Theories of Humor Response

 Laura Latham

EN 446D 01 

January 29, 2023

Is Comedy Good?

Comedy has been used and analyzed throughout history. Plato and Thomas Hobbes look at humor exclusively as a way to put others down, Kant looks at comedy as an equilibrium to balance the expectation of laughter that humans obtain, and Kierkegaard argues that comedy is separate from tragedy because the contradiction found in it is painless. Plato and Hobbes would argue that laughter and comedy are vehicles for malice. Though malicious comedy exists, it is not the story for comedy as a whole as comedy is largely meant to view the world in a more positive manner. 

Plato argues that laughter produces pleasure solely as a feeling, but produces pain to the soul because it is always at the expense of others. Today, modern medicine has determined that laughter is more than one pleasurable feeling. It has been found that laughter improves the immune system, relieves pain, increases personal satisfaction, and improves mood. It does not only consist of the short term pleasure that Plato points out. The expectation of laughter that Kant describes aligns with the physical desire that humans have to both soothe tension and to relieve stress. The Mayo Clinic defines these physical desires as the short-term benefits of laughter. Indigenous people have traditionally used comedy as medicine. They use it to remind people who are too proud that “they are no more valuable than anyone else in the circle of life” (Mala). In Indian culture, it is understood that to be made fun of means to be a part of the community, and they take their jokes light-heartedly. In addition, Kierkegaard provides caricatures as an example of something that is funny. He states that these are funny because of the contradiction between the pictures and what the people look like in real life. Caricatures are not funny in a malicious way towards others, however, they are funny because they include a contradiction between reality and the imaginative.

To suggest that one should abstain from laughter and comedy on the basis of comedy being bad for the soul and automatically at the malicious expense of others is incorrect. Comedy has been proven to be good for one’s health and often found in places other than comparison of one’s peers. 

Works Cited

Plato, et al. Traditional Theories of Laughter and Humor. https://moodle.loyola.edu/pluginfile.php/4805040/mod_resource/content/1/Plato%20Hobbes%20Kant%20Kierkegaard.pdf. 

Mayo Clinic Staff. “Stress Relief from Laughter? It's No Joke. .” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation, 21 July 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-relief/art-20044456. 

Mala, Cynthia Lindquist. “Very Good Medicine: Indigenous Humor and Laughter .” Laughter Tribal College, 1 May 2016, https://moodle.loyola.edu/pluginfile.php/4178304/mod_resource/content/1/Very%20Good%20Medicine%20Indigenous%20Humor%20and%20Laughter.pdf.

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