing the hostages?”
People on the outside looking in may find such moments of frivolity to be in poor taste, even offensive. They are entitled to their outrage. But when you wake up one Saturday morning to see the face of sheer evil on your doorstep, staring at you and everyone you love, how you view life changes. At that point, being offended by laughter becomes little more than a privilege enjoyed by those living in safety and comfort.
After a rocket barrage last week sent the residents of a particular southern community running for cover, I called a friend of mine who lives with his wife and two small children in that neighbourhood. He told me that when he is feeling completely stressed-out, playing Brahms on the piano for a few minutes soothes his frayed nerves.
I chimed in that one approach to stress management I have been indulging in lately is a bit more low-brow than tickling the ivories: binging on clips from screwball comedies like Zoolander, Anchorman, and – of course – Woody Allen’s Love and Death.
Viva la difference. There is no magic pill for staying emotionally and psychologically balanced during a crisis. But vanquishing Hamas is the greatest challenge our country has ever faced. For Israel to succeed, its citizens will need to figure out how to develop the emotional resilience to cope with the difficult days, weeks, and months ahead.
On that front, at least, the good people of this good country are off to a fine start.
Lovely, Gidon Ben-Zvi. Thank you for sharing it. I don’t think too many in the Diaspora have managed that yet. Perhaps it’s time to. It’s possible we feel guilty for not being there physically for you and that slows up the humour a bit … I can only speak for myself, of course.