I'd also suggest that this may be one effect of an increase in suicide awareness and attempts at prevention, at least from my experience. I don't know what it was like 30 years ago but it certainly seems to be more of an issue that's okay to talk about now among young people, which makes it a more available target for memetic humor.
In 6th grade Tim's brother blew his head off with a shotgun. We sorta passed word around to be nice to Tim when we saw him but it was never discussed in class in any way. It was in the paper, of course. Then Kelly's three sisters got killed by a drunk driver. We had a goddamn substitute teacher because our teacher (as well as eight or nine girls) were at the funeral... but nobody said fuckall. In 7th grade Beth's entire family was wiped out by a drunk driver... and she was mormon, so we're talking eight people. They dedicated a bench to them out front but there was nothing during school hours. By 11th grade our graduating class had experienced three suicides. There wasn't so much as an announcement. The yearbook had a half-page memorial for one of them, maybe because she was pregnant. kids'r'soft these days.