Satire is meant to bite- so it's not truly comedy, i.e. scorn versus merriement. Yes- I heard ethnic, racial, sexist jokes growing up but they were not mean-spirited then political correctness pounced though now the style in political and social humor is mockery>distain/ contempt. I do like slapstick- another great was Sid Ceasar- also Mel Brooks maybe Jewish humor derives from their tragic history, in part. As for Kierkegaard, I might have smiled if I could wade through his style- maybe I was not fair with K. One friend still reminds me of doing the right thing and is grateful that when a mutual "friend" thought the behavior of the "ex" in a messy divorce was hysterically funny I said this is her life and it is not funny at all- there is a lot of cruelty found in the "nicest" places sometimes. Another ex- friend is a great mocker- takes on accents and puts on a little show to illustrate her superiority over others and I don't doubt I am another on her list. But these type are just cruel and insecure.
On Feb 1, 8:42 am, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > My child hood was littered with jokes. How do you keep an Irishman > busy all day - put him in a barrel and tell him to micturate in the > corner. The Germans bombed our chip shop and had no sense of humour. > In France, the Belgians are the butt or "Irish" jokes; elsewhere the > Poles. Jokes often rely on 'taking the Micky' - ridiculing someone > else. In Englishmen, Scotsmen and Irishmen jokes it was common for > the English and Scots to be the suckers to a sharp and cunning > Irishman. Even the holocaust has been subject to joking - often by > the victims. > > I have taught Kierkegaard as an example of dark, lengthy Danish humour > (and can point to books on same). There is an affinity in his work > with the Monty Python poverty joke in which each in turn recalls a > childhoods in greater poverty than the last. Eventually, just as one > thinks the guy claiming to have lived in a shoebox on the central > reservation of the M6 has 'won' the game another bloke says, > "Shoebox? You had a shoebox. Luxury!" Kierkegaard does this with > Christianity. > > My own humour is dark, but it's rare I mean anyone harm. I used to > think that satire offered some hope of change, but in recent years > have come to see it as merely part of the problems we have. It is of > the Establishment and feigns resistance. > > I think humour might be part of a way out of chronic illusion; but it > is often merely cruel and parochial.
