Laughing and Laughter, the Reasons of Humor

Decades ago I had read a French Essay on Laughter, and the author posed two reasons why people laugh at things, or, well, three, and the third thing he did not much like.  Firstly, we laugh at anything which reveals our Mortal Condition – things that point out that we are mere animals and not truly spiritual beings, or, if we do not lose all Hope, that at the least our Spirituality is somewhat mixed with the Carnal.  Thus we laugh at the Scatological (jokes about Poop), or the Sexual.  We laugh at some rather dark jokes about Death (the doctor said he had two things to tell me.  That I only had six months to live, and that he should have told me five months ago).  The second thing that we find funny is Ambiguity, that is, when we find associations between things that are normally not connected, or in innuendo, where two things may be suggested at the same time – a pure thing and a not-so-pure thing.   All puns are funny for their ambiguity, and criticized for their inability to be translated into any foreign language.    The Frenchman allowed that a third category may exist for Laughter, but it should not be encouraged, and that was from laughing about something merely stupid or ridiculous, such as Woody Allen movies.  The Frenchman argued that laughing at Stupidity was just Humor for the Stupid.  Stupid people are not deep enough to contemplate the conflicts between their Spiritual and Animal Natures, and so nothing about their Mortal Condition can even evoke a simpleminded smile, and when they are so stupid they can barely understand one thing at a time let alone two things at once, then, well, they only think it is funny when they find something dumber than they are.

Well, I think the Frenchman was on to something, but saw only the negative pole of his Third Category  -- laughing at the Ridiculous.  He recognized that Stupid People would laugh at the Perplexing or that which evaded any sense or meaning.  The Frenchman failed to consider how this Same Category would apply to Intelligent People.  What of the Transcendent or that which is Amazingly Inexplicable?   When Archimedes was settling into the bathtub and saw the water level rise, and instantaneously arrived at the discovery of ascertaining Volume by Fluid Displacement, he laughed about it.  When Oppenheimer realized he could Destroy the Entire World and all Life on Planet Earth with Atomic Weapons by splitting little tiny atoms, well, he couldn’t stop laughing for a week.  The Scientific Community still thinks it’s hilarious.   Well, no, that is me trying to be facetious – Good Science versus Bad Science, but it’s not really funny.  But it is funny when we are surprised or delighted about things. 

So, yes, things can be so Amazing that they are funny.   I should not blame the Frenchman for not seeing it, because, well, after all, I read his essay almost 50 years ago and I only just thought of this additional factor now.  The circumstance was that I was tossed a Musical Solo without warning and with just seconds to deliberate performed it better than I had any reason to believe possible, and laughed about it afterwards, so much so, that I wondered what was so funny.

Oh!  Or perhaps the Laughing from Amazement Category is simply the inverse of the First Humor Principle, but instead of the Spiritual Being laughing at being found a mere Animal, this time the Animal is laughing at being shown to be a Spiritual Being.   We laugh and smile when we are shown our Transcendence.