I have to say that I like "off-the wall" or "absurdist" humor but, frankly, sick jokes have always bothered me. If, in fact the above story is true (and with the Onion--who knows) I find it a cruel and unfunny piece.   

"Absurdist" of "off the wall" is, to me, something on the order of the Monty Python humor, Richard Pryor, etc;   Making fun and laughing at our own foibles and human traits as some self deprecating ethnic humor is clever. Much Jewish, Italian, Irish, etc; humor is based on that.
We have had jokes about multiple amputees---not funny.   Presidential assasinations--I still cringe when I hear the jokes about Lincoln.

That said, perhaps time enters into the latter thing---must be some humor in Julius Caeser's or in Nero's problems since they were so long ago.

Bill Hahn