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This week: I Shouldn't Laugh Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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By nothing do men show their character more than by the things they laugh at.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.
-Stephen King
Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.
-Bob Newhart |
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Most of us have done it. Some of us even admit to it. It's best done in private, because even though almost everyone does it, it's not something to show the world.
I'm speaking, of course, about inappropriate laughter.
You can't always control it. You see a runaway wheelchair, or a dog wearing a tutu, or one of those extended spoilers on the back of a car, and you just bust out laughing.
And sometimes you can't even admit to it. Who here laughed after 9/11? Show of hands... nobody? Liars. I guarantee you somebody did.
There is, of course, a relationship between the amount of time that has passed and the acceptability of laughter. Helen Keller jokes are funny, for example, but only because the lady is nearly a half-century gone.
Here's just a partial list of those things that we shouldn't laugh at - but you do anyway. (I, of course, only make appropriate jokes):
Dead babies
The disabled
The mentally challenged
Tragedies
Skateboarder faceplants*
The Holocaust
Executions
Dwarfs
Kids melting down in public
Adults melting down in public
Scientology
*okay, no, those are just funny and it is not at all inappropriate to laugh.
Feel free to come up with your own to share in the comment box.
When we don't laugh at something that we shouldn't laugh at, we feel a sense of superiority over those who do laugh. But is it a misplaced sense of superiority? I think so.
To laugh is an expression of humanity. Part of the tragedy of being human is that we know that we are going to die. I think some other animals have this knowledge, too, and most instinctively try not to die when threatened, but as far as we know, we're the only ones who obsess about it.
As a corollary, we know that bad things can happen to us, for no reason, at any time - even if death isn't the result, we could be kidnapped, ripped off, maimed, shot, stabbed, hit by a meteorite, bitten by a shark... the list is endless.
How do you deal with that? How do you deal with life's pitiful uncertainties, the knowledge that you could be riding your bike one minute, and the next, dragged for miles under a utility truck? (This actually happened to a guy I know. I didn't laugh.)
The answer is laughter. I've said it before and I honestly believe it: we find things funny, not because they're pleasing, but because they're uncomfortable. Because they're painful. In jokes, someone almost always gets hurt - physically, emotionally, financially, whatever, but hurt nonetheless. (The only exception I know of is puns, which only hurt the listener.)
German (of course) has a word for it: schadenfreude, which we liked so much we adopted it into English. It means the joy at another's misfortune. While most of us don't feel literal "joy," we still sometimes laugh. It's our way of dealing with the pain, the uncertainty, the randomness of life. We know it could happen to us, and that's scary, but do we cower in our basements and avoid dealing with the world just because there are maniacs with automatic weapons?
Hopefully, the answer is no. And the reason the answer is no is because we laugh in the face of Fate, knowing all the while that eventually, Fate will have the last laugh. And that's okay, because Fate always has the last laugh. But at least we can enjoy our own laughter in the meantime.
I mean, one minute you can be sitting there innocently typing a newsletter during a thunderstorm, and the next minute be hit by li |
A few funnies for your amusement.
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Last time, in "Comedy Newsletter (June 27, 2012)" , I talked about bad movies.
Midnight Dawn  : Hmmm... I agree. Like you, I only recognize Manos: The Hands of Fate from the list, and that is just wrong! There are so many truly terrible movies. In fact, I think I saw many of them introduced by Elvira when I was a kid, long before the joys of MST3K. Thank you for sharing the list. I must check out Monster A-Go-Go, and Night Train to Mundo Fine. The titles alone make curious if they are bad enough to make me laugh while I cringe.
They do sound like fun.
Prosperous Snow celebrating  : There is another movie missing from that list. The title was "Laser Blast" and it was so bad that I can't forget it. I did learn something from that movie. I learned you should not start or end in the middle of the plot. Of course, there is a question about that movie having a plot.
That can work if it's done right, but for the most part, yeah.
Mummsy  : I can't believe Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator isn't on that list! 
Now that sounds like an awesome movie.
glo-stick: Great article. I've never even heard of most of the movies you mentioned until now. However, if you ever do an article on great movies, I reccomend Alice Cooper: The Nightmare. It's very hard to find, but you can watch segments of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3wavnC4FY8
Now I'm reminded of another great movie I saw recently, God Bless America.
And that's it for me for this month - stay cool if it's summer where you are, and I'll see you in August! Until then,
LAUGH ON!!! |
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Comedy: July 25, 2012 Issue [#5169]
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