The psychology of laughter

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THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF LAUGHTER

Works By Boris Sidis

The Psychology of Laughter

The Psychology of Suggestion

Multiple Personality

Psychopathological Researches

Sleep

Philistine and Genius

183

THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF LAUGHTER

BY

BORIS SIDIS, M.A., PH.D., M.D.

NEW YORK AND LONDON
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

1913

STACK

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

-BF575

TO MY LOYAL FRIENDS

G. S. W. AND P. W. W.

IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM
AND DEVOTION

436

PREFACE

An inquiry into the main psychological principles that
underlie laughter and its various manifestations presents
a number of difficulties. There is a wide range of the
ludicrous, beginning with the nursery rhymes of Mother
Goose, the coarse sallies of the clown, the zany, the car-
toonist, the mimic, and the joker, and ending with the
classical productions of Aristophanes, Lucian, Juvenal,
Cervantes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Voltaire, Gogol, Thack-
eray and Dickens. The great Russian writer, Gogol, in
his famous work "Dead Souls," lays special stress on the
fact that a whole abyss separates the productions of ele-
vated laughter from the contortions of the buffoon and
the clown. No doubt Gogol is right: there is an abyss
between the crude art of the buffoon and the "pearl of
creative art" produced by the genius of comedy. Still the
abyss can be bridged over. May we not similarly say
that a whole abyss separates the crude idols of the stone
age from the beautiful statues of a Phidias? The two
extremes are, nevertheless, connected by a long series of
intermediate steps. The abyss, however, as Gogol points
out, is present. The difficulty is to bridge over the ex-
tremes and find the fundamental principles that underlie
the almost infinite diversity of the manifestations of the
ludicrous.

vii

PREFACE

Another difficulty lies in the fact that very little satis-
factory and systematic work has been done in the domain
of the psychology of laughter and the ludicrous. Theo-
ries have been advanced since the time of Aristotle, but
they have been fragmentary and abstract. Extensive and
important as the domain of the ludicrous is in the life of
mankind, the scientific investigator devotes but little time
and space to this side of human activity. This may be
partly due to the fact that the comic is regarded as super-
ficial and trivial, or as dealing at best with the common-
place of life, possibly below the dignity of the scientific
inquirer. Even a man like Bergson excludes comedy
from the high sphere of art. He tells us that the nature
of comedy is opposed to tragedy, drama, and other forms
of art. According to Bergson, the sole object of true art
is the individual; not so comedy, which deals with the
general, the typical. Art deals with individual things as
they really are ; while comedy, like life, is concerned with
general characters, with types. Comedy is prosaic. In
other words, comedy does not belong to the sphere of art.
In spite of his remarkable acumen, Bergson is entirely
wrong in his generalization. Both tragedy and comedy
deal with types.

Moreover, according to Bergson, we should have to
exclude from the domain of art the comedies of Aris-
tophanes, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Moliere's dramatic
works, Shakespeare's comic dramas, the humorous works
of Dickens, Thackeray and Gogol. This will not

viii

PREFACE

do. We must agree with Gogol that the great artist
or poet in his creations of laughter and the ludicrous
may produce and has produced "pearls of creation," even
if such pearls have been cast away on contemporary read-
ers. One cannot help agreeing with the apparently para-
doxical statement of Plato in his "Symposium" that
tragedy and comedy are intimately related, that the great
dramatic poet can wield with equal force the incidents
and types of tragedy and comedy. This is well exempli-
fied in the dramatic works of Shakespeare. The extreme
and fallacious view held by Bergson well illustrates the
confused and chaotic state of the subject of the ludicrous.

Still another difficulty lies in the disorganized and
scattered condition of the material referring to laughter
and the ludicrous. The material is rich, but this wealth
makes the choice all the more difficult. To this should be
added the fact that the material is so scattered that the
labor of selection and sifting is arduous and appears
almost insurmountable. I had to choose my examples of
the ludicrous from the literature of various nations and
different ages. It was difficult to decide as to the prefer-
ence given to the selected material. Of course, it is desir-
able to give illustrations and make the analysis of ex-
amples from recent works, as they are more comprehen-
sible to the reader. This was done as much as the scope
of the work as well as circumstances permitted.

In selecting my material for analysis from English
and American writers I wished to utilize some illustra-

ix

PREFACE

tions from Bret Harte and Mark Twain. All citations,
however, from these two American writers had to be
dispensed with, because their publishers' permission could
not be obtained.

I trust the reader will form some notion of the diffi-
culties with which I had to contend in this work. At the
same time he will be ready to accept my apology for not
using quotations from two popular American writers.

BORIS SIDIS,

Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute,
Portsmouth,

New Hampshire.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. LAUGHTER i

II. ART, RELIGION, AND CHILD GAMES 10

III. THE LUDICROUS 15

IV. LAUGHTER AND NOVELTY 27

V. RIDICULE AND SOCIAL DECADENCE 31

VI. DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS 39

VII. RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS 57

VIII. THE LUDICROUS AND RESERVE ENERGY .... 67

IX. FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER 74

X. THE LUDICROUS AND THE INTERIOR 82

XI. VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE ... 97

XII. THE COMIC IN LITERATURE ........ 118

XIII. AMERICAN RIDICULE 128

XIV. RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE 138

XV. THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPED 149

XVI. HOLY WRITS AND THE SAGES 161

XVII. IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS 172

XVIII. SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC 189

XIX. THE LUDICROUS AND THE LAW OF SUGGESTION . 200

XX. WIT AND RIDICULE 214

XXI. THE SLUGGISH AND THE LUDICROUS 224

XXII. RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE 228

XXIII. THE GROUNDWORK OF THE Come 242

XXIV. MIMICRY 250

XXV. LOGIC AND RIDICULE 258

XXVI. NONSENSE AND RIDICULE 270

XXVII. HUMOR AND THE INFINITE 281

INDEX 295

THE
PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

CHAPTER I
LAUGHTER

The cause and nature of laughter have been exam-
ined by many thinkers, each one contributing his mite
to the analysis of this highly complex phenomenon.
What is laughter? What is its source? Whence flow
those rich manifestations of wit, the comic, the joke, the
jest, irony, sarcasm, that, like ethereal light, keep on
playing on the surface of human life? What are the
constituents, what is the mechanism of an event, of a
phrase, of a comedy, that awaken in us a smile, or make
our chest and limbs shake and heave with laughter?

The particular essence which we discover in the
funny and in the ridiculous is hard to analyze; it is as
elusive as the delicate perfume of the rose and the violet
Many highly intelligent people when they are asked on
the spur of the moment what it is specially that they
find funny in a joke, in a comedy, or in a particular
situation at which they laugh heartily, are unable to tell
the special points that awaken in them merriment and
laughter. They know it is funny; it is ridiculous. The
ridiculous appears to exhale an essence which men di-
rectly perceive without being able to analyze the con-
stituents. In fact, there are intellectual people who think

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

that the fun of the joke is gone when touched by the
scalpel of analysis. The comic is evidently something
living, and, like the living, cannot be dissected with-
out giving rise to symptoms of decay and death. The
comic, like the beautiful, is to be enjoyed directly, in-
tuitively, without analysis, without criticism. There is
a unity, a living unity, which is directly perceived by the
mind and reacted to by the living human organism. The
analysis, the dissection of the constituent elements, means
the killing, the death of the living unity of the comic.

Still the difficulties may not be insurmountable, after
all. We study the human body and its functions by
means of anatomical investigations as well as physiologi-
cal researches. We study the functions of the mind by
means of physiological and psychopathological work,
both experimental and observational. Why not do the
same in the case of laughter? We can obtain the con-
stituents by means of analysis, and their functions by
means of psychological and psychopathological study of
the facts. In this way we may be able to find some of
the important elements that go to make up the nature of
the comic.

It may be well to look for the general aspect of what
we regard as ridiculous, funny, and amusing. Perhaps
the psychological side may be more accessible and help
us in the investigation of the subject. In the first place,
all the different manifestations of the comic, the witty,
and the ridiculous belong psychologically to that par-
ticular emotional side of our being which we class under
joy. Whatever is joyful awakens in us, if not intense
laughter, at least a smile, however flitting. We may
observe it in undeveloped characters, or in people
who lack self-control. Anything which awakens in them

LAUGHTER

the emotion of joy also arouses in them smiles and
laughter; in many the laughter is almost uncontrollable.
This is manifested in young people, and especially chil-
dren.

Play that arouses the emotion of joy gives rise to
smiles and laughter. Observe girls and boys, or chil-
dren when in full active play: you will always find that
along with the play there goes the manifestation of
laughter. There may not be anything specially funny
and comic, and still the laughter is often uncontrollable.
Listen to the noisy laughter of schoolboys and school-
girls at play, especially after they have been released
from their lessons at school. The mirth and laughter
of an audience at a comic play or in listening to the
funny remarks of a favorite orator remind one of the
play of unrestrained schoolboys and girls. We may,
therefore, lay down the law that all unrestrained spon-
taneous activities of normal functions give rise to the
emotion of joy with its expression of smiles and laughter.
If we remember that play is the manifestation of spon-
taneous, unrestrained activity we can begin to understand
the nature of laughter, which is one of the manifestations
of the play instinct present, not only in man, but in the
whole animal world. We observe this play instinct in
puppies, in kittens and, in fact, in all young animals.

If we inspect this play activity more closely, we find
that it belongs to the type of artistic activities. The
word play is used for dramatic work and for ordinary
play activities of animal life. Instrumental music, danc-
ing, singing, dramatic plays, and all forms of aesthetic
and artistic activities, as well as games, combats and
contests, all belong to the same general root of the play
instinct. We may possibly add that even the religious

3

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

activities of man belong to the same class of human life
activities, activities which have their root in the play
instinct present alike in the kitten, puppy, squirrel and
bird. Among the modern savages, ancient nations, the
Greeks, the Israelites, we find alike that all those artistic
activities and play are intimately interrelated — the ar-
tistic activities having their source in the play instinct.
In the Olympic games of the Greeks, the gladiatorial
combats of the Romans, the religious psalms and songs
of the Hebrews, the dances and poetry of the Australians,
the Andamanese, the Bushmen, the Esquimaux, the re-
ligious temple performances of the Middle Ages, of the
Hindoo dancing girls, the wild ecstatic whirling and
dancing of the dervishes, as well as in the singing and
praising of the Lord in the modern church services, we
can see the connection of art, play, religion, and games.

