MENTAL SUNSHINE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 25

MENTAL SUNSHINE

THE SENSE OF HUMOUR TRIBUTE TO JQKE-MAICERS “Surely the gates of Heaven stand wide for the makers of jokes as well as the singers of psalms,” is the concluding sentence of Kaharine M. Wilson’s article in the “Contemporary Review,” on “The Sense of Humour.” She says in the course of her contribution: “Things are not funny in themselves, only as we think them so; humour depends more on an attitude of mind than on something intrinsically ludierous in the thing or situation. And it is not an emotion so much as a point of view; the expression ‘a sense of humour’ recognises this, for we do not talk of a sense of love. People with a sense of humour easily lift feelings or experiences on to the plane where nothing has any consequence and everything provokes mental sunshine. The humour lies precisely in not taking the situation seriously. In comedy we look at life from an altitude where all things seem too trivial to hurt, and, indeed, delight us the more they are awry. “All humorous situations are disagreeable taken seriously. Very few disagreeable situations cannot become humorous, perhaps none. It is out of these that humour grows. When circumstances become too much for us, as we reach breaking point, the humour of the situation often strikes us; our overwrought emotions escape into the land where nothing can hurt. It is not that the tangle we struggle in takes a funny turn, but that we cannot bear it any longer and must find some way out. We find that way by suddenly thinking the whole thing funny. “We say the funny side struck us, but it was we who made it seem funny. The tragic laugh of melodramatic fiction conies from very good psychology. If we could not find this way out, we should succumb to the trouble. By this sense of humour people come unhurt through calamities that would hurt them otherwise, and the memory of their suffering does not sadden their lives as it may gloom over a solemn sufferer.

“The apparently idiotic laughter that sometimes bursts out in a theatre when the strain of a tragedy pulls tightest, possibly has this origin: someone is using the emergency ladder to sten down from the sublime. Many jokes arise from a shock to our reason, or when our expectations are suddenly completely upset. Practically everyone laughs at these jokes; their sanit\ depends on it. “John Bull, who once preserved himself against the stranger by heaving a brick, now laughs. And so with minor disappointments and discomforts. Why should it tickle our humour to come out with a ‘duek,’ or when our mighty swing leaves the ball still on its tee? A great effort giving a small result does not account for our mirth, and though we may enjoy seeing others making fools of themselves most humorous people laugh at their own follies. The humour turns aside the humiliation, and the humorous man enjoys his own bad luck.”