[SERIOUS] Do the RLM guys trivialize suicide?
I write this as someone who has been watching and enjoying RLM for literally 10+ years.
Without divulging too much, let me simply say suicide is not a distant issue to me.
All that said, here is something I've always been aware of, but I'm hyper aware of it now: The RLM guys joke about suicide CONSTANTLY. They mock others for it. They express that they want to do it themselves.
It's always played for comedy. But it's always there, from off-hand remarks to scripted bits to physical gags. Rich pretending to hang himself. Mike randomly mentioning how he wants to shoot himself. The guys bringing it up as a hypothetical situation about the people in a tape they are watching.
There's an old Previously Recorded episode where Jay, Jack, and Rich muse about where they'd be without RLM. And Rich says "Probably suicide. Forgotten suicide." They all laugh about it, Rich laughing most of all. But I can't help but feel there's a dark kernel of truth behind the joke.
It's the kind of joke that's only made by someone who has considered suicide. Someone who has experienced intense self-loathing.
This is not healthy behavior. This is not healthy dialogue. And yet the RLM guys do not seem like unstable or mentally unwell people (from what we know of them, which is only what we watch in their videos).
I guess I'm having trouble reconciling it. There's definitely an argument to be made that this kind of joking and talking trivializes suicide, normalizes it, and contributes to suicide ideation.
I understand and appreciate dark humor. But more than a decade of these guys making fun of suicide. I wonder if it leaves a mark on their viewers, if not themselves.