Football and church hymns are apparently discon-
nected, and still they are intimately related. They are
offshoots of the same parent root, the play instinct. The
minister may war on Sunday play and games on holi-
days, but he must know that the church service, however
sacred and solemn, is the outcome of the game impulse
and the satisfaction of the play instinct inherent in the
animal, child, and adult. The football player, the actor,
and the priest are brothers of the same mother — the play
impulse ; servitors of the same instinct — the play instinct.
Church services, religious ceremonies, theatrical plays,
dancing balls, football and baseball games are intimately
related; they are so many offshoots of the same parent
stem. In all the processes of metamorphosis through
which they have passed in the course of ages they still at
bottom keep on subserving the same function — the satis-
faction of the animal play instinct of man.

4

LAUGHTER

Laughter, smiling, and grinning are the external
manifestations of the play instinct. Laughter may be
sublimated into a barely perceptible smile; the smile in
its turn may become sublimated into a grin or an ex-
pression of satisfaction, or contentment, or the inner
emotion of joy which accompanies the activity of the
play instinct. Whatever gives us joy makes us laugh,
or gives rise to an expression akin to laughter and smiles.
A number of objects may give rise to the emotion of joy
with its concomitant motor manifestations of smiles and
laughter. What is common to all these objects is the
fact that they all belong to the class of playthings. This
we can easily observe in the case of little children who
laugh and jump with joy when they keep on playing with
their toys. Adult life is not in any way different : adults
laugh and are amused with their toys, but the toys are
more disguised and far more complex. We must have
our toys and our playthings to amuse us and to make us
laugh. The character of the toys, however, changes
with the nation, age, and environment. The character of
the plaything also changes with the age of the individual.
In spite, however, of all the various changes the play-
thing undergoes, it must still preserve its nature of a
plaything. We laugh in play. The play instinct must
remain dominant.

A few passages from the great biologist, Darwin,
may be to the point :

"Joy, when intense, leads to various purposeless
movements — to dancing about, clapping the hands,
stamping, etc., and to loud laughter. Laughter seems
primarily to be the expression of mere joy or happiness.
. . . A man smiles — and smiling, as we shall see,
graduates into laughter — at meeting an old friend in the

5

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

street, as he does at any trifling pleasure, such as smell-
ing a sweet perfume. Laura Bridgman, from her blind-
ness and deafness, could not have acquired any expres-
sion through imitation, yet when a letter from a beloved
friend was communicated to her by gesture-language she
'laughed and clapped her hands, and the color mounted
to her cheeks/ On other occasions she has been seen to
stamp for joy.

"Idiots and imbecile persons likewise afford good evi-
dence that laughter or smiling primarily expresses mere
happiness or joy. . . . There is a large class of
idiots who are persistently joyous and benign, and who
are constantly laughing or smiling. Their countenances
often exhibit a stereotyped smile; their joyousness is
increased, and they grin, chuckle, or giggle whenever
food is placed before them, or when they are caressed,
are shown bright colors, or hear music. Some of them
laugh more than usual when they walk about or attempt
any muscular exertion. The joyousness of most of these
idiots cannot possibly be associated, as Dr. Browne re-
marks, with any distinct ideas : they simply feel pleasure,
and express it by laughter or smiles. With imbeciles
rather higher in the scale personal vanity seems to be the
commonest cause of laughter, and next to this pleasure
arising from the approbation of their conduct.

"From the fact that a child can hardly tickle itself, or
in a much less degree than when tickled by another per-
son, it seems that the precise point to be touched must
not be known; so with the mind, something unexpected
— a novel or incongruous idea which breaks through an
habitual train of thought — appears to be a strong ele-
ment in the ludicrous.

"The sound of laughter is produced by a deep ia-

6

LAUGHTER

spiration followed by short, interrupted, spasmodic con-
tractions of the chest, and especially of the diaphragm.
. . . From the shaking of the body the head nods to
and fro. The lower jaw often quivers up and down, as
is likewise the case with some species of baboons when
they are much pleased.

"During laughter the mouth is opened more or less
widely, with the corners drawn much backward ; and the
upper lip is somewhat raised. The drawing back of the
corners is best seen in moderate laughter, and especially
in a broad smile — the latter epithet showing how the
mouth is widened.

"In laughing and broadly smiling the cheeks and
upper lip are much raised, the nose appears to be short-
ened, and the skin on the bridge becomes finely wrinkled
in transverse lines, with other oblique longitudinal lines
on the sides. The upper front teeth are commonly
exposed. A well-marked naso-labial fold is formed,
which runs from the wing of each nostril to the
corner of the mouth; and this fold is often double in
old persons.

"A bright and sparkling eye is characteristic of a
pleased or amused state of mind, as is the retraction of
the corners of the mouth and upper lip with the wrinkles
thus produced. Even the eyes of microcephalous idiots,
who are so degraded that they never learn to speak,
brighten slightly when they are pleased. . . . Ac-
cording to Dr. Piderit, who has discussed this point more
fully than any other writer, the tenseness may be largely
attributed to the eyeballs becoming rilled with blood and
other fluids, from the acceleration of the circulation, con-
sequent on the excitement of pleasure.

"A man in high spirits, though he may not actually

7

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

smile, commonly exhibits some tendency to the retraction
of the corners of his mouth. From the excitement of
pleasure the circulation becomes more rapid ; the eyes are
bright, and the color of the face rises. The brain, be-
coming stimulated by the increased flow of blood, reacts
on the mental powers ; lively ideas pass still more rapidly
through the mind, and the affections are warmed. I
heard a child, a little under four years old, when asked
what was meant by being in good spirits, answer, 'It is
laughing, talking and kissing/

"Savages sometimes express their satisfaction, not
only by smiling, but by gestures derived from the pleas-
ure of eating. Thus Mr. Wedgwood quotes Petherick
that the negroes on the Upper Nile began a general rub-
bing of their bellies when he displayed his beads; and
Leichhardt says that the Australians smacked and clacked
their mouths at the sight of his horses and bullocks, and
more especially of his kangaroo dogs. The Greenland-
ers, 'when they affirm anything with pleasure, suck down
air with a certain sound' ; and this may be an imitation of
the act of swallowing savory food.

"Laughter is frequently employed in a forced manner
to conceal or mask some other state of mind, even anger.
We often see persons laughing in order to conceal their
shame or shyness. When a person purses up his mouth,
as if to prevent the possibility of a smile, though there is
nothing to excite one, or nothing to prevent its free in-
dulgence, an affected, solemn, or pedantic expression is
given ; but of such hybrid expressions nothing more need
here be said. In case of derision a real or pretended
smile or laugh is often blended with the expression proper
to contempt and this may pass into angry contempt or
scorn. In such cases the meaning of the laugh or smile

8

LAUGHTER

is to show the offending person that he excites only
amusement."

All these quotations from Darwin's "The Expression
of the Emotions" clearly indicate the intimate relation
of joy, satisfaction, laughter, and smiles.

CHAPTER II
ART, RELIGION, AND CHILD GAMES

What changes does the play element undergo from
the toys of the child to the jokes, jests, banter ings, and
comedy of the adult? In all of them we observe the
artistic activity manifesting itself as free unrestrained
energy. This, however, is too general a statement. We
must go more into detail and find out what there is in the
object of merriment that unloosens the pent-up energies
resulting in the psychomotor activities of laughter. The
spent energy, as in all artistic activities, should be felt by
the person who exercises it as not tending to any useful
aim. The energy must be spent for its own sake: for the
love of it. The child in playing with its doll, the adult
in playing his games, must feel that they are not for a
certain purpose; but the purpose, as in all art, must be
in the very activity itself. The painter in working on
his picture, the sculptor in chiseling his statue, the nov-
elist in working on his book, must feel the same love of
the activity itself, irrespective of any ultimate gain. The
activity itself must be its own purpose.

Even in the play instinct manifested as religion, the
games, the songs, the hymns, the worship, the prayers,
must be for some ultimate infinite aim outside the sordid
cares of life; they must be for the love of the Infinite,
for the love of God. "Love thy God with all thy heart"
is the commandment of religion; in the highest form of

10

ART, RELIGION, AND CHILD GAMES

religious worship it is love irrespective of all earthly
gain. This statement appears irreverent, since it puts
religion in the same category with plays and games. In
the course of our exposition we shall realize the full
meaning of this principle of the play instinct underlying
man's artistic activity which has its root in the animal
play instinct We shall find that the play instinct is
probably the most fundamental instinct of animal life —
it gives rise to the highest activities characteristic of
human life. The play instinct is one of the broadest,
the deepest of human interests that work in man, giving
rise to the highest artistic, moral, and intellectual life of
which the human mind is capable.

"Out of the mouths of babes we may learn wisdom,"
as the Bible puts it. Let us return to the little ones and
attempt to scrutinize their simple plays and games. We
may find in them some of the elements which enter as
constituents in the laughter, wit, and the comic of the
fully developed adult life. When the little girl plays
with her dolls, or the boy plays his games, what we ob-
serve most casually is the fact that there is complete lack
of consciousness of effort. The play is carried on with
ease, with gracefulness. Even if there is any effort
present it is only for the observer : the child that carries
out the game has no consciousness of effort, there is not
the least trace of irksomeness. This lack of conscious-
ness of effort and lack of irksomeness are found in the
games of the adult, although such games may to the ex-
ternal observer appear difficult. In this respect even
severe games, like football or baseball, may be learned so
as to have them executed with no consciousness of in-
tense effort. This also holds true in the highly complex
and difficult artistic works, such as music, painting, and

II

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

sculpture. In fact, it may be said that this law holds
true in the whole domain of play, with its joy and the
consequent inner laughter.

