Drugs.

I don't think there's any objective answer to this, so its determination is completely social & interpersonal. Clearly if your intended audience doesn't find it funny it's not funny. A good guide I think would be how much the issue being joked about affects them in terms of intensity and temporal distance: if someone just got stabbed, they're probably not up for being made fun of for being stabbed...

(Although I suppose the first sentence of my reply probably applies to 99% of the book)

Death of a child

Lately nothing dark is funny to me. The world is too scary.

Agree with Firas.

With a couple of my friends, absolutely every single thing can be joked about, up to and including stuff like rape and the death of our own children. I know. But with those particular people, it's absolutely the blackest of black humor type of coping mechanism.

That's rare though.

Crises at the time of occurrence.

For me :

Race
Humor about women's intelligence or abilities
Rape
The Holocaust and other genocide
Animal abuse/cruelty

No idea why that all ended up in italics.

A Cosby rape joke.

What Firas said.

Pretty much what Firas said. On the surface, there's nothing that can't be joked about in the right environment. It's a common coping mechanism for many. Sometimes, if you don't laugh, you cry. Sometimes, if you start crying, you may never be able to stop.

And yet, I can think of comedy movies based on all of these topics. Not that I don't agree with most of you myself but it's definitely subjective.

I agree with Gaspode: with certain people, I am able to joke about anything, no matter how dark. These are the people, of course, who truly understand me. I've had to stifle giggles at serious times, simply because something struck me as funny, but I kept it to myself. And I'm in agreement with Bearwife, too. Rape, the Holocaust - neither are funny (though I am sure I've thought silly things to myself). Currently, what I seem to have the most issue with was the school massacre at Newtown, Connecticut - I cannot even stand people who deny that it happened; if someone were to joke about it, I believe I could cause great harm to that person.

Walking into bars.

St. Peter at the Gate.

Door knockers.

Big fucking rats with ten-inch cocks.

Well what could be a better intro to this.

I hadn't seen that skit before! * snorts and chortles *. "Sudden, violent comedy" indeed!