Fear and Humour

"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vein. You would have entertained us."
"Humour is an almost physiological response to fear."


By pointing put the obvious, I am going to say that Vonnegut sometimes jokes about death like it’s nothing. The repeated phrase “so it goes” in Slaughterhouse Five is one of Vonnegut queer death jokes. He also does it in the first quote where he states that someone's death on T.V. would entertain the viewers.
The second quote explains his dark and weird sense of humour. If he himself believes that humour is a result of apprehension then his absurdity must be from something he fears. His fears might be the result of what he had seen in war or the fact that his mom had committed suicide when she lost her wealth.


An additional quote showing his reaction to his fear:
“I saw the destruction of Dresden. I saw the city before and then came out of an air-raid shelter and saw it afterward, and certainly one response was laughter. God knows, that’s the soul seeking some relief.”- Kurt Vonnegut
In this quote he feels that laughing is his soul’s way of finding relief after seeing those daunting war scenes and dead bodies.
Since he thinks death is a topic of humour, it is very prevalent in his texts. However, not everyone feels the same way.
Personally, I would never be able to make a joke out of someone’s death, or be able to laugh at one.  
                                
Yet, it is what makes Vonnegut's books and sense of wittiness very unusual and striking.