The world does not comprehend laughter, it can only participate in complete bafflement
- Evelyn M. Wallace , September 15, 2006
The above is a quote I wrote on a friends blog last year when it became apparent to me that his girlfriend's sense of humor was lacking some character and he was beginning to follow suit. The friendship went sour. Can you imagine why? Duh!
I don't like the idea of dissecting the creation of comedy- much like Bob Newhart- because you never really know where it's coming from, in truth. (Please see the quote from Pirandello in the latest entry on my Castlelady blog
No doubt there is a hidden science to it but do we really want to make something like that out of it?
Where does laughter come from? Can anyone actually pin down this phenomenon to emotion? It is not necessarily an emotion, nor can anyone say what will evoke the outbursts of what we call laughter. We have seen absurdities (or what we term as such) elicit this response but we have also seen gales of it produced from mundane and often abhorrent situations. When laughter is thought to be inappropriate we believe the "laugher" to be abnormal or weird. If we perceive that someone seldom laughs or smiles at anything they are termed as not having a "sense of humor". Which only leads us back to the question of what humor actually consists of or where it comes from.
I believe that laughter comes from a place inside us that God placed there and each person gets an individual imprint of what he or she finds funny or absurd. It is very much like our fingerprints. I think I would like to call it our "waggish DNA" because each and every person finds something funny that very few other people find funny or even amusing, at times. It can create awkward moments, certainly. But ask yourself this- would you want to change your sense of humor to conform to someone else's standard? A better question might be- do you think this is even possible? I don't believe so and I think any one that would try to do so would be nothing less than false. Fake laughter stinks like herring that has been sitting on a wharf for several years. It's bad.
Perhaps someday they'll get really sophisticated about comedy training and have someone do lab tests, experiment and come up with some antidote to the "crawl under the table and crawl out" of the club moment that a few people have experienced at The Comedy Club (or local equivalent). Perhaps some comedian with a PhD in comedy will be able to tell us how to get our "waggish DNA" under control and we'll someday be able to take classes in comedic etiquette.
Until that day I'll just go on laughing at what I find funny and express myself in the most appropriate way I know. If my words offend, well, I am really sorry but it's the nicest way I could put that and retain my sense of humor. When I really want to offend you'll know it in no uncertain terms.
My aim is true. ; )
Live, love, laugh, hug and kiss!
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