In the work of the mathematician when he solves a
difficult problem, in the work of the inventor, in the play
of chess, as well as in other games, the more difficulties
are overcome, the more the joy elements are present, the
more we see bubbles of laughter rising to the surface of
mental life. The great poet Sophocles makes Electro,
say of her mother Clytemnestra that she is "triumphantly
laughing at what she has done." Similarly the poet in
Job says : "Wilt thou give strength to the horse ? Wilt
thou clothe his neck with thunder? He will not be dis-
mayed and he will laugh at fear." We may then formu-
late the following law : // an act is carried out in a
playful way, the more difficulties that playful act em-
bodies, the more there is of inner joy; the more interest-
ing and exciting the game, the more intense the psycho-
motor reactions, the more will the manifestations of
merriment and laughter appear. This is the secret of the
intense allurement of games which are accompanied with
danger.

Nations in which the intellectual and artistic sides are
undeveloped look for their enjoyment, merriment, and
laughter in gross and dangerous games. Witness the
gladiatorial games of the ancient Romans, the bull fights
of the Spaniards, and the football of the American popu-
lace. The whole fun of the game is danger overcome,
made easy and playful.

Many hide this craving for games of danger, this
ferocious element, under the guise of training. Such
games, it is claimed, train the man. What such games
really train is the brutal, animal play instinct. We may

12

ART, RELIGION, AND CHILD GAMES

possibly formulate another related law: The more ma-
terial civilisation becomes developed, and the craving for
play grows, the greater is the demand of having the dif-
ficult and the impossible enacted with ease. We demand
more and more difficult feats of the clown, of the actor,
of the prestidigitateur, of the racers, and of the prize
fighters. The technique rises with civilization. What a
country bumpkin regards with admiration and laughs at
with great joy the city man regards with contempt. We
demand of the circus man and the animals with which he
plays at great danger of life more and more difficult
feats executed with greater ease and grace. We may,
therefore, finally express the law: The lower the in-
tellectual element in a given civilized community, the
more will the dangerous elements predominate in their
games.

This may possibly fall under the Weber-Fechner law
that while the sensations grow in an arithmetical progres-
sion the stimuli grow in a geometrical progression.
However, whether the last law be true or not of the
whole emotional life, our law remains true ; namely, that
enjoyment and its psychomotor manifestation, laughter,
grow with the difficulties embodied in the act that gives
rise to merriment and laughter. The ease with which the
difficult or dangerous feat is carried out arouses joy with
its accompanying smiles and laughter.

In his dance, in his jump, in his gambol, it is the ease
with which the motions are executed that gives the child
such joy, over which he delights in peals of laughter. In
his choice of the ball the young child specially delights
and laughs over the skips of the light ball that rebounds
with ease. The balloon that skips and floats about he
greets with merry laughter. The child will not choose

13

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

anything clumsy, heavy, unwieldy, or irksome to handle :
there is no fun in it. He wants the laughter of enjoy-
ment of triumph. This laughter of triumph runs through
all the stages of life. When we triumph over some dif-
ficulty after a period of long hard work, we laugh. We
laugh, when news is brought to us which we hardly be-
lieve could have happened. The actor or singer cannot
help laughing after a successful play; the grave professor
smiles when he solves his problem ; and the banker, spec-
ulator, and financier smile when their plans and schemes
have been successfully carried out. The politician, the
statesman has his grim smile after a successful cam-
paign, and the general has his grin after a triumphant
battle. This is the laughter of triumph.

And Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel in her hand ;
and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with
dances.

And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he
hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath
been thrown into the sea.

We have here the joy, song, and laughter of triumph.

CHAPTER III
THE LUDICROUS

We may now reverse the process. Suppose the child
in playing with the ball sees one who does not know how
to catch it; misses it every time; knocks himself against
the ball without getting hold of it ; slips, falls down, picks
himself up and runs after the ball without being able to
catch it. In short, the person is awkward, clumsy, finds
difficulties where there are none. Friction appears where
there should be smoothness; hardship is manifest where
ease and grace are expected. The child laughs the laugh-
ter of triumph, not with the person, but at the person;
from the height of his supposed efficiency or ideal of
efficiency the child laughs the laughter of triumph at the
deficiencies of the person — the person is ridiculed. Any
supposed deficiency in appearance, in person, or in action
is laughed at — is ridiculed. We are now in the domain
of the comic. Children in school ridicule any clumsiness,
awkwardness, or any personal deficiency; they make
merry over the lame, the hunchback, the cross-eyed, the
blind. For that matter, we find the same amusements
among the uncultivated who make merry over the bodily
defects of their neighbors and acquaintances.

Old Homer, when he wishes to ridicule Thersites,
presents the ancient demagogue as :

... ill favored beyond all men that came to Ilios.
Bandy-legged was he, and lame of one foot, and his

15

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

shoulders rounded, arched down over his chest; and over
them his head was warped, and a scanty stubble sprouted
on it.

Victor Hugo, in his "Notre Dame de Paris," repre-
sents the crowd bursting into a thunder of applause and
shouts of convulsive, derisive laughter at the sight of the
ugly, misshapen, one-eyed, bandy-legged, huge-headed,
splay-footed, thick-nosed, horseshoe-mouthed, double-
humped, deformed monster hunchback, Quasimodo.

When the great Russian writer, Gogol, wishes to
ridicule the type he represents by Sobakevitch he makes
the latter look defective, awkward, and clumsy.

Sobakevitch looked like a medium sized bear. To com-
plete this resemblance his coat was the color of a bear's
fur ; his sleeves were long ; his trousers were large ; he was
flat-footed, walked both awry and askew, and trod con-
stantly upon the feet of other people. His face shone like
a bright copper coin.

To present him as still clumsier and more deficient the
great writer adds :

There are many faces over whose formation Nature did
not pause long in thought, nor employ any delicate instru-
ments, but simply hewed them at full sweep of her arm ; she
grasped her axe, a nose appeared ; she grasped it again — the
lips appeared; with a big auger she formed the eyes; and
without planing it down, she loosed the figure in the world,
saying: "Let it have life."

Even refined and cultivated people cannot suppress a
smile when they hear one stammer. Thus Shakespeare
in his "Merry Wives of Windsor" makes his characters
ridiculous by representing Sir Hugh Evans, the parson,

16

THE LUDICROUS

as defective in speech, and Sir John Falstaff as defective
in bodily appearance. "Very goot," says Evans, "I will
make a prief in my notebook." Of Falstaff Mrs. Ford
says : "What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so
many tons of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor?" As
Sir Evans, the parson, is awkward in his speech, so
Falstaff, the fat man, is clumsy in his body. Both of
them, on account of such clumsiness, are exposed by
Shakespeare as objects of ridicule.

The following jokes about stammerers may illustrate
our point :

A stutterer once asked one of the guards in a railway
station: "How f-f-f-f-far is it t-t-t-t-to C-C-C-C-Cam-
bridge?"

The guard did not answer.

The stutterer repeated his question; again the guard
remained silent. The stutterer became angry and turned
to the next guard, "I shall r-r-rep-p-p-port t-t-that
m-m-m-man. I asked him h-h-how f-f-f-far it w-w-was
t-t-t-to C-C-C-C-Cambridge and he r-r-r-ref-f-fused t-t-t-t-
to answer."

The guard gave the information and then turned to
the first silent guard and asked him why he did not give
the required information.

"D-D-D-D-Do you t-t-t-think I want m-m-m-m-my
b-b-b-b-b-blamed head kn-n-n-n-nocked off?"

A gentleman, stammering much in his speech, laid down
a winning card; and then said to his partner, "How
s-s-s-sa-ay you now, w-w-was not t-t-t-this c-c-c-c-card
p-p-p-p-passing we-we-well 1-1-1-laid ?"

"Yes," says the other, "it was well laid, but it needs
not half the cackling."

17

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

I have found out a gig-gig-gift for my fuf-fuf-fair,

I have found out where the rattle-snakes bub-bub-breed;

Will you co-co-come, and I'll show you the bub-bub-bear,
And the lions and tit-tit-tigers at fuf-fuf-feed.

I know where the co-co-cockatoos's song

Makes mum-mum-melody through the sweet vale;

Where the mum-monkeys gig-gig-grin all the day long
Or gracefully swing by the tit-tit-tail.

You shall pip-play, dear, some did-did-delicate joke

With the bub-bub-bear on the tit-tit-top of his pip-pip-
pip-pole ;

But observe, 'tis forbidden to pip-poke
At the bub-bub-bear with your pip-pip-pink pip-pip-pip-
pip-parasol !

You shall see the huge elephant pip-pip-play,

You shall gig-gig-gaze on the stit-stit-stately racoon;

And then did-dear, together we'll stray
To the cage of the bub-bub-blue-faced bab-bab-boon.

You wished (I r-r-remember it well,

And I lul-lul-loved you the m-m-more for the wish)
To witness the bub-bub-beautiful pip-pip-pelican swallow

The 1-1-live little f uf-fuf-fish !

Moliere does not hesitate to utilize the defect of stam-
mering to enhance physical and mental awkwardness, and
hence the comical side of the characters represented.
Our dime museums still keep on amusing the public
with their proverbial fat men. The stoutness and fat-
ness of Falstaff are utilized by Shakespeare to enhance
the comic situations in which Falstaff is put.

What is it specially that is comic in the fat man?

