Only assholes think that people getting hit by cars is funny or, in any sense, a throw-away gagline.
There is one caveat to this statement of truth.
If done right — thanks to the dark-humor instilled from more than a decade of covering some gruesome crimes — a smart joke about this topic can make me laugh. These are rare instances, because it’s easier to rely on stupid jokes. Lazy jokes about this topic leave me, a hit-and-run victim, reacting like a sexual-assault victim upon hearing people crack jokes with rape punchlines. I presume thousands of victims annually feel the same way. It is indefensible, in most cases.
This is an example of an attempt that fell remarkably short of that threshold. There are many more, but they’re not worth the time it takes to hyperlink.
But this skit from this week’s Key & Peele, steeped in well-thought-out morbidity, not only made me laugh, but stands as the pinnacle of using intelligent humor to hit funny bones harder than that car hit me back in ’08.
Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key: You are the stuff of legend and a credit to the very notion of comedy.
Keep dancing.