The whole "gallow's humor to deal with traumatic events" applies to people-firemen, police, combat vets, and many others-who have to use humor to deal with the horrific things they witnessed/dealt with/cleaned up. It has absolutely nothing to do with people who come no closer to dealing with a horrific event than reading about it in the papers or on their computer screens. That's not to see people don't have a right to try to find humor in a situation that does not affect them personally in any way whatsoever...but the 'gallow's humor' excuse does not apply to them, because they don't need to "deal with" something that never affected them at all.
My experience is that I am profoundly affected by other people's losses.