18

THE LUDICROUS

It is the clumsiness, the awkwardness, the angularity, the
unwieldy form and mass ; "a whale," as Shakespeare puts
it; "a whale," as Gogol characterizes one of his comic
heroes. The difficulties, instead of being smoothed,
the hardships, instead of being eased, the angularities,
instead of being rounded out, are visible and protruding
at all points. What looks to us clumsy, awkward, and
restrained is ludicrous. What is accompanied with ef-
fort, with friction, and with great difficulty where such
are not expected, is regarded as ludicrous. And this ease
holds true in the plays of the child, the games of the
populace, the feats of the acrobat, the play of the come-
dian, and the delicate play of the wit. When difficulties
and clumsiness are discerned where there should be ease
and grace in the manifestation of energy and action,
there we see the ridiculous, and we laugh.

We enjoy and laugh when we are conscious of our
spontaneous activity; when our inner energies bubble up
freely to the surface of life. We laugh at others when
we find them wanting, when we find in them lack of
energy, lack of adaptation, clumsiness, awkwardness,
clownishness. We laugh at brogue, at dialect, at for-
eigners talking our language. The same anecdote ap-
pears to us more ridiculous when we present it in the
incorrect and clumsy way spoken by an Irishman or by
a Dutchman.

The following anecdote, for instance, appears more
funny when expressed in the lingo of the foreigner :

A German farmer lost his horse and wished to insert
an advertisement in the paper. When he came to the editor,
the editor asked him what he should put in the paper; the
farmer answered, "Yust vat I told you. Vun night, de udder
day, a week ago, last month, I heard me a noise by the

19

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

front middle of the pack yard vich did not used to be. So
I jumps the ped oud und runs mit der door out, und ven
I see, I finds that my pig iron mare, he is tied loose and
running mit der stable off. Whoever prings him pack shall
pay five dollars reward."

Many a comic author avails himself of the peculiar,
broken, corrupt speech of the countryman or of the
foreigner to make the public laugh. We can well see
where the ridiculous side lies : it is in the clumsiness, the
awkwardness of speech. It is the same condition which
is found in the case of the stammerer and stutterer.
However the case may be, difficulties brought to the fore-
ground, clumsiness, and awkwardness, where the hearer
or observer demands or expects ease and grace, excite
merriment and laughter.

This law of the difficult manifested in the comic, in-
stead of the expected ease, grace, and almost automatic
adaptation and adjustment, is well brought out in Mark
Twain's burlesque comments on the German language.

The compounding of words has been the theme of
ridicule since the time of Aristophanes, who concocted a
word in imitation of the long words of the speculative
sophistry of his countrymen, made up of seventy-seven
syllables, and meaning simple hash. Writers in different
countries have ridiculed the Germans for their addiction
to the habit of compounding long words which are im-
possible to pronounce without choking and loss of breath.
Thus German scientists invented formidable terms:

FRAUENSCHUENSTEHLENMONOMANIE
LAUTIRANSCHAUUNGSUNTERRICHTSMETODE

Hegel has among his many terms :

SICHINSICHSELBSTREFLECTIREN
2O

THE LUDICROUS

SICHSELBSTERHALTENDE

INSICHREFLECTIRTSEIEN

KAUSALLZUSAMMENHANG

ANUNDFURSICHSEIEN

ABSOLUTALLGEMEINE

INSICHZURUCKGEGANGENSEIEN.

Schopenhauer ridiculed with great vigor the long-
winded German style :

"The German weaves his sentences together into one
sentence which he twists and crosses, and crosses and
twists again ; because he wants to say six things all at once,
expressed in a high-flown, bombastic language in order to
communicate the simplest thought. The long German sen-
tence is involved and full of parentheses like so many boxes
one enclosed within another, all padded out like stuffed
geese, overburdening the reader's memory, weakening his
understanding and hindering his judgment. . . . This
kind of sentence furnishes the reader with mere half-
phrases which he is then called upon to collect carefully and
store up in his memory, as though they were the pieces of a
torn letter which the reader has to put together to make
sense. . . . The writer breaks up his principal sentence
into little pieces, for the sole purpose of pushing into the
gaps thus made two or three other thoughts by way of
parenthesis, thereby unnecessarily and wantonly confusing
the reader."

The vagueness and unintelligibility of German philos-
ophy and especially of Hegelian philosophical speculation
have been often ridiculed for their meaningless jargon.
The Hegelians heap words, sentences, and paragraphs
and expect the reader to supply the meaning. I give here
a translation from that conundrum of Hegelian philo-
sophical dialectics, a kind of metaphysical Pilgrim's

21

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Progress, "Die Phanomenologie des Geistes." The book
contains about six hundred pages, with a preface of fifty-
eight, and an introduction of twenty-four pages, all
closely printed in Gothic type. The passage is from the
preface :

"The spiritual alone is the actual; it is the being or
Initselfbeing (Ansichseiende), — the self contained and de-
termined,— the Otherbeing (Anderseien) or For self 'being
(Fiirsichseien) — and in that determination or its Outerbe-
ing in itself remaining: or it is in and for itself. This
Inandforitselfbeing (Anundfiirsichseien) is only at first for
us or in itself, it is the spiritual substance. It must also
be for itself, must be the knowledge of the spiritual and
must be the knowledge of itself as spirit, it must be its own
object, but as much immediate or sublimated, in itself re-
flected object. It is for itself but for us, in so far as its
spiritual content is manifested through itself; in so far
however as it is for itself, it is for self, so it is self-mani-
fested, the pure concept, at the same time its own objective
element wherein it has its being, and it is in this way in its
own being for itself in self- reflected object."

We may take a couple of examples from Hegel's
chapter on Perception (Wahrnehmung) :

The this is thus given as not this, or as sublimated, and
therewith not nothing, but a definite nothing, or a nothing
having a content, namely, the this (Das Dieses ist also
gesetzt, als n i c h t dieses, oder als aufgehoben
und damit nicht Nichts, sondern ein bestimmtes Nichts, oder
ein Nichts von einem Inhalte namlich dem
D ies en ) .

The thing is one, in itself reflected; it is for itself but
it is also for another; and it is also another for itself as it
is for another (Das Ding ist Eins, in sich reflectirt; es

22

THE LUDICROUS

(ist fur sich; aber es ist auch fur ein Anderes;
und zwar ist es ein Anderes fur sich, als es f iir An-
deres ist).

The italics are Hegel's. The sense is chiefly in the
suggestive power of the italics.

Such metaphysical speculations are recommended by
some Hegelians as the profoundest wisdom of modern
idealistic philosophy. One is reminded of the semi-Pla-
tonic, semi-Hegelian definition of love: "Love is the
ideality of the relativity of reality of an infinitesimal part
of the infinite totality of the Absolute Being."

All these examples fully illustrate my view cf the
subject of laughter in general and of the ludicrous
in particular. May we not put the matter thus : There
is laughter of enjoyment, the more the difficult becomes
easy; but the more the easy is difficult, the more occasion
for laughter, or derision. We laugh in a state of enjoy-
ment when the difficult is accomplished with ease, and
we laugh again when the easy is accomplished with diffi-
culty. Shall we say that the one is the ascending laugh-
ter, tfie laughter of triumph, and the other the reverse,
the descending laughter, the laughter over the defeated?
We shall return to this view again and consider it more
closely : meanwhile it is advisable to approach the matter
under consideration from a slightly different standpoint,
which may open to us a new horizon.

When we laugh over our triumph or over the defeat
of our opponents does it not mean the triumph and de-
feat in regard to certain difficulties ? Such difficulties are
supposed to be possible to overcome by the average per-
son belonging to a certain class of which a certain amount
of energy as a reaction to external stimuli is required.

23

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

We require of laborers a certain amount or quantity of
work, and of artists a certain amount of skill and talent,
just as we require of the school boy and the school girl
a certain amount of study and knowledge which vary as
the grades are higher and as the school belongs to the
higher branches of education. This is the standard, the
norm required, a norm to which man must be adapted in
his social environment.

Standards vary with different levels of society and
with various countries and ages. We require of the ac-
tor a certain amount and quality of acting, a certain
amount of a definite quality of knowledge and practice
of the worker, of the engineer, of the lawyer, of the sol-
dier, of the physician, of the artist, of the business man,
of the clerk, and of the minister. This requirement
varies with each country and with each age. There is a
tacitly assumed level in each society to which man and
woman must conform. To be able to rise above that
level and manifest more than the usual amount and qual-
ity of energy gives rise to the smile of satisfaction or to
the laughter of enjoyment. A fall below that level
arouses in the spectator the converse laughter, the
laughter of the comic, the laughter of derision. May we
not assert that the reason man laughs is because he is a
being of standards, norms, ideas, and ideals? May we
not take a step further and assert that laughter is essen-
tially human, inasmuch as it has reference to established
standards and ideals?

Moreover, we may say that laughter is essentially
social, as it is in relation to the standards of different
social groups varying with each country, society, and age.
In spite of his extraordinary comic genius, Aristophanes
remains sadly neglected, and all the wit of Lucian re-

24

THE LUDICROUS

mains unappreciated except by the scholar. Standards,
ideals, given by training, social, moral, religious, all these
guide men in their thoughts, beliefs, and action. These
standards form the social level for the individual in each
given age and community. It is Pindar, I think, who
tells us that custom is the tyrant of man.

May we not say that it is custom or standard given by
society that guides the taste of the individual, and any-
thing deviating from the custom, anything uncustom-
ary, is regarded as strange and ridiculous? How many
times do we hear old and young fogies tell us when some-
thing new is propounded to them: "How peculiar, how
strange, whoever heard of such a thing!" The China-
man regards a woman with large feet as ridiculous; we
in return laugh over the bandaged feet of the refined Chi-
nese ladies and the long, twisted nails of their gentlemen.
The American laughs at the Chinese pig-tails, and the
true Chinaman ridicules the close-cropped European.
The Northmen laugh at the Greco-Roman skirts and
robes, while the Greco-Roman world ridicules the trou-
sered barbarian. The Englishman and the American, like
Mark Twain, ridicule the German language and manners,
and the German returns it in the same coin. As in the
lower grades of development children laugh at defects
and deviations from the human form, so in the more de-
veloped grades of human life people laugh at deviations
from custom and use. What is not customary, what is
not usual, is laughed at.

