Do you know those people in class who always joke about everything no matter how serious it is? The vast majority will simply allow the jokes to prolong with their all-too-happy laughter. You may not notice them, but there will be that one person that isn’t laughing. It isn’t because they don’t understand the joke. Far from it. They do understand the joke, but the issue is that they understand it to a fault.

For instance, what do you do when a person says something along the lines of “this class is so boring that it makes me want to die.” The assumption is that the person is joking. Almost no one would bat an eye. In fact, most would agree to the statement to either add on to the “joke” or agree to the opinion towards the class. It is understandable that some people may joke about these sorts of things to relieve their own internal issues, but there a point in which it is too much. Jokes that are seemingly in support of the worst problem solution need to be blatantly shown as a joke. The mere existence of this humor is just sad.

I can already hear the argument of “you’re being overly sensitive, can’t you just take a joke?” Imagine you have been thinking about telling someone about feeling depressed after keeping it a secret for so long. Then, picture someone making a joke about suicide when you have been thinking about the very core of the joke in a serious manner. What would you do? Would you still tell them? Or, would it seem like just a joke to them? Would they just brush it off as a joke? The tale of the boy who cried wolf isn’t just for outright liars. People who take a serious issue and make it a joke for no apparent reason are the ones at fault. They make the people who are trying to convey a serious struggle seem as though they are just faking it to make another joke. Well, guess what! It is not funny. Those class comedians may think it’s funny now, but the moment something actually serious happens, they fall in line with everyone else believing that they had no idea how to help. They think that they are not a part of the problem.

The truth of the matter is that the continuance of these “jokes” is a problem in and of itself. Do people truly believe that making a joke out of a serious manner will fix anything? It never will, and the sad part is that people don’t realize the issue until someone is critically affected by it. But at that point, it is too late. There is a clear cause and effect, and there is a clear way to fix the problem. Stop making serious things out to be just a joke. Deep down, they know the gravity of the situation, but they still continue to joke. All actions have consequences, no matter what they are. People severely underestimate the problem, and it continues to be perpetuated every second.

It’s even worse that as I write this, I know that those jokes will continue. I know that people will continue to add to the problem and keep the snowball rolling. Some of them will never get it through their head no matter how much I or anyone else says. It won’t get into their ignorant brains until the worst has happened and the joke has gone too far. Get it together and quit acting like a foolish child who is blind to the world’s problems before someone gets hurt.