The Practical Joke…

Humor is a wonderful lubricant in life. “Good humor,” said Stanislaus, “is the health of the soul,” and heaven spare us the starchy stiffness of living without sincere and sensitive humor. It is evidence of freedom, and the less freedom there is, the less humor there is likely to be. Without it the days would be dull indeed. But anything can be overdone. And humor is no exception. One kind of humor that is frequently overdone is the so-called practical joke. The “practical” joker sometimes seeks to stage something that will startle, shock, or deceive, or situations which frighten and confuse, and then suddenly the deception is ended, and everyone is supposed to see the very funny side. But this, in some circumstances, has its hazards, and nothing is less practical than that which might turn to misunderstanding, to embarrassment, and even to tragedy. And if the impractical practical joker is too realistic, he may find himself the victim of his own humor—when others react as if the situation were real and serious instead of a humorous deception. We cannot always predict just how other people are going to think or react, r just how any deception is going to shape itself. Humor emotions are very complex, and what started as something seemingly innocent, may turn out to be deeply serious, with quite the opposite effect from what was intended. And besides, there ought to be better ways of spending time than in setting up a hoax of deception, the result of which at best is fleeting and trivial, and at worst is tragic. “…humor should always lie under the check of reason,” said Joseph Addison, “and…it requires the direction of the nicest judgment…” Anything can be overdone: seriousness, humor, all else. Good and clean and sincere and sensitive humor is a blessing, a relaxer and a lubricant in life, but it must be kept in balance, in bounds, and on the safe side. “When we go too far it is seldom in the right direction.”