Concerning Humor

If you were suddenly to find yourself among strange and unfamiliar people and wanted to know whether you had arrived in a happy or unhappy place, there are several tests that could be applied. And one of them would be to observe what kind of humor you heard. If you found a warm and kindly humor—if you heard the unafraid laughter of children, if you saw an amused and sympathetic smile, and a good natured wit pertaining to the commonplace things of life then you could be somewhat sure that you had arrived in a free and happy place.

Humor, in this sense, flourishes in an atmosphere of freedom, and is stifled in an atmosphere of oppression. When you find furtive and apprehensive children and humorless unresponsive people, then you may know that you have come upon an unhappy place.

But in considering the kinds and qualities of humor, we must distinguish between what is wholesomely humorous and what is grim, unclean, and unkind. The humor that embarrasses or hurts a helpless, unoffending victim is not good humor, even though it sometimes brings loud laughter. Unkind cutting sarcasm is not good humor even though it may be laughed at. Often it leaves scars that are hard to heal. All laughter is not humorous. Some laughter is cruel. Some is cruel. The misfortunes of others are not good humor. The uncoordinated antics of an inebriate are not really good humor; because they show a person who is sadly not in control of himself. Giddiness and light-mindedness are not good humor.

Humor in its highest sense is temperate, clean, kind, and when humor becomes too heavy, cruel, unclean, unkind, or too light-minded, and giddy, and meaningless, or when it becomes suggestive, low-minded, and off-color, we had better give a critical look to the environment we are in and the company we keep.