Dead Baby Joke

Nationality: Mexican-Slovian-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student at USC
Residence: Arlington, Virginia
Performance Date: April 20th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: some french

“SID is really sudden infant death. My friend is an EMT technician and called SID babies “sorry its dead sir” at least that’s what you say to the parents… Awful joke.  Heard from Doug the EMT guy. He is a blunt person.”

The informant thinks that this reflects the EMT attitude toward the situation.  She thinks that it’s such a bad situation that you must make light of it. The EMT friend does have a son so he wouldn’t find it amusing if it happened to him.

I agree with my informant’s analysis.  Clearly the EMT people are exposed to lots of horrible situations and the only way to cope with sadness is with humor.  I do not believe the EMTs are mean people for making the joke, they just make the joke to keep their spirits up.