In my experience, it is generally acceptable among friends. Less so among family unless they are irreverent.

Your parents aren’t sensitive to dark humor. They’re superstitious.

Also, anything other than cleaning the port contacts in the charger is a waste of time.

Your parents are definitely gonna end up using that fire insurance. At least your head is on straight.

You didn’t say where you’re from, but I know in some countries and cultures, you have deep rooted superstitions about attracting bad luck to yourself.

On both sides, my grandparents would put money in a wallet given as a gift. You were never allowed to keep a door open in case a robin flew in. Never put new shows on the table. If you go on a trip. never go back for something you forgot. Leave through a different door than you entered the house.

These were all things they thought bring bad luck. It’s possible your parents have some cultural superstition they never passed on. My grandmother would throw salt over her left shoulder until the day she died, even though she said it was a dumb superstition. My great grandmother told me fairies like to play “pranks” based on irony. I could see the joke you made being taken the same way by my great grandmother.

Dark humour is like food, not everyone gets it.

Fixing shit instead of buying new shit is smart.

The superstitious stuff isn’t.

Dark humour is very audience dependent. You have to know your audience for it for sure.

I think this is less about the humor, and more about the superstition about speaking something into reality.

Here’s a story for you. My grandmother never struck me as on overly superstitious person. But she was very serious when she told me that one day she had a friend over eating in her kitchen when a blackbird flew in through the window. Her friend told her that it was a really bad omen, specifically that it was a harbinger of death. The next day my grandmother’s first born was killed in a hit and run.

She couldn’t get over why her friend would even say that out loud. Not really because she thought her friend was clairvoyant but because it poisoned their relationship. She’s got one of the most negative moments in her life made even worse because of a callous prediction a friend made that now tolls like a bell any time her son comes to mind.

There are some forms of negativity that are better off left unsaid. You saying it isn’t going to burn down the house. But one day you might wish you hadn’t said it.

In the end, are you any less frugal than your parents? When confronted with an issue, all you could afford was a mean spirited “joke” that isn’t funny. People are accepting of dark humor if it actually is humorous.

It’s more ‘bad luck’ to keep using a sparking charger. Your mother’s an idiot.

I think “dark humor” can be a pretty broad term. You were just poking fun and lightheartedly highlighting a real risk of not getting a new charger. On the other hand, I know people that have had house fires and lost every material possession they had. Keepsakes of lost relatives, photo albums, cherished souvenirs, etc. some people have lost loved ones. The older you get, the more you accumulate tragedy, be it first or second-hand. Humor that hurts or scares people isn’t kind, even if you don’t agree with their sensitivity. Then again, when you collect enough tragedy, it can become funny again because you just have to laugh

its a know your audience thing. gotta gauge who will be ok with it and who won’t.

I’ve found that people who are offended by dark humor (the non racist variety) tend to be people I don’t like, and don’t trust alone with children.

Your specific example just sounds like superstition, but dark humor is like playing with fire, it can be a lot of fun, but, you have to be careful. There’s a time and a place, and it’s funny if you accidentally burn someone.

I’d argue that isn’t even dark humor. The joke’s focal point is how ridiculous your mother’s position is. You’re taking up an untenable and patently absurd position in faux support of the initial absurd position. That’s ridicule. Now I will grant that lampooning a rhetorical opponent’s position can lean “dark”. Unless the punchline relies on taboo for the heavy lifting though it isn’t crossing that line.

You didn’t say anything offensive or taboo. You criticised someone’s bad take using contemptous analytic hyperbole. I grew up with this kind of humor in my family. It was mostly used as a learning tool which avoided direct confrontation of idiocy while allowing the temporarily embarassed idiot to save face, realize they weren’t thinking clearly, and choose to be in on the joke at their old self’s expense. There are other choices, or course, but if you chose to die on mount stupid then you’d better expect to get buried underneath it as well.

Your family doesn’t seem to be receptive to that brand of social therapy. That’s ok. My point is more to encourage you that you didn’t do anything wrong (and that it’s even normal to joke like that elsewhere).

Your mom might not think you’re funny… But I do!

It’s only funny if they’re in on the joke.