By Tom Purcell
Boy, does the world need a better sense of humor right about now.
Humor, says Merriam-Webster, is “the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are funny.”
Humans are at their best when they are amused. Few things can better reduce stress or shed light on truth than a good joke.
President Reagan had a grand sense of humor — and used it with great deftness to advance his program.
He told one joke about a man, then living in the Soviet Union, who went to a government office to order a new car. When he laid down his money, he was told there would be a long wait.
“Come back in 10 years and pick up your car,” said the government servant.
“Morning or afternoon?” said the man.
“What difference does it make?” said the servant.
“Because the plumber is coming in the morning.”
British academic and joke theorist Christy Davies says a good joke can help clarify and express complex feelings. A good joke can cut to the heart of the matter better than any speech or law or government policy.
The lack of a sense of humor can do the opposite.
When I was younger, and going through a rough patch in my career, I was miserable.
After I’d been moping around for a few months, my mother let me have it.
“You have lost your sense of humor,” she said, “and you need to get it back.”
She was correct. Lacking good humor, I trapped myself in the narrowness of my own small consciousness, making relatively small challenges into giant problems.
A sense of humor is the way out of narrowness. Learning to laugh at yourself is healthy. And people who laugh the hardest are always the healthiest.
True, laughter often depends, as the old saying goes, on whose ox is being gored.
“Saturday Night Live” founder Lorne Michaels has noted that the show often pokes fun at Republican politicians because Republicans find it funny — they don’t take the ribbing as personally as do some with other political points of view, he said.
I didn’t know much about Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper that was attacked by terrorists 11 days ago. Two gunmen killed 12 people in the editorial office.
As it went, the magazine had published provocative cartoons that caricatured the founder of Islam, and the terrorists entered the building with guns to exact revenge. The cartoons apparently didn’t tickle the gunmen’s funny bone.
The magazine has been criticized by some for publishing such provocative cartoons and for also lampooning Judaism and Catholicism in a highly provocative manner (one cartoon showed nuns masturbating, and another showed the pope wearing a condom).
Though some may find such satire insulting and inflammatory, the Charlie Hebdo editors and cartoonists did not deserve to be killed for publishing it, and the acts of the two gunmen who killed them can in no way be validated by anyone.
The handful of critics who suggest that the editors and cartoonists partly brought the attack on themselves are missing the point. Nobody should be murdered because of satire. Ever.
The fact is, we have far more to fear from those who wish to repress expression and censor jokes and cartoons than we do from the jokes and cartoons themselves.
And though biting satire may be unpleasant at times to some, one thing we can agree on is this: We need more good humor in the world and we need it fast.
Here’s one joke I think we can all agree on:
“It’s so cold today, the politicians had their hands in their own pockets.”
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©2014 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970’s Childhood” and “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc.
As long as religious conservatives are around, nothing will change. They’re all the same. The Muslims have the charlie Hebdo types. We have Timothy McVery tea party types. One has Muhammed and one has christ, but they’re cut from the same cloth. The Charlie Hebdo attack was a victory for the religious right.
Semi-accurate, but inflammatory. Being a true believer does not necessarily mean you want to kill everybody who doesn’t believe like you, only that you think they are condemned to eternal damnation for NOT believing like you once they do die.
The problem is that there are extremist on both sides. Those are the people that we have to watch out for.
There are just evil people in the world who will always be on the side with power. I think you get that and like most here never take yourself to serious.
As long as the liberals are around nothing will change. They act pro choice but only as long you choose their choice. Liberal cohesiveness is based on hate of Christians and anyone else of faith. As long as criminals attack our police and get away with it liberals are happy. This is the 21st century and liberals are lost and wondering around in the sixties. Liberal talk about fairness, but the world will never fair because liberals don’t act right. The incident at CK Newsome is the spawn of liberals and their influence on school and families and what we can expect more of. The greedy old democrats with their big union money move out to the county to avoid what they espouse, criminal activity.
Wow, what a hateful response to an article encouraging humor. BTW, atheist hold the record for the most killed and oppressed in the name of their ideology. So have your spiteful death wish for Christian conservatives, evil would thrive in their absence.
This version is better:
As long as the republicans are around nothing will change. They act pro choice but only as long you choose their choice. Republican cohesiveness is based on hate of Christians and anyone else of faith. As long as criminals attack our police and get away with it republicans are happy. This is the 21st century and republicans are lost and wondering around in the sixties. Republicans talk about fairness, but the world will never fair because Republicans don’t act right. The incident at CK Newsome is the spawn of republicans and their influence on school and families and what we can expect more of. The greedy old republicans with their big corporate money move out to the county to avoid what they espouse, criminal activity.
Yet, as with all of your inane posts INCORRECT! You are only a step above V with your nitwittery.
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