‘It is an exquisite pleasure to laugh when one is not supposed to.’ Photo: by S&B Vonlanthen on Unsplash
Beyond a joke? Mary de Pleave’s Thought for the week
‘The meaning of laughter is deep.’
‘Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God’, Karl Barth, Swiss theologian.
We are inherently happy, us humans, but strange things happen during our formation. What’s funny isn’t necessarily always kind. We have ‘black’ humour, slapstick, cruel humour, mocking laughter, and so on. It seems that the more pain and misery we suffer, the sharper our wit becomes. I love Jewish humour and think many Liverpudlians are very funny. Both groups might say that it isn’t surprising, considering what they have been through. That’s another thing, it’s fine for one of our own to tell jokes that highlight idiosyncrasies and frailties, but it’s not appreciated when we are the target of others outside our ‘clan’. Jokes and laughter may be used as weapons by people who feel more powerful and superior. Laughter can be dangerous, and we must clarify our relationship with it. It is not acceptable to laugh at ‘the outsider’ or ‘the fool’.