The more restricted a society or a social group be-
comes, the more it becomes separated from the rest of
human societies and from other social groups, the more
that isolated society or group will find ludicrous the cus-
toms and manners of people with whom they happen to

25

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

be thrown into social contact. Observe how the ex-
clusive Greek or Hebrew rails at the barbarian and the
Gentile ; how the Chinaman mocks at the European "red
barbarian," and the European in turn ridicules John, the
Chinaman.

We laugh at the clown because he dresses differently
from other people : he wears striped suits with red spots,
caps with bells, paints his face in patches with striking
colors that call the child's attention as being different
from the color of other people. The merry-andrew, the
zany, Punch and Judy, are greeted by children and the
uncultivated with peals of laughter, because the dresses,
the squeaking voices, differ from the usual — from the
customary. Why do we amuse the public in our theaters
and summer gardens by bringing on the stage actors
imitating the speech, dress, and actions of foreigners?
Because foreigners live differently from us, and that is
not customary, and hence funny. This source of using
the foreigner, or with us the bringing the Dutchman or
some similar foreign nationality on the stage as an ob-
ject for ridicule, is often exploited by the comic writer.
In fact, this source of the comic is as old as Aristophanes,
who brought before the Greeks the Persian barbarians,
Sham-Artdbas, or the Great King's eye, and utilized this
device to make the Greek populace laugh. The device is
simple and is based on the principle that we are ready to
ridicule what is foreign to us, what we regard as not
conforming to use and custom. All deviations from the
standard molds, all variations and changes from the
usual may become objects of laughter.

CHAPTER IV
LAUGHTER AND NOVELTY

Funny pictures, caricatures, cartoons, illustrations
Jhat so amuse our populace and are in such a demand in
our newspapers, magazines, and reviews, political and
social cartoons, like merry-andrews and clowns, employ
various devices in their technique, all based on the funda-
mental principle — the deviation from the customary, the
habitual, and the usual. The cartoonist, like the clown in
our popular amusement places, plays on the fundamental
principle inherent in every human breast — laughter and
ridicule at what is regarded as deviations, abnormali-
ties. The cartoonist makes the body small, the head in-
ordinately large, the nose long, the chin protruding, the
teeth like tusks. By disfigurements, distortions, deformi-
ties, defects, blemishes, and malformations the cartoonist
manages to heap ridicule on persons and situations he
wishes to revile. Variations from the accepted standard
of the normal are regarded as defects, fit for laughter
and ridicule.

The production of defects, like all artistic work, must
appear as having independent value, not associated with
anything useful, but, like all play, the enjoyment forms
so to say a closed circle. The play is enjoyed as play,
no matter whether or no it makes the observer better,
wiser, or more successful in life. All those effects may
come, but they are not directly aimed at by play and art.

27

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

The defects are regarded by the observer from a purely
artistic standpoint, having deep subconscious associations
with fundamental human sympathies and moral life.
We laugh at other people; we ridicule their shortcom-
ings and defects, because we regard them as being below
the customary standard accepted in the particular age and
class of society.

We can understand why new ideas, new views, new
reforms are so pitilessly ridiculed. Custom is the soul
of society. What deviates from custom is a laughing
stock, a butt for ridicule. Aristophanes in his "Clouds"
ridicules Socrates and the new-fangled ideas of the Soph-
ists. The Jew, the Christian, the Mohammedan, and the
various monotheistic sects ridicule one another ; each one
is the truth and salvation, each one regards the other as
deviating from the custom and usage prevalent in that
particular sect and faith. Even a Napoleon ridiculed the
proposition of railroads. It was not long ago when peo-
ple turned up their noses at automobiles as being fit for
upstarts only. The flying machine and similar radical
changes and inventions introduced into social life have
passed through the same process of ridicule. In our
newspapers, which reflect the opinions and views of the
crowd, of mediocrity, any new work, any new theory is
held up to ridicule by the pen of the reporter, the pencil
of the editor, and the brush of the pseudo-artist, the car-
toonist. Instance, the sardonic laughter of the press over
the discovery of the hook-worm, the "germ of laziness,"
in the South.

Changes, reforms in dress, in education, politics, in-
dustry, economy, art, and science, if such changes be not
trivial, but radical, excite merriment in the public and
their representative wiseacres. Guilds and castes, classes

LAUGHTER AND NOVELTY

and professions are especially averse to the new. The
new may prove a poisonous enzyme fermenting and
transforming the whole social organization. The sect,
the profession, the class are unconsciously inimical to the
new-born change which is exposed to ridicule and is thus
effectually suppressed.

Plato is aware of the fact that all novelties and re-
forms lend themselves readily to ridicule. Man is es-
sentially conservative and is kept within the path of cus-
tom, as a planet within its orbit. In his "Republic"
Plato says :

Not long since it was thought discreditable and ridiculous
among the Greeks, as it is now among most barbarian
nations, for men to be seen naked. And when the Cretans
first, and after them the Lacedaemonians, began the practice
of gymnastic exercises, the wits of the time had it in their
power to make sport of those novelties. But when ex-
perience had shown that it was better to strip than to cover
up the body and when the ridiculous effect which this plan
had to the eye had given way before the arguments estab-
lishing its superiority, it was at the same time, as I imagine,
demonstrated that he is a fool who thinks any thing ridicu-
lous but that which is evil, and who attempts to raise a
laugh by assuming any object to be ridiculous but that
which is unwise and evil.

We can realize the reason why all novelty is distaste-
ful to man, especially if it is totally unfamiliar. Man is
married to habit. Custom and routine govern his ac-
tions, his beliefs, his hopes, and his life. All barbaric
and ancient societies are based on custom, which takes the
place of law and is consecrated by religion. In fact,
custom is religion. As Bagehot has pointed out long
ago, the greater part of humanity at present, and for-

29

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

merly the whole of mankind, hated and despised novelty.
Change is looked upon as bad and wicked ; reform is im-
moral and ungodly. The greatest of evils, such as canni-
balism, human sacrifice, slavery, human degradation in
all its atrocious forms, political and economical, are all
consecrated by long habit and custom of ages. In fact,
our law goes by custom and precedent, no matter how
absurd. The same holds true in the methods of training
the young. Man is a creature of habit, a slave of custom.
Even reason is enlisted on the side of habit and custom.
What is unhabitual, unusual, uncustomary is irrational,
absurd, and stupid, and, hence, ludicrous.

CHAPTER V
RIDICULE AND SOCIAL DECADENCE

Old worn-out ideals, beliefs, and decrepit institutions
meet with ridicule. Thus Lucian jibes at the worn-out
ancient deities and myths; the Humanists in various
pamphlets such as in the "Epistolse Virorum Obscuro-
rum" ridicule the Catholic church; Voltaire makes
merry over the supposed glories and optimistic views of
the philosophers of the eighteenth century; Bernard de
Mandeville ridicules the optimistic ethics of Shaftesbury
and of the Cambridge idealists.

Perhaps a few examples taken from the writings of
Lucian and Aristophanes may best illustrate our point of
view.

In his "Icaro-Menippus" Lucian directs his shafts of
poignant ridicule against the metaphysical and philosophi-
cal speculations, as well as against the whole fabric of
ancient tradition and religious beliefs. He jeers at the
philosopher, and hobnobs with the once mighty Zeus.

"I engaged them (the philosophers)," Menippus tells
his friend, "to teach me the perfect knowledge of the uni-
verse ; but so far were they from removing my ignorance,
that they only threw me into greater doubt and uncer-
tainty by puzzling me with atoms, vacuums, beginnings,
ends, ideas, forms, and so forth. The worst of all was
that though none agreed with the rest in what they ad-
vanced, but were all of contrary opinions, yet did every

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

one of them expect that I should embrace his tenets and
subscribe to his doctrine." Menippus became an aero-
naut, an aetheronaut would probably be more correct, by
taking an eagle's wing and that of a vulture and flew
to Olympus to visit Jupiter. Lucian takes here the occa-
sion to put the course and turmoil of human life in a
ludicrous light.

I had much to see; to relate it to you is impossible.
. . . The Getae at war, the Scythians traveling in their
caravans, the Egyptians tilling their fields, the Phoenicians
merchandising, the Cilicians robbing and plundering, the
Spartans flogging their children, and the Athenians perpet-
ually quarreling and going to law with one another.

When all this was going on at the same time you may
imagine what a strange scene it appeared to me. It was
just as if a number of singers were met together, every
one singing his own song, each striving to drown the
other's voice by bawling as loud as he could. You may
well fancy what kind of a concert this would make.

Friend. Truly ridiculous and confused, no doubt.

Menippus. And yet such, my friend, are all the poor
performers upon earth, and such is the discordant music
of human life. Not only are the voices dissonant and in-
harmonious, but the forms and habits all differ, they move
in various directions and agree in nothing, till at length
the great master of the choir drives every one from the
stage, and tells him he is no longer wanted there. In this
wide extensive theater, full of various shapes and forms,
everything was a matter of laughter and ridicule. . . .
You have often seen a crowd of ants running to and fro
and out of their city, some turning up a bit of dung, others
dragging a bean, shell, or running away with half a grain
of wheat. I have no doubt but they have architects, dema-
gogues, senators, musicians and philosophers among them.

32

RIDICULE AND SOCIAL DECADENCE

Menippus appears before Jupiter, who is treated by
the adventurer with a most patronizing familiarity. The
conversation that follows is full of jests and jibes on the
petty character of that august divinity, the father of the
gods.

