Whisked away from their routine life to partake in a communal decision, the dutiful juror rationalizes the inconvenience caused by assuring their verdict's importance and sympathizing, "'Before God, that could be me on trial. If that were so, God forbid, I would want those in the jury to be as responsible as I pledge to be and as terrified of error as I am'" (Mamet ix). The juror, possessing the ability to connect their life to the person on trial, intends to seek accuracy in determining the necessity of repercussions. However, a more callous juror may take the decision lightly. Contrary to the conscientious juror's reasoning, In Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men, Juror Seven's facetious appeals to humor juxtaposed with satiric ad hominem arguments suggest that his personal detachment from the suspect depreciates the jurors' consensus.
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Juror Seven meets the third juror's questioning over how the knife intended as a gift ended up as a murder weapon with a quip: "Well, he was gonna give the knife to his friend. He just wanted to use it for a minute" (Rose I.24). By discussing the solemn subject of a man's murder as an offhand errand, Juror Seven belittles its significance through the lens of humor. To justify utilizing humor in the presence of a dark matter, Juror Seven implicitly relies on the emotional and social dissociation between the suspect and the jury. Similarly, as a response to the comment made by the third juror on the disrespect of leaving a knife in a person's chest, Juror Seven jocularly remarks, "Yeah, especially relatives'" (Rose I.39). In an untimely appeal to evoke laughter, Juror Seven reveals that his
Juror Seven meets the third juror's questioning over how the knife intended as a gift ended up as a murder weapon with a quip: "Well, he was gonna give the knife to his friend. He just wanted to use it for a minute" (Rose I.24). By discussing the solemn subject of a man's murder as an offhand errand, Juror Seven belittles its significance through the lens of humor. To justify utilizing humor in the presence of a dark matter, Juror Seven implicitly relies on the emotional and social dissociation between the suspect and the jury. Similarly, as a response to the comment made by the third juror on the disrespect of leaving a knife in a person's chest, Juror Seven jocularly remarks, "Yeah, especially relatives'" (Rose I.39). In an untimely appeal to evoke laughter, Juror Seven reveals that his