WHAT IS A JOKE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20264, 25 May 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT IS A JOKE?

BY EDNA GRAHAM MACKY. * "Thank God for a sense of humour! " Is an expression wo often heat. But do the folk who express this sentiment really understand that they are praising tho Deity for a superiority complex? With my limited knowledge of psychology, it seems to me that we can only feel amused at something wo are not afraid of, and toward which we are ablo to adopt a superior attitude. We may laugh heartily at a, cnged monkey, but ithero would bo few people who could raise ja smile if they came face to face withv a ferocious gorilla, yet the gorilla is just as funny-looking as a monkey. Now, what is a joke to ono person leaves another quite cold. In fact, one individual can bo hilarious about an incident that would causo the other party to the " joke " to becomo furiously angry; for instance, ono man laughing at another man who has slipped on a banana peel. The mail who laughs feels physically superior to the man on tho ground. In any caso he is elated that fortune has placed liim'm a - more favourable situation for tne moment. For this reason children hugely enjoy seeing anyone,.. particularly their elders, or those in authority, falling down or., getting hit with custard pies as iu the pictures. Wa laugh at drunken men, because we feel morally superior to them. We .laugh at the sayings of children _ and imbeciles because we feel intellectually- superior. We laugh at tlife illiterate and uneducated because we feel socially superior. We laugh at mothers-in-law because we feel legally superior. Our Scotch, Irish, and Jew jokes arise from the sense of superiority one nationality feels toward another. Under the above classification all our stock jokes can be found, and from .this it -is lawful to deduce that Ave can only appreciate a joke when our sense of superiority is pleasantly aroused. Take the hero (or heroine) who laughs at" fate, of the happy-go-lucky individual who boasts of taking the vicissitudes of life as a " joke," why, they can do this only when they realise that they fire by force of character superior to material obstacles. That is, they feel spiritually to their environment. I still contend that we can feel amused ftnly at what we do not fear, or toward which we feel a shade of derision. Let us remember the " mother-in-law " joke. I am convinced that this would not be such a laughing matter in China or India as it is with us, for the reason that in the East the mother-inrlaw is a power to be reckoned with, while in Western communities the lady is kept_ well in subjection by our civil and religious, laws and customs. Mothers-in-law have practically no rights at all, so they becomo what is termed—a joke. Perhaps the only person who possesses a ■' divine" sense of humour is the one Who can laugh at himself. This seems a very hard thing to do, but it indicates the working of a dual personality—one part of the nature considers itself superior and instinctively looks down upon the other part and enjoys the sensation. No doubt the possession of a sense of humour in a sign of advanced development, but the superiority complex, to my mind, 13 decidedly manifested. In order to laugh we must have something to laugh at, and that something must necessarily be of an order which does not incite fear, or hatred, or unselfish love, or pity, but appeals primarily to our sense of superiority, whether of a social, intellectual, moral, physical, national or spiritual character. I think the possession of the faculty of sympathy or understanding is much more to he prized than a sense of humour, yet how many of us thank God fpr. pur ability to sympathise and understand 1