"The Recent Unpleasantness", is an expression used in the 19th century in the southern United States as an idiom to refer to the American Civil War and its aftermath.
Because I am the one who used this idiomatic expression earlier on this thread and it was misunderstood, and my post was deleted, I felt the need to explain it. It is an expression that I read and remembered, not something I made up as light hearted. It also does not refer to any political situations that happened recently. The term "The recent Unpleasantness" was a euphemism used in literature prior to 1900 to refer to the American Civil War. Please feel free to google it.
the recent unpleasantness - Google Search