As we went along, he asked me several questions about
earthly matters, such as "How much corn is there at
present in Greece? Had you had a hard winter last year?
Did your cabbages need rain? Is any of Phidias' family
alive now ? What is the reason that the Athenians have left
off sacrificing to me for so many years ? Do they think of
building up the Olympian temple again?" When I had
answered all these questions, "Pray, Menippus/' said he,
"what does mankind really think of me?" "How should
they think of you," said I, "but with the utmost venera-
tion that you are the great sovereign of the gods?" "There
you jest."

Nothing can be more ludicrous than this jesting con-
versation, this patronizing familiarity and small gossip
with the mighty father of gods and men. Jupiter com-
plains that his altars are as cold and neglected as Plato's
laws or the syllogisms of Chrysippus.

The most ludicrous scene is the description of Jupiter
attending to business and petitions.

We came to the place where the petitions were to be
heard. Here we found several holes with covers to them.
Jupiter goes from hole to hole, removes the lid from each
hole listening to various prayers, petitions, vows, news gos-
sip. There is a sort of a chimney with a lid for the fumes
of sacrifice to ascend to the abode of the gods.

After the business is over Menippus is invited to din-
tner. The description is full of fun and mockery.

33

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Ceres served us with bread, Bacchus with wine, Her-
cules handed about the flesh, Venus scattered myrtles and
Neptune brought us fish. I got slyly a little nectar and
ambrosia; for my friend Ganymede, if he saw Jove look-
ing another way, would frequently throw me in a cup or
two.

Nothing could be more fatal to the dignity and pres-
tige of the ancient religion than this jovial hobnobbing
with the Olympic deities, the jesting and bantering with
father Jove.

Far more powerful is Aristophanes, the greatest comic
writer of all ages. In his "Clouds" Aristophanes repre-
sents Strepsiades, burdened by debts, coming to Socrates'
Reflectory, or thinking shop, to be instructed in the not-
paying-your-creditors argument.

Strep. Teach me, and I will swear by the gods to pay

you your fees.

Socrates. What gods? Gods don't pass current here.

Socrates tells Strepsiades that Zeus is out of date,
and that the only deities worshiped are the Clouds, an
ironical allusion to the cloudy speculations of philosophy.
Socrates is represented hanging in a basket between earth
and heaven invoking his deities — the Clouds. The Clouds
come and greet the philosopher thus :

Be welcome, high priest of all trumpery trifles, you vet-
eran hunter of words clever and subtle !

Explain the request you desire us to grant you, to no
one we hearken as well as to you.

So great is your wisdom and so solemn your glances as
we watch your proud strutting along in the streets.

34

RIDICULE AND SOCIAL DECADENCE

Soc. You won't believe in any gods beside ours — Clouds,
Chaos and Tongue?

Strep. I won't even speak to the rest, if I should meet
them.

Clouds. Tell us plainly what you want.

Strep. I want to be the cleverest speaker in Greece.

Clouds. So you shall; no man shall carry more resolu-
tions to the assembly.

Strep. I don't care about resolutions in the assembly;
I want to slip through my creditors' hands.

When the old man Strepsiades finds the Socratic
sophistry too difficult to learn his son Pheidipedes goes
to the Socratic "Reflectory." When Pheidipedes comes
home he attacks the old paternal rule and tells his father :

It was man that made the law and why should not I
make a new law that the sons beat their fathers. The cock
and other animals punish their fathers, and there is no dif-
ference between them and us, except that they do not pre-
pare resolutions and decrees in the assembly.

In this way does Aristophanes rail and laugh at the
new ideas of the Sophists and the Socratic reforms of
individual inquiry, criticism, and analysis. At the same
time he lashes with his sharp raillery and mordant ridi-
cule the Athenian assembly for its love of oratory and
the introduction of ever new resolutions and bills.
Aristophanes ridicules the new ways of education and
the extreme, democratic changes incident to the political
life of the Athenian commonwealth. He takes his stand
on the old modes of life, on the old forms of education
and training, on the old religious beliefs and customs that
have produced the heroes of Marathon.

In ridiculing Athenian politics Aristophanes gives

35

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

directions to the Sausage-seller how to defeat Clean, the
Athenian political leader, and to manage the people :

The easiest thing in the world. Do just as you have
been doing. Mangle and mash everything. Flavor and
spice to suit the people's taste. You have got every qualifica-
tion for a demagogue. You have a vile voice, you have a
low disposition and unscrupulous character.

The contest that follows may well remind one of the
American political campaign between Roosevelt and
Taft for the highest office in the land.

Cleon. I'll outbawl and outdo you.

Sausage-seller. I'll out-scream and out-squall you. Never

do I blush and blink.
Cleon. When I'm dealing, I can swear to things that are

not. And, though people heard and saw, I care not.

Compare with the new "National Hymn" made in
mockery of Roosevelt and his followers, the so-called
Bull Moose Progressive Party:

No matter though he said,
He never could be led

To run again;
We know now it was bluff,
Or some such other stuff
As guff or puff or fluff

In his brain.

Here is the prayer with which the Sausage-seller
opens his campaign in the Senate :

Hear me, O powers of Fraud and Boobydom, and ye
spirits of the market and the street, the places where I was
bred, and thou, great Impudence, hear me, and help, giving
me courage, and a ready tongue and a shameless voice.

36

RIDICULE AND SOCIAL DECADENCE

Aristophanes ridicules the Athenian politics in the
same way as the modern cartoonist ridicules the presi-
dential campaign by representing the two presidential
candidates, riding to Chicago on the Monopoly Limited
with the Trust as their guardian, calling each other names
and almost coming to blows. As in the modern political
campaign, the Sausage-seller accuses Clean:

Thanks to the dust you kick up, Demos can see nothing

of what is going on.

Cleon. O my dear Demos, don't believe him. You have
never had a better friend or a more watchful one.
Haven't I kept you up? Haven't I watched night and
day and discovered schemes, treasons, plots and conspira-
cies? (Corresponding to the scheming of the modern
trusts.)

Sausage-seller. Oh, yes, we all know what you mean by
your treasons and plots. You are just like the fellows
that fish in troubled waters.

Both Cleon and the Sausage-seller declare their in-
tense love and affection for Demos, their supposed
master :

Cleon. If I should advise you

Against what is best for your comfort and interest,

May I suffer and perish.
Sausage-seller. O Demos,

No man can more adore you

With so tender a care.

Who cannot read in it the eternal ridicule on political
campaigning carried on in democratic countries where
Demos is the master?

Even a superficial glance at the quotations from
Aristophanes discloses the fact that the characters, in-

37

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

stitutions, and new ideas ridiculed are regarded as de-
fective, as wanting in the common social and moral prin-
ciples of ordinary life. The characters represented are
found to be ludicrous, because we are made to realize
the inferiority of the persons, institutions, and ideas with
regard to the accepted standards of life. Defects where
merits should be expected, lack of adjustment where
more perfect adaptation is looked for, inferiority to the
ordinary level of life where superiority should be ex-
pected, all such relations constitute the main conditions
under which objects, physical and ideal, are made ridicu-
lous in the eyes of the external observer. This statement
in its turn can be further reduced to the more general
principle of lack of energy when an abundance of it is
expected, of difficulties, awkwardness, and clumsiness
where there should be ease, grace, and manifestation of
energy in response to the external and internal stimuli
and situations.

CHAPTER VI
DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

Whenever we can prick a vital point in our neighbor,
whenever we can find a weak spot in our fellow beings,
in their manners, beliefs, institutions, and ideals, there
we invariably find the ludicrous. For while we enjoy
the spontaneous laughter of free activity and unimpeded
manifestation of energy we also feel our superiority by
the detection of defects, imperfections, and weakness in
our fellow beings, or in the manners which they have, or
in the views and beliefs which they entertain. The social
brute attacks and kills its weak associate, while man hits
his neighbor's weak spots with jibes, ridicule, and laugh-
ter.

It is quite probable that laughter, in addition to the
fact of its being one of the important psychomotor mani-
festations of the play instinct, may also be of some use in
the biological process of organic social growth. All
variations that fall below the average social level have
somehow to be corrected and possibly eliminated.

Now when a variation is positively harmful to social
life then society defends itself by penalties and punish-
ments. Variations, however, occur all the time in social
life, and their tendency is at first uncertain. Many of
the variations may be good, and others may be indiffer-
ent. Not all variations from the standard can possibly
be punished as sins and crimes. It is true that in many

39

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

ancient barbaric and savage societies change and varia-
tion are regarded as sinful and criminal. Man must live
up to the average standard, any deviation from which is
strictly punished by law. Life is prescribed to its very
minutiae, even to the cut of the dress, the kind and man-
ner of food and relations with other people. Still, even
under such conditions, some slight variations will occur,
variations which cannot possibly be provided against.
Society wishes to be immune from changes, and espe-
cially from uncertain changes, the old way is certain and
safe, while a new way may possibly lead to some harmful
results. The only sure protection is to guard against all
possible changes and variations, however slight and ap-
parently harmless.

Who can foresee whither a variation may tend?
May not a given variation be of a harmful, inferior type
and tend gradually to disintegrate, to degrade the quality
of social life? Variations are risky and dangerous, bet-
ter not to try them. Life, however, cannot be arrested,
variations do occur in societies and tribes, however rigid
and stationary their social status. Variations cannot be
exactly treated as sinful and criminal, since many of
them are quite slight and inoffensive. There are again
some that may prove useful. On the whole, however,
changes are suspicious, especially if they do not coin-
cide with custom and religion. Something must be done
to counteract and destroy the very germ of possible seri-
ous changes, or slight eccentricities. Slight eccentrici-
ties and trivial changes do not deserve punishment or the
use of social force. Society possesses a powerful
weapon to kill the germs of variations, to nip them in
their bud. This weapon is ridicule. Slight, inoffensive
variations are treated as inferior, as below the average

40

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

level, below the normal; such variations or mutations
are treated with ridicule; they are regarded as inferior
to the normal type and laughed at.

