Yes.
Laughter is one of the possible responses to things that are so bad they are hard to contemplate or express. I often laugh or make jokes just when trying to describe things that I think are ridiculously bad.
I think it’s partly because I can’t cope and can’t hold it all in mind at once, also because the words I try to use to talk about it seem so inadequate, and because the feeling wants some sort of expression, release and relief, and humor actually works for me, even though those around me might mistake me for making light of it, or not get the nature of my humor.
For example, if I say that I think poachers of endangered wildlife should be hunted down by Delta Force for practice, and a new animal food plant set up where you put the poachers on a conveyor belt and it turns them into tiger food, and that we could test it out on Trump’s sons, I’m not being serious. I’m not proposing that. I’m not going to do anything violent. I’m not exactly trying to be funny. And I’m certainly not trying to “make light” of the situation, nor am I going insane. But I am at a loss for a more effective way to vent out my upset and despair and disapproval over several messed up situations at once. Even if not many people get what I’m saying, it does express the level of my disapproval and dismay about what is happening and what is considered acceptable and what isn’t being done about it, that I would think that even actually doing that would be a great improvement about what is actually happening. The humor also has an effect on my body that I can feel – the distress rises up and gets blasted out by the venting and soothed by the humor.
Also when something awful has been closer to me, I’m often too protectively numbed by it to do actual grief, but often humor is still available.