Just Kidding
/There is a dark side to humor that is ancient.
————
It’s a mystifying business, this business of humor; dangerous, too, comedians are always talking about, “killin’ their audience. Ordinary folk, in a fit of laughter say, “Stop, stop, please, your killin’ me!”! When a comedian fails to get laughs, he may say, “I was dying out there”.
Such a violent way to look at things. Death lies in wait at end of many punchlines I guess that’s why so many comedians commit suicide.
Nothing is funny if it isn’t a surprise.
We laugh at unexpected endings — at punchlines. Some punchlines intentionally don’t punch. We call such jokes, “shaggy dog stories”, after the famous long dull joke of the same name. We don’t laugh at shaggy dog stories, we moan. The joke is on us.
Most jokes seem to be on somebody.
These jokes at the expense of someone else can be thought of as, banana-skin jokes — a man slips on a banana skin and falls — Ha, Ha, Ha! People who would ordinarily be ashamed to laugh at the painful misfortune of others, laugh at this.
It’s not necessarily meanness that makes them laugh. It’s the element of surprise.
We also laugh at ourselves when we make an unexpected error. Vaudevillian comics made such frequent use this kind of humor that they had a trade term for it — the Pratfall.
My gentle wife, Joyce, did not laugh at pratfalls, or any other form of banana-skin joke. She thought the only truly funny kind of humor was self-depreciating humor. It was OK to laugh at yourself. It was never OK to laugh at someone else.
I agree.
There is a dark side to humor that is ancient.
The architype comedian is the “Trickster”.
Every Paleolithic culture had their own version. Tricksters played tricks on respectable order - and the people who maintained respectable order.
Tricksters were supernatural beings that often took the form of animals. Brer Rabbit is the cartoon version of this sort. He was lifted from very old African folktales. Trickster tricks could be playful — or malicious.
Satan, disguised as a serpent, tricking Eve with the forbidden fruit, is certainly the most extreme malicious example. Other Tricksters contented themselves with tempting humans into foolish acts that ended in embarrassing paleolithic pratfalls.
At ceremonial tribal gatherings, some member of the tribe would play the Trickster; on these occasions, the tricks would be largely harmless.
By Medieval times the Trickster had become the Jester — a harmless buffoon, a clown.
In modern times, the Comedian, George Carlen, styled himself as Jester.
Trickster, Jester, Clown, Comedian — the title changes — the performance remains the same: mock: disparage, exaggerate, deceive. Is there any good in any of it?
Yes.
Self-disparaging humor reminds us of our own failings. Humility is the necessary first step toward improvement. That’s always good.
Anything else?
Well, laughter is said to remove stress. Yes, but the laughter that removes stress from you, adds stress to the person who is the butt of your joke.
Laughter is the weapon of the weak. It attacks the powerful in the only way possible. True enough, but does the powerful person attacked really deserve to be attacked? Humor can’t tell us that.
The clown can only smirk and honk his horn.
What’s so funny about that?
By K. L. Shipley
Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com