Society does not find it convenient to undertake for-
cible suppression of slight, incubating, individual muta-
tions ; it does not wish to set in motion the machinery of
law and order, the judge, the policeman, the soldier, the
court, the prison, and the barrack in order to punish small
changes, insignificant mutations and trivial eccentricities ;
they are all put down below the normal and covered with
ridicule. Such a powerful solvent is ridicule that few
variations or mutations can withstand it. Only muta-
tions of great vigor and vitality can survive the scathing
lightning of laughter and ridicule. Few men and women
have the hardihood to withstand that peculiar ostracism
expressed in social ridicule. Man is gregarious ; he must
go with the crowd. In fact we may say that man is more
afraid of social ridicule than of actual severe punish-
ment. Society can thus kill innovations, deviations,
variations, mutations, without any severity, without any
shedding of blood as the inquisitorial phrase runs ; it can
smother all new-fangled things and have its laugh and
fun beside. Why punish, why not laugh ?

To be classed with the rejected, with the inferior,
with the abnormal is humiliating to the average man, and
more so to the average woman. The average "normal"
man and woman dread ridicule. The power of ridicule
is so potent, the fear of it is so overwhelming that the
stoutest of heart turns coward and runs. Neither perse-
cution nor social ostracism can equal in repressive force
social jibe and jeer. The true hero is he who can ignore
social ridicule.

Persecution is a homage paid to the persecuted. For

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

society sees in the persecuted a power to be reckoned with
of which it is afraid, but laughter is an innocent merry-
making at the expense of the insignificant, the weak, the
defective, the inferior, and the trivial. Such an attitude
of our neighbors to us is so humiliating that few can
bear it. Society thus possesses an amusing and power-
ful means for the control of variations, deviations, and
eccentricities. Man can hardly remain unscathed by the
social lye, by the powerful solvent of social ridicule.
Laughter is an efficient instrument, inexpensive and ap-
parently mild. "Great enlargement of mind," Pascal
tells us, "not less than extreme limitation of faculty is
charged with folly. Nothing obtains currency but medi-
ocrity. The multitude have established their order of
things and are on the alert to let no one escape who at-
tempts to break through at either end . . ." Neither
Hamlet mad nor Hamlet genius can escape the detection
and revenge of the established order.

There are, however, times when decadence sets into
the social organism; social rigidity relaxes; then the in-
dividual turns on society and repays it in its own coin.
Genius discerns the weak spots of the social constitu-
tion, of enfeebled institutions, worn out ideas, decaying
ideals and beliefs. With the power of his genius the
individual brings those defects and faults clearly before
the social mind. Like the wasp he stings the social
caterpillar in the weakest, in the most vital and most
tender points of social organization. Society wriggles
in laughter, but it bears the attack often without re-
taliation. Society is served with its own medicine; it is
wounded by its own most powerful weapon. Such a
condition is an indication of grave social changes.

The weapon of ridicule is employed by all great re-

42

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

formative movements, such as Humanism, the Reforma-
tion, the Renaissance, the English and the French revolu-
tions. The ridicule which the individual turns on society
indicates decay of old structures and presages the birth of
a new order of things. Under such conditions we find
Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Encyclopaedists of the
eighteenth century. Like Aristophanes, Voltaire made
people laugh. The great Greek comic writer ridiculed the
new order from the standpoint of the old one, while
the great French philosopher made France and Europe
laugh away their old worn out institutions and obsolete
beliefs. Aristophanes could only see before him a degen-
erated Greece with all its glory in the past, while Voltaire
saw before him a rejuvenated Europe and France with all
their greatness in the future.

Perhaps a few examples taken from Voltaire may
best elucidate our standpoint :

"How can you prefer senseless stories that mean
nothing?"

"That is just why we read them," answered the ladies.

This is a good comment on the literature produced
and consumed by ladies in our own times.

Zadig followed the noble maxim of Zoroaster: When
thou eatest give something to the dogs, even though they
should bite thee. Instructed in the sciences of the ancient
Chaldeans, he was not ignorant of such principles of natural
philosophy as were then known, and knew as much of
metaphysics as has been known in any age, that is to say,
next to nothing. He was firmly persuaded that the year
consisted of 365 days and a quarter, and when the leading
magi of his time told him with contemptuous arrogance
that he entertained dangerous opinions and that it was a

43

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

proof of hostility to the government to believe that the
sun turned on its own axis, he held his peace without show-
ing either anger or disdain.

Zadig's matrimonial troubles are no less interesting.

He fell in love with the admirable Semira. A nobleman,
who imagined himself in love with Semira, because he
thought himself a better man and was envious and jealous
of Zadig, made an attempt to carry off Semira by force,
Zadig defended her. Semira pierced the sky with her
lamentations. She cried aloud, "My dear husband! They
are tearing me from him who is the idol of my heart."
Zadig at the risk of his life and with a deep wound in his
eye finally succeeded in rescuing Semira. Zadig's wounded
eye became worse and gave cause for alarm. Semira's only
prayer was that he might be healed. A messenger was sent
for Hermes, the famous physician. The physician declared
that Zadig would lose his eye, foretelling the day and hour
of this sad event. "If it had been the right eye," said he,
"I might have cured it; but injuries to the left eye are
incurable."

All Babylon admired the profound scientific research of
Hermes. Two days afterwards the eye was well again.
Hermes wrote a book in which he proved that Zadig ought
not to have been cured; but Zadig did not read it. After
he got well he found that Semira, objecting to one-eyed
people, had in haste married the man who had attempted to
carry her off by force. Zadig then chose Azora, who came
of the best stock and was the best behaved girl in the city.
He married, lived with her for a month in all the bliss of
a most tender union; the only faults he observed in her
were a little giddiness and a strong tendency to find out
that the handsomest young men had always the most intelli-
gence and virtue.

Azora tells Zadig, "I went to console the young widow

44

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

Cosrou, who two days ago raised a tomb to her young
husband beside the stream which forms the boundary of
this meadow. She vowed in her grief that she would dwell
beside that tomb as long as the stream flowed by."

"Well," said Zadig, "a truly estimable woman who
really loved her husband !"

"Ah !" returned Azora, "if you only knew how she was
occupied when I paid her my visit."

"How then, fair Azora?"

"She was diverting the course of the brook."

Azora broke out into violent reproaches against the
young widow. This ostentatious display of virtue was dis-
pleasing to Zadig.

He had a friend named Cador who was one of those
young men in whom his wife found more merit and integrity
than in others. Zadig took him into his confidence and
secured his fidelity as far as possible by means of a con-
siderable present. Zadig fell sick, died and was put into
a coffin. Cador made love to the young widow and made
her go to the tomb to cut off with a razor Zadig's nose.
When Azora was about to carry out her intention Zadig
suddenly got up, and holding his nose with one hand,
stopped the razor with the other. "Madam," he said, "do
not cry out against young Cosrou ; your intention of cutting
off my nose is as bad as that of turning aside a stream."

Zadig was arrested for showing his wisdom in the detec-
tion of the escaped queen's dog and the king's horse. He
was again arrested for not answering questions about an
escaped state prisoner whom he happened by chance to no-
tice through the window. For this offence he was con-
demned to pay fifty pieces of gold, and he thanked his
judges for their leniency, according to the custom of
Babylon.

"Good Heavens!" said Zadig to himself, "what a pity
it is when one takes a walk in the wood through which
the queen's bitch and the king's horse have passed! How

45

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

dangerous it is to stand at a window ! and how difficult it is
to be happy in this world!"

In ridiculing the religious beliefs and devotions Vol-
taire tells that while in Benares in passing a fakir, he
happened to sneeze. The sneeze awakened the fakir who
was in a trance.

"Where am I?" said he, "what a horrible fall I have
had! I can no longer see the tip of my nose; the celestial
light has vanished."

"If I am the cause," said I, "that you see at last beyond
the tip of your nose, here is a rupee to repair the damage
that I have committed; recover your celestial light."

My friend Omri brought me into the cell of one of the
most famous gymnosophists, whose name was Bababec. He
was as naked as an ape and, having a chain round his neck
which must have weighed more than sixty pounds, was
seated on a wooden chair neatly furnished with sharp little
nails which ran into his posteriors. Many women came
to consult him as an oracle on family affairs and he enjoyed
the highest reputation.

"Do you think, father," said the former, "that after my
soul has undergone transmigration I may be able to reach
the abode of Brahma?"

"That depends," said the fakir, "what is your manner
of life?"

"I endeavor," said Omri, "to be a good citizen, a good
husband and a good friend."

"Do you ever drive nails into your bottom?" asked the
Brahmin.

"Never, reverend father."

"I am .sorry for it," replied the fakir, "you certainly will
not enter the nineteenth heaven and that is a pity."

"Into which heaven do you expect to go, Mr. Bababec?"

"Into the thirty-fifth."

46

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

"You are a droll fellow," replied Omri, "to expect a
higher lodging, — that expectation can only proceed from
an inordinate ambition. You damn those who seek for
honor in this life, why do you aim at honors for yourself
in the next? ... I reckon that man is worth a hundred
times more who sows pot-herbs or plants trees than the
tribe of you and your fellows who look at the tip of their
noses, carry a pack-saddle to show the extreme nobility of
their souls."

Having spoken thus, Omri soothed, coaxed, persuaded,
at last induced Bababec to leave his nails and his chain then
and there, to come home with him and lead a respectable
life. They scoured him well, they rubbed him all over with
perfumed essences, they clothed him decently and he lived
for a fortnight in a thoroughly rational way, manifesting
that he was a hundred times happier than before. But he
lost credit with the people, and the women came no more
to consult him; so he left Omri and betook himself once
more to his nails in order to recover reputation.

, Thus Voltaire makes merry over religion, its beliefs
and its saints.

