If safety is a joke, then death is the punchline.

The line frames risk and negligence through the structure of a joke: if “safety” is treated as something to laugh off, the inevitable “punchline” is fatal consequence. By yoking humor to mortality, it criticizes cultures—workplace, political, or personal—that trivialize precautions, warnings, or responsibility. The aphorism also suggests a moral logic: dismissing safety is not neutral; it sets up a narrative whose ending is already written. Its dark wit makes the message memorable, using irony to convert an abstract principle (prevention) into a stark outcome (death).