Humor in hazardous situations when confronting mortality is a common reaction to deflect our thoughts from what we all know about our own existence: no one gets out alive. Pretty much a maximum stressor.

Hopefully folks who deal with such trauma are supported by organizations that have experts help deal with this stress and have created a culture that honors those who deal straightforwardly with the genuine and pretty much universal need for help dealing with such stuff. Humor, self-medication, etc. only seem to work - for a while.

Post traumatic stress syndrome is no joke.