Is there a word for something that would be hilarious if it weren't true?

I've been thinking all day but nothing is coming to mind. I feel like I'd use it a lot if one existed.

Answer

tragicomic (adj), tragicomedy (n.)

tragicomedy
1) ...
2) ...
3) An incident or situation having both comic and tragic elements.

tragicomic adj.

Edit:
My downvoter doesn't think this a fitting word. I should provide some examples, to help everyone decide for themselves.

"In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust (1913-22). Proust's great novel addresses just about every problem a person can face. ... Complexity, contradiction, flux are everywhere... The only real sin here is vulgarity, which is both ridiculous and depressing--i.e., tragicomic and, as I see it, horribly lifelike. http://orion.math.uwaterloo.ca/~hwolkowi/house.d/fivebesttragicomic.html

Like the 'wanderer' in Caspar David Friedrich’s painting of 1818, Axel Antas stands in the centre of Obstructed View (Boulderstone), (Treetop) and (Cliffedge) in solitary contemplation. But in a tragicomic twist his views of the landscape are almost completely obscured by artificial smoke clouds that rise around his body. REVIEW. Axel Antas, Rokeby, London

The tragicomic story of two brothers who survive by working as mechanics in a small garage in Sderot. Under the hail of missiles from Gaza, they comment the harsh reality of life in southern Israel during brotherly arguments oozing with black humour. a film distributor's site

Nothing in the episodes I’ve seen rivals the outlandish laugh riots of a Secret Service detail hiring Cartagena hookers... The mass-resignations, the political embarrassment, the congressional investigation — this is right in line with Vice President Meyer’s tragicomic milieu. washingtonpost

On the Jon Stewart show, when Obama adopted Stewart's... What we see is the tragicomic spectacle of the newsmedia and Democratic Party spinning the unspinnable... First appeared in print in The Rhinoceros Times, Greensboro, NC

The whole situation had brought me to the verge, or nearly, of physical collapse, and I started to hear my publisher’s injunctions—the company was keeping an eye on my work—as still more noise; a noise that made me desperate, and I found it ever harder to obey. Finally, indeed, I no longer obeyed at all.

The whole tragicomic affair found its culmination in year three: the third year of my living so absurdly in my Roman hut. My building, here again, as before in Milan, was thrown into the turmoil of renovation, for a whole pitiless year. Anna Maria Ortese, transl. Henry Martin

We all witnessed the tragicomic spectacle of Western Flotillas moored within walking distance to ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/guillermo-fesser/americans-in-palestinian-_b_3052770.html

"The tragicomic state of Arab democracy"
Abdeljabbar Adwan
The state of democracy in the Arab world is a tragicomedy. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Lebanonwire

—A Blog Devoted to Exposing America's Most Powerful Cult Leader and Political Power Broker—

"This Would Be Funny if It Weren't True"
I have come across information about the tragicomic life of former Bush appointee... Here's a passage from an 1988 article... :
... in which they literally prostrate themselves on the floor before a picture of Moon... blog

I guess on one tragicomic level, at least those jerk-off blog people are honest about their intentions? blog

I think it’s tragicomic that these actors (stevens and brown-findlay) think that they still have the support of the fans after ruining the show. Well, they don’t. tvline

[Edit2: noun & adjective separation, definition reformat]

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes." He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear. Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...

Notes

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