Mark Vernon on The Seriousness Of Laughing

The ancient Greeks had various theories about why we find things funny. One is the superiority thesis, and it posits that we laugh out of malice, when someone or something is mocked. That makes us feel superior. Another is the mind-tease thesis. Suppose I tell you I’m a liar. But if I’ve lied about being a liar, then I’m not a liar. Ho, ho.

 

They also agreed that laughter has a serious side. After all, human beings are, presumably, the only creature that laughs, and so that suggests something important about us. But what?

Menippus is our man here. This ancient Greek philosopher argued that we should live lightly, with as few possessions as possible. Contemplate that mouse scampering around the grain sacks, he might had advised: is it not freer than you or I will ever be? And why? Because it owns nothing.

 

What is striking about Menippus is that he apparently used humour to get his message across. There is an entertaining story that he once travelled to Hades. In the underworld, he learns that The Senate of the Dead – a kind of treasury for the afterlife – has decided on a brutal redistributive tax policy. They will take all from the rich and give to the poor. This is the right thing to do, the senate argues, as death is nothing if not a great leveller. A king as rich as Croseus, who grew fat and gouty in life, is but a shadow when he dies.

There’s another story. When the rich are reincarnated, it goes, they come back as donkeys. In this life, others have to nod their heads at them. In the next life, as donkeys, they’ll have to nod to others.

It’s that kind of ‘socialist’ humour that amused Menippus. It has a serious intention, provoking people to think about inequality, and aiming at the reshaping of society.

 

The other day I read that comedy is a boom industry right now, even though we’re moving into times of austerity. But Menippus tells us that it’s booming because we’re moving into times of austerity. It’s at times like now that we need to laugh at social inequalities, and to be able to mock the rich. It helps us survive. It might even help things to change. And pigs might fly.

 

Mark Vernon is the author of Plato’s Podcasts: The Ancients’ Guide to Modern Living (Oneworld)

 

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[Berfrois]

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[Drew Byrne]

Outrageous laughter is never so funny as you think it is...