Thanks for getting it =)
Sardines ARE hard to come back from. That salty taste is gonna stick with you for a while.
You make a good point about how people view sick humor.
Not to go all in and say ALL humor is appropriate since there's no such thing as an attitude that is always correct, but I think humor is an apt reaction for situations where there is just no easy way to talk about it, or no clean stance to have on it.