“LAUGHTER”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 7

“LAUGHTER”

IT’S NOTHING TO LAUGH AT. ORPHANS’ CLUB CHAIRMAN AS AN ANALYST. The Te Awamutu Orphans’ Club is rather unique among kindred clubs in that it has become the custom for successive chairmen at the club’s social gatherings to devote a few minutes after supper to a short address on any subject of interest or amusement, and some of the addresses have attained to a high standard—judging by the hearty applause of members. Bro. C. S. Wood, who presided at the club’s gathering last Saturday evening, was another one who held the close attention of all present, with a disquisition on “Laughter.” He explained at the outset that laughter was a most intricate subject, and that it was-really nothing to laugh at. To it the philosophers had given profound thought and evolved ponderous tomes. Laughter, really, is an elusive sprite that has escaped and has defied efforts to pin it down. In his researches he had been mildly surprised to find that some men of eminence had condemned laughter. For instance ponderous Lard Chesterfield had said that to his mind laughter is illiberal and nothing is so ill-bred as audible laughter. He even said: “Since I have had the full use of my reason no one has heard me laugh.” Bro. Wood went on to refer to the infectiousness of laughter among assemblies —Chesterfield says “Laughter is the means by which the mob shews its silly joy at silly things”: but he preferred to be “one of the mob” wiho laughed full and heartily. Laughter little deserves the contempt of the noble Chesterfield. Bergson had said that “laughter is the only thing that distinguishes the man from the beast,” and he goes on to say that man is the only animal to laugh at! But the speaker, commenting on Bergson’s remarks, said that humans usually laugh at animals when they are aping humans. One does not laugh at a dog when it is doing a perfectly doggy thing, nor at a cat being typically catty; but laughter comes when a cat or dog does something imitating the action or mannerism of humans. If we, said the chairman, want proof of the importance of laughter let us remember that most men are proud of their sense of humour. One can call another almost anything, but if he questions the other’s sense of humour he is apt to mortally offend him. McDougall is on record as saying: “Laughter is not an expression of pleasure—but rather the reverse.” It cannot be gainsaid that the things we laugh at—silly, undignified, ludicrous things—would be more likely to displease us if we did not laugh. To live amicably in a community one needs to be endowed with the qualities of sympathy with another’s joys and sorrows. But given sympathy alone we should be made miserable on learning of or witnessing the trivial misfortunes of others. If we see a portly gentleman encounter a banana skin on the pavement and take a seat involuntarily on the hard concrete, given only sympathy, we should experience the gentleman’s anger and misery. Instead we laugh! McDougall had said that laughter is becoming more refined, for we do not laugh at idiocy or at people who stammer, as the folk of other generations did; yet to refine past a certain point we lose some of the best reasons for laughing—and if we go on we may reach the stage when we cannot laugh! What a dismal prospect! We feel at times that we absolutely must laugh at unpleasant things—Drunkenness is stupid, and blasphemy is deplorable, yet they provide the point for many of our stories. That widely-read writer of light literature, P. C. Wodehouse, had provided mirth for countless thousands of people, and in reading him we frequently find our laughter busting forth at some vulgarity or faux pas. Bergson’s contention is that the comic in actual life is really rigid, and laughter is the corrective.

But there is to be avoided any rigidity of the mind. As an example of this reciting he could cite the experience of a nervous boy reciting “The Ancient Mariner,” who, when he came to the line “All in the hot and copper sky, the bloody sun at noon, right up above the mast did stand,” could not remember the next line. He repeated the three lines Quoted two or three times in the hope that memory would be less elusive, but without avail, whereupon he extemporised a line for himself: “And so did the bloody moon!” That, said Bro. Wood, was an example of rigidity of the mind. The speaker went on in this vein, quoting various writers and accompanying anecdotes, and asserted that whether authorities agree or disagree as to ,the constitution of laughter, Orphans’ Clubs members, will agree that, phychologically and physiologically, laughter undoubtedly helps towards that feeling of content that all is well with the world. It breaks the train of serious thought and enables one to face problems anew. Laughter is undeniably refreshing, and healthy. A good hearty laugh helps on very many occasions, and should assuredly be encouraged and cultivated. Bro Wood concluded his remarks with the couplet: "Care to our coffins adds a nail no doubt, And every peal of laughter draws one out.”