What In find interesting is how it is almost impossible to see the physical difference of someone laughing his head off and someone crying his heart out. Both are a result of a sudden unexpected disclosure of truth..
On Saturday, November 24, 2012 7:51:00 PM UTC+1, archytas wrote: > > While there is only speculation about how humor developed in early > humans, we know that by the 6th century BCE the Greeks had > institutionalized it in the ritual known as comedy, and that it was > performed with a contrasting dramatic form known as tragedy. Both were > based on the violation of mental patterns and expectations, and in > both the world is a tangle of conflicting systems where humans live in > the shadow of failure, folly, and death. Like tragedy, comedy > represents life as full of tension, danger, and struggle, with success > or failure often depending on chance factors. Where they differ is in > the responses of the lead characters to life's incongruities. > Identifying with these characters, audiences at comedies and tragedies > have contrasting responses to events in the dramas. And because these > responses carry over to similar situations in life, comedy and tragedy > embody contrasting responses to the incongruities in life. > > Tragedy valorizes serious, emotional engagement with life's problems, > even struggle to the death. Along with epic, it is part of the Western > heroic tradition that extols ideals, the willingness to fight for > them, and honor. The tragic ethos is linked to patriarchy and > militarism—many of its heroes are kings and conquerors—and it > valorizes what Conrad Hyers (1996) calls Warrior Virtues—blind > obedience, the willingness to kill or die on command, unquestioning > loyalty, single-mindedness, resoluteness of purpose, and pride. > > Comedy, by contrast, embodies an anti-heroic, pragmatic attitude > toward life's incongruities. From Aristophanes' Lysistrata to Charlie > Chaplin's The Great Dictator to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, > comedy has mocked the irrationality of militarism and blind respect > for authority. Its own methods of handling conflict include deal- > making, trickery, getting an enemy drunk, and running away. As the > Irish saying goes, you're only a coward for a moment, but you're dead > for the rest of your life. In place of Warrior Virtues, it extols > critical thinking, cleverness, adaptability, and an appreciation of > physical pleasures like eating, drinking, and sex. > > Much humour is cruel - but try and read cruelty in to 'Doctor, doctor, > I've lost an electron'. 'Are you sure'? 'Yes, I'm positive'. > > What do we think humour is? > --
