John Cleese’s solution to his 92-year-old mother saying she didn’t want to live anymore was absolutely insane. 😂
"So, I rang her up one day, and she was quite seriously, really, giving me all the reasons that she didn't want to go on living. And you know, I felt helpless. I thought, 'What can I...?' And I had this moment of inspiration. I said, 'Mom, I have an idea.' And she said, 'What is that?' And I said, 'Um, look, if you're still feeling this way next week, I have a friend in Fulham, and I could give him a call if you like, but only if you like, and he could come down and kill you.'"
What I love about this story is that Cleese didn’t try to give his mother some profound speech about life.
He knew her well enough to know exactly what would make her laugh.
That’s the thing about dark humor, in the right relationship, it can be less about making fun of pain and more about refusing to let pain have the final word.