I agree --- I don't think they meant it to be funny. One thing I really, really hate (well, there are lots of things that fit that bill, but I'm a generally grumpy person) is when TV show writers assume that everyone is too stupid to know when something is horrific, tragic, heartbreaking, etc. True, maybe there are folks (maybe it's even most folks, I don't know) who lack the brain capacity to know when something terrible is terrible, but I'm not, you're not and there are plenty of other people out there who aren't. When writers shoot for lower than the lowest common denominator, I get extremely insulted and put off by the tastelessness of the product they produce. But then, that's just me.