Wit and Humour

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 138, 13 February 1942, Page 5

Wit and Humour

ET me say a few words about the two main types, wit and humour. Wit, as compared with humour,: is superficial. It sparkles, coruscates, and flashes, and need not penetrate far below the surface of things. It is rare indeed among us. We all know some humorists but how many of us have known a real wit? At its best it astonishes, takes away the breath, for it depends on a rapidity of mental action which is beyond the ordinary mortal mind: At its worst it is merely flashy, and the pun, however clever it may be, is a typical example of it. Humour is far commoner than’ wit, though perhaps the sense of humour is not so universally possessed as most of us seem to believe. We all, at any rate, think that we can appreciate it. Who has ever met any person -male or female-who will confess to a lack of the sense of humour? At its best it embraces the earth and the heavens and all humanity in all time; it is, I think, an essential ingredient in the make-up of every truly great man-wit is not. The names of the great humorists are enshrined in our memories together with those of the great poets, dramatists, composers, and artists in other arts-Shakespeare, Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Fielding, Jane Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Chesterton, and so on.-(" The Art of Jesting-Old and New: " Professor Arnold Wall, 2YA, January 27.)