Like I mentioned before, I was trying to cool down from the stress of all of my projects and my attempts to learn a new skill by writing a short story. That in turn has become a stressful fixation that has decided to usurp for itself my entire life. Go figure... My existence is inherently permeated by that kind of unfortunate irony. One of my issues is planning out the general demeanor of my main character, an unlicensed private investigator, also known as what I consider to be the furthest thing from an original thought anyone has ever had. I plan for him to show a great passion for his work, possessing a grand affinity for the social element of sleuth work and finding joy in befriending people related to his cases. Despite his general freedoms as to how he can carry out his work, generally in the lines of unconventional investigation, he often reserves the most desperate of measures for the most of desperate of times, often to the point of his style of investigation being almost indistinguishable from that of the "professional" investigators. One of his most notable personality traits is his inability to be shocked or phased by what would otherwise be considered shocking circumstance, events or imagery. As apart of his work, he overexposes himself to the worst parts of the worst part and society, not only desensitizing himself to the existence of horrible things in this world, but also developing a "gotta laugh so you don't cry" psychology which led to the development of a sense of humor that permits him to laugh at subject matter that'd be considered unacceptable or unforgivable -- if a joke is accompanied with it, with him often being the one to make the joke. It seems like someone who is willing to crack a small joke about, say, a murder would be immediately found distasteful by the audience and people around him. I considered using his affinity for the social element of his work to not only make it so he's keen during personal interrogation, but also so he is good at gauging his audience, and the time, able to learn when its appropriate to make such jokes. But I thought given he'd likely be submersing himself in his work, he'd have zero opportunities to make any such jokes and it'd be a waste of a planned personality trait. In what way could his "unfavorable" sense of humor be presented so he isn't immediately found in poor taste when he makes such jokes?
Hell no. It's called black comedy, and it's awesome! If by audience you mean the characters in the story, then maybe. But if you're referring to the readers, I don't think you'd have a problem. It sounds like you've done a lot of thought about the character. Have you made any headway with a story?
I recommend you read How To Be Dead, or something that is a black/dark comedy. I have an MC that employs dark/black humor. For instance there is a part where a group of enemy units get set ablaze due to intent, and the MC thinks: Hell of a BBQ. Or finding bodies hacked up symmetrically to pieces, and doesn't want to become Deco Death. So it works if your character is dark enough to pull it off, or are damaged or demented to not care what others think about their brand of humor.
Cops crack that kind of humour all the time both in real life an in fiction (as do soldiers, nurses and anyone else who has a nasty stressful job - its a coping mechanism) For example in the opening scene of Colin Faulkners "Rough Justice" , a bunch of cops stand round an open topped sportscar with a dead yardie in the driver seat, shot in the head while getting a BJ from a hooker. "Ive seen this before " says the lead investigator "she sucked so hard it blew his mind, litteraly"
