TASK DEFINITION: Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
PROBLEM: A word for the unexpected reaction of laughing in a situation of complete hopelessness or laughing with sad undertones.

SOLUTION: Gallows humor is 'humor that treats serious, frightening, or painful subject matter in a light or satirical way.' It has the connotation of someone laughing at their own execution. Urban Dictionary actually has a good summary: gallows humor Sense of humor that arises from stressful, traumatic or life-threatening situations where death seems to be an inevitability. Different from black humor in that comments of this sort are made by the person/persons affected (i.e. about to die). It is not always used to mean that the person is facing literal death, but the idea is the same. They are expressing amusement or using humor in the face of their own inevitable fate.

PROBLEM: If you look at this gif of a drone replacing a lightbulb, you'll understand what concept I'm trying to find a word for. Using dynamite for fishing would be another example. I'm looking for a word that describes the use of high-tech equipment, for a purpose that is normally filled by low-tech equipment, usually done out of laziness or amusement. This is specifically relating to technology (overengineering is very close).

SOLUTION: 'Bringing a gun to a knife fight' or 'Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut' or 'Killing a mosquito with a bazooka' are idioms that convey the sense of overkill, but perhaps not the overly-complex nature of the technology. 'If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail' is another close-but-maybe-not-quite-right idiom. It might also be a 'Rube Goldberg solution' or a 'Heath Robinson' way of getting something done, or the solution might simply 'overengineered'. Sources and related questions that might give you some ideas: 'To shoot out of cannon into sparrows' Phrase for overusing just-learned skills? A word that means 'a solution in search of a problem' Saying that refers to not going overboard in solving a problem when a simple solution exists What's the word for Unnecessary Complexity

PROBLEM: Which is correct? The thief carried the knife carefully so as not to cut himself. The thief carried the knife carefully not to cut himself.

SOLUTION:
The first one. The second one sounds quite awkward, and in fact one way I can think of to improve it would be to add a comma: 'The thief carried the knife carefully, not to cut himself'. The slight pause is meant to suggest the missing 'so as'!