Sunday, August 14, 2022

Funny and unfunny

Over at ChicagoBoyz David Foster posted questions about humor.

St. Lawrence, while being roasted alive on a gridiron, asked his torturers to turn him over because he was "done" on that side. "Don't take life so serious, son ... it ain't nohow permanent."

To cite Lewis: "No people find each other more absurd than lovers." The beloved isn't as perfectly loveable as God, and we can't love nearly as well as He. Even at our best we see the difference, but it needn't be a painful difference; more like a game. We can happily live out our roles, and find them happily funny. From " Who Understands Who Anyhow?" by Ogden Nash "I will take all my hard-earned money. And I will bet it on the nose of the tribe whose men and women continue to think each other are funny."

In contrast it seems as though a lot of humorlessness comes from treating transient things as ultimate. "My pain at this percieved offense is sacred; don’t you dare joke about me."

You can’t joke about President N or President N-1 because ... lese majeste. Or blasphemy: your god is what you hold most sacred, and it’s easy to find people whose real god is the Party. I've heard the joke about God and the golfers, but never at church. The infinitely important isn't finite or fallible--or funny.

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