In message 20011126.225504.-500569.0.rilliara@juno.com, Ellynne G. rilliara@juno.com writes
I'm just going by my own experience with high stress situations. A lot of awful, I-can't-believe-I-said-that jokes get made. But you'd fall apart completely if you didn't.
I was doing a physics degree in early 1986. I'm reminded of the "how do you fit twelve astronauts in a mini? Two in the front, three in the back and seven in the ashtray" jokes that were popular around the department for a while. The department was heavily into astronomy, and these were people who had a big emotional investment in the space programme. The gallows humour was a way to deal with the shock and grief we felt over the destruction of _Challenger_. I've also heard quite a few doctors talking about using gallows humour to cope with stress. So I think your explanation is very plausible. I'm not convinced it's what the scriptwriters intended, but I'll quite happily retro-fit it:-)