It would be a fair assumption that if you enjoy a lot of the content on our site, such as this, then you’ve probably got a superior, if admittedly slightly fucked up, sense of humour. But a recent study has shown that if your sense of humour changes to become increasingly twisted or dark then it may be an early warning sign of dementia.

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The study was carried out by University College London (UCL) and the results were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. They detailed the findings of Dr Camilla Clark, who gathered 48 patients with the condition and surveyed their close friends and family, asking them to rate their friend or relative’s comic appreciation of various forms of humour.

Amongst the options they could choose from were slapstick (as in, when you laugh at people getting hurt), absurdist (or, in other words, the ridiculous shit) and inappropriate comedy (the sexy stuff). Shockingly, almost everyone that was asked noted a marked change in the 9 years leading up to the diagnosis of dementia, with the patient taking on a darker sense of humour and laughing at tragic events on the news and around them in their own lives.

Dr Simon Ridley, working on behalf of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said that anyone concerned about the disease should talk to their GP:

While memory loss is often the first thing that springs to mind when we hear the word dementia, this study highlights the importance of looking at the myriad different symptoms that impact on daily life and relationships.

A deeper understanding of the full range of dementia symptoms will increase our ability to make a timely and accurate diagnosis.

Which seems like pretty sound advice to me. Other experts have stated that this study is by no means conclusive, and that further research is required in order to pinpoint when a change in humour is a sign of dementia or when it’s just you being a bit of a bellend. It is worth pointing out that the study highlights a marked change in sense of humour beginning to enjoy darker content when you previously didn’t as being a sign of the disease. What that means is: if you’ve always found people getting hurt funny, you’re probably absolutely fine. By all means continue to enjoy the screwed up comedy gold that we post with a worry free mind, and this one’s on us.