The Rationale of Humor

Advocates of humor therapy argue that humor is not a mere farce. Merely because unusual states of consciousness are derived through laughing, it does not follow that the resulting insights or experiences are invalidated: the end-product is to be judged, rather than the means.

Laughing at things over which we once cried or complained offers us new ideas, ideas which we may voluntarily ignore, but which as rational thinkers we cannot dismiss. The resulting inspiration and optimism to which they persuade us, interpreted however we choose, is indeed a true insight into living well.

There is a profoundly philosophical nature in the insights gained when one "lightens up."  Looking back on my own experiences with humor, they all converge towards a kind of insight to which I cannot help ascribing some speculative significance. The keynote of humor is invariably a reconciliation of incongruous thoughts. It is as if the opposites of the world, whose contradictoriness and conflict make all our difficulties and troubles melt away like ice cream on a hot summer day (hey, that rhymed!).

It is entirely possible that I'm utterly and completely wrong on this given the subjective nature of humor and the many things at which we laugh, but I'm sticking with this theory this morning or I'll never finish this post. I have a tendency to ramble on and on and on and on and on and on...about things.

I can't help feel as if seeing life through a more humorous lens doesn't mean something, something like what the Hegelian philosophy means, if one could only wrap their mind - and funny bone - around it. Those who have the slightest clue as to what I'm saying, let me then say... the reality of humor ONLY comes from the humorous state. Without entering it, one cannot fully grasp its meaning. In simpler terms, everything looks different from the inside of a concept.

*This is why my posts are so eclectic. Every related subject has to be experienced from a humorous vantage, even if that humor is not apparent to others, in order to make the claim that I know anything about the true nature of humor.