Text: Despite our best efforts, the mortality rate remains 100%.

Context: “I originally heard this joke back in med school, and it really stuck with me. I’m not sure how widely known it is in the medical sphere, but I’ve heard it several more times since from various practitioners, so it seems to be a pretty popular one. I’ve heard surgeons say it, cardiologists, even some nurses. I’m not sure where it originated from, but everyone I’ve told it to finds it pretty funny so I’ll keep using it.”

Analysis: This is a surprisingly dark joke for the medical field, and it makes me wonder where it came from. The morbidity of it makes me think that it developed as a way for doctors to cope with the loss of a patient when they weren’t able to save them. Lots of people use humor to deal with tragedy. Doctors see more suffering and death than the vast majority of people, and it makes sense that such experiences would influence their sense of humor. Or perhaps it doesn’t have any dark origins at all, and is just a creative way to say the classic phrase “everyone dies.” Either way, it’s fascinating to think about.