WHAT IS HUMOR?

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1912, Page 5

WHAT IS HUMOR?

SOME DEFINITIONS. ' PUNCH'S' EFFORT. M. Maurice Dekobra, of 'La Revur,' a Parisian paper, has invited a definition of humor. Eight well-known English writers give their ideas on the subject. Mr G. B. Shaw, whoso own humor M. Dekobra says is "saturated with ferocious irtny," tersely dismisses the question in thes words: "Humor cannot be defined. It is a primary substair-e which makes us laugh. You might as well try to prove a dogma."

Mr Jerome K. Jerome writes: "I do not think humor can be explained. J would define it as that which strikes vh by its drollery." This, M. Dekobra remarks, is evidently "The Idlo '.lep'v <>f an Idle Fellow."

I Mr Owen Seaman, editor of -Punch.' takes the matter much more seriously, and edvoted two and a-half pages of print to his conception of humor, pointing out that i+ depends largely on contrast, incongruity, and a subjective sense of superiority. In America, say* Mr Seaman, one of its leading eha-a<--teristics is exaggeration, while in England it finds exjwession in implications (sous-entendons) equivalent to the reservo strength of an athlete. Tt embraces nonv in the largest sense and the. art of do] Irate suggestion. One of the most popular form of expression is the grotesque, as exemplified by Robert Burns—

" And some are fu' o' love divine, And some am fu' o' brandy"

—a sudden descent from the sublime to tlie ridiculous. The pun, Mr iSeaman reminds us, is now out of fashion in England, but humorously pedantic effects are often obtained by the employment of literally-translated French words or words of Greek and Latin origin. An Englishman s oven mom afraid of ridicule than a Frenchman: yet ho will turn the laugh against himself or against his national institutions, thus anticipating the ridicule he dreads. In English literature laughter ar.d tears aro more closely allied than ir, that of other countries.

Mr Anstey suggests this dofinit:.nt: "A delicious conception of tho incongruous," but he admits it is not complete. The particular humor appreciated by different races is, he tLiifri?, largely a matter of climate. Mr Zangwill says: "Humor- is tho smilo in the look of wisdom." Mr Pett Ridge dor lares that the modern tendency in England is to laugh at our heroes of romance instead of laughing with them. A good story, bo says, should have an unexpected ending. Every country has its own humor and thinks it best. Jokes which mako an American laugh till he cries leave an Englishman unmoved, and somo French comic papers do not even make bin* smile. The English have more affinity with the Germans.

Mr R. C. Carton, the playwright, considers that humor h to oiir existence, what oxygen is to the air wo breathe. Tt is the best disinfectant that MiVnco has not discovered. A senso of humor is the real philosopher's turning to gold all the little worries of life, especially those of others. Mr Carton wonders whether humor, vitb its first cousins, wit and irony, .viil have a good place in the next world. Ho hope:* it will, for without it ot-nnity will be terriblv dull.

Mr W. L. Courtney, like Mr Seaman, points out the dose, affinity between laughter and tears. He sums :ip humor as the minute observation of life with its alternations of light and shade, i rid the power to drive away melamho'y Ly an irony, now grave, now cftj"» which shows the insignificant brevity of everything that moves the human rteirt.