Raising A Laugh

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28542, 22 March 1958, Page 3

Raising A Laugh

[From “The Times”] The Oxford Union has rejected a motion “that the modern humorist is no longer funny.” Would a plebiscite of readers, theatre-goers, viewers, and listeners go the same way? The question needs careful putting to avoid confusion. Humour has many gradations. It can be quiet, subtle, gentle, whimsical, and it gives pleasure, in each case, in varying degrees. But “funny” is an absolute word. It comes off or it fails as unmistakably as a juggler with six balls in the air either fields or fumbles them. Indeed the hostages given to fortune by a would-be funny writer are even greater. Two members of the audience may disagree on whether juggling is fun to watch; but there is no doubt about the performer having brought off or failed to do his trick. Fun in words, at its best, makes one man laugh aloud and leaves his neighbour unamused. The most classic work of art in this line leaves some people straight-faced and puzzled. Taking laughter as the cri-. terion, Mr Wodehouse and Mr Thurber have repeatedly done the trick in our time, as “Three Men in a Boat” arid “Innocents Abroad” did it before them. To go further back is to find that more and more once funny stuff has dated beyond redemption. The process seems to hit books harder than plays. Some readers still laugh aloud at Pickwick. But the laughter raised by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” when it is well acted, probably comes from a much larger portion of the audience than Dickens now gets from new acquaintances of Sam Weller. Certainly, the contemporary scene is the safest ground even for funny men of genius. Undergraduates at Oxford must be easily amused if they rate as a genius any living writer. The combination of riotous high spirits and fundamental good nature is not easily reached in an anxious world, full bL critical and resentful observers. Satire is more in our line and an "Animal Farm” is no laughing matter. Even the stage, though it is often really gay, cannot point to any such teamwork by non-stop laughter makers as was achieved by Mr Ben Travers and his interpreters. Long distance runs on the humorous track need more wind than our entertainers, have got. But, luckily, they are often in good form over the short distances in television and in the Press. Mr J. B. Morton has not < lost the knack of trapping his admirers into a guffaw. But we still await a writer whose new novel or first night is a “must” for those who are confident that he will not fail to make them laugh.