In his "Plato's Dreams" Voltaire tells us that De-
mogorgon had as his share the morsel of mud which we
call the Earth; and having arranged it in the manner in
which we see it to-day, he claimed to have created a
masterpiece. He was criticized by one of his brother
genii as follows :

You have accomplished a fine piece of work. Your
onion and artichoke are very good, but I cannot conceive
what your idea could have been in covering the earth with
so many deadly plants, unless you intended to poison the
inhabitants. Moreover, it appears that you have some thirty
different kinds of monkeys, a much greater number of dogs
and only four or five varieties of the human race. It is

47

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

true that you have given the last animal what you are
pleased to call reason in all conscience. This reason of yours
is too ridiculous and is not far removed from madness.
Besides it seems to me that you do not set much store by
this animal, seeing you have given it so many enemies, such
scanty means of defense, so many diseases and so few
remedies, so many passions and so little wisdom. You
have no wish apparently that many of those creatures
should remain alive; for, without mentioning the other
dangers to which you expose them, you have contrived
so well that some day the small pox will carry off regularly
every year the tenth part of mankind, and its twin sisters
will taint the life in the nine parts left. As if that was
still not enough you have so disposed the course of events
that one half of the survivors will be occupied in law-suits,
and the other half in mutual slaughter. They will doubtless
be much obliged to you, and you have surely achieved a
splendid masterpiece.

In his "Candid" he ridicules the Leibnitzian preestab-
lished harmony and the shallow optimism of the eigh-
teenth century. Pangloss, the professor of optimism,
says:

Things cannot be otherwise than they are ; for everything
being made for a certain end, the end for which every-
thing is made is necessarily the best end. Our legs are
clearly intended for shoes and stockings and so we have
them. Pigs were made to be eaten and so we eat pork all
the year round. Consequently, those who have asserted
that all is well have said what is silly; they should have
said of everything that is, that it is the best that could
possibly be.

Private misfortunes. Pangloss teaches, promote the
public good, so that the more private misfortunes there

48

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

are the better it is for the world. Pain and misfortune
engender happiness and joy.

Across the channel, in England, Bernard de Mande-
ville ridiculed English ethical optimism, rampant among
the nobility and universities, in essays entitled "Private
Vices Public Benefits," for which he earned the name
Man-Devil.

Voltaire would hardly have modified his attacks on
optimism, though he might have expressed them in a
more scientific and biological form had he lived in our
century of the glorification of competition and sanctifica-
tion of the principle of the struggle for existence and the
elimination of the weak.

If we examine the work of Aristophanes and Vol-
taire, separated as they are by a chasm of more than a
score of centuries, we find that with their penetrating
genius they have discovered the weak points in the lives
of their contemporaries, and that they have inserted the
sting of ridicule in the most vulnerable parts of the social
organism. Out of the dark depths of unconsciousness of
social automatisms, habits, customs, and beliefs they
have dragged to the light of consciousness the symptoms
and processes of mental, moral, and social decay.
Laughter at institutions and beliefs is an indication of
social degeneracy and regeneracy.

From the superior standpoints occupied by those
great men of genius they were able to see the inferiority
of the prominent and governing personalities, they were
enabled to disclose to the view of their contemporaries
the low state of the institutions and beliefs which they
attacked by their ridicule. Aristophanes shows the de-
fects, the shortcomings, the inferiority of the Sophists,
of the Demos, of the political boss, of the demagogue;

49

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

while Voltaire reveals the failures, the grave faults, the
blemishes of the then reigning shallow, optimistic philos-
ophy, the low state of social organization of the times,
the crudities of the moral and religious beliefs, the empti-
ness of accepted opinions, the hollowness of creeds and
faiths hallowed by tradition and authority of state and
church.

In both writers we find that the high are leveled to
the ground, the strong are shown to be weak, the superior
are found to be really inferior. Both of them reveal to
the gaze of the observer difficulties, hardships, troubles,
defects, deformities, incompetency, awkwardness, clumsi-
ness, deceit, profligacy, vice where there should have
been high-mindedness, ease, grace, nobility, superiority,
goodness, health, growth, and strength.

Persons, institutions, and beliefs exposed to ridicule
are treated with respect by society for their supposed
superiority and virtue. This respect, this belief in super-
iority and virtue, is shown to be unfounded and treated
with ridicule. The object or subject laughed at is cov-
ered by social tradition with a cloak of dignity, superior-
ity, and righteousness. The purpose of ridicule is the
tearing aside the cloak of assumed dignity, thus exposing
the object in its full nakedness. The defects and weak-
nesses of the ridiculed object, whether person, institu-
tion, or belief, are exposed to the view of the external
observer. Hence the shame awakened in the person
against whom the jest, the joke, or the ridicule is di-
rected.

The ridiculed person may even be conscious of his
shortcomings, but he may still parade them under the
garb of merits and virtues, under the cloak of superior
nature, position, birth, or wealth. Man craves for the

50

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

homage, for the respect of his fellow beings. Man
hungers for praise, for fame. In the average man such
a craving may not be intense, but there is present an in-
tense regard for the opinion of one's neighbor or one's
friends. We may lay it down as a social law that men,
and especially women, fear the disapprobation of their
fellow-beings; they fear disapprobation all the more
when it is given to them in the form of disrespect as ex-
pressed by ridicule. For ridicule means disapprobation,
humiliation; it means inferiority, degradation. Ridicule
means the placing of the person below the level of the
class to which he belongs by birth, connection, occupa-
tion, education, and training. Ridicule is like social
ostracism and, possibly worse, it is like cutting the mem-
ber from off the social body. To be ignored by one's
neighbors and friends is by no means a matter of indif-
ference, but to become an object of ridicule is unbear-
able to gregarious man. As the poet puts it: Ferreus
est, si quis, quod sinit alter, amat. Iron-hearted is he
who loves what others leave.

As a gregarious animal man is in terror of social
disapprobation. Man is afraid "to lose face," as the
Chinaman puts it. The greatest, the most intense fear
that haunts men, and possibly more so women, through-
out their whole life, is to lose their social standing, to
fall below the given social requirements. One hardly
realizes what a potent instrument ridicule is in the hands
of society, class, caste, and profession. In many cases
fear of social ridicule amounts almost to a panic. Many
a case of nervous trouble known as psychoneurosis takes
its origin in fear, in panic of a possible moral fall below
the traditional social requirements. The conservative
social forces never lose their grip on the individual ; they

51

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

are always ready to choke him at the least offence. More-
over, through education and social suggestion those social
forces work on the consciousness and conscience of the
individual himself. The possible degradation becomes a
fear of conscience.

In my "Psychology of Suggestion" I have pointed
out: "The rules, the customs, the laws of society are
categorical, imperative, absolute. One must obey them
on pain of death (it may be social death, it may be
ridicule). Blind obedience is a social virtue." "The
vast majority of persons," Galton tells us, "of our race
have a natural tendency to shrink from the responsibility
of standing and acting alone; they exalt the vox populi,
even when they know it to be the utterance of a mob of
nobodies, into the vox Dei, and they are willing slaves to
tradition, authority, and custom." In the same volume
of mine I point out what a depressing influence society
exercises on the individual :

"With the growth and civilization of society institu-
tions become more stable, laws more rigid, individuality
is more and more crushed out, and the poor, barren sub-
waking self is exposed in all its nakedness to fhe vicissi-
tudes of the external world. In civilized society laws
and regulations press on the individual from all sides.
Whenever one attempts to rise above the dead level of
commonplace life instantly the social screw begins to
work, and down is brought upon him the tremendous
weight of the socio-static press, and it squeezes him back
into the mire of mediocrity, frequently crushing him to
death for his bold attempt. Man's relations in life are
determined and fixed for him; he is told how to put on
his tie, and the way he must wear his coat; such should
be the fashion of his dress on this particular occasion,

52

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

and such should be the form of his hat; here must he
nod his head, put on a solemn air ; and there take off his
hat, make a profound bow, and display a smile full of
delight. Personality is suppressed by the rigidity of
social organization; the cultivated, civilized individual
is an automaton, a mere puppet.

"Under the enormous weight of the socio-static press,
under the crushing pressure of economical, political, and
religious regulations there is no possibility for the in-
dividual to determine his own relations in life; there is
no possibility for him to move, live, and think freely ; the
personal self sinks, the suggestible, subconscious, social,
impersonal self rises to the surface, gets trained and
cultivated, and becomes the hysterical actor in all the
tragedies of historical life. . . ." The individual
fears the power of society. Like a child, man runs in
terror when society turns to him its comic mask. Laugh-
ter and ridicule are weapons which society finds potent
enough to strike terror into the hearts of its disobedient
children.

No less potent, however, is ridicule in the hands of
the reformative or, more truly to say, formative social
forces. While Aristophanes represents the power of
ridicule on the side of the conservative social forces,
Voltaire represents the dissolving power of ridicule, di-
rected by the formative forces of society.

Deviations and variations from the usual, customary
standard arouse laughter, but not all of them are ludi-
crous. Deviations and variations toward the superior
are by no means subject to ridicule : only those deviations
are ridiculed that can be shown to be defects, variations
toward the abnormal, toward the inferior type of life.
Saints, martyrs, and men of genius are not ridiculed, if

53

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

we recognize them as superior. Men are respected and
revered as great, as geniuses in the domain of social,
mental, and moral life, if they live up to the highest
ideal current in that particular society. Should, how-
ever, different ideals appear the men who live up to the
old ideals would be regarded as inferior and become the
subject of ridicule, as Don Quixote after the ideal of
chivalry had passed away.

When the substance of the old society has become
eaten out, and when, like a caterpillar in its chrysalis,
the new order is ready to emerge, the old skin is broken
through by the light, airy touches of sarcasm, irony,
satire, and ridicule. Such, for instance, we find the case
to be in the days of the first Christian era, when Lucian
ridiculed the ancient beliefs, myths, and old gods; such
we find the times of the Reformation and Humanism.
When at the end of the eighteenth century the mediaeval
institutions and beliefs fell into decrepitude and decay,
preserving apparently their outward healthy aspect, we
find Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists making merry over
them. Like furniture devoured by South American ants,
nothing but the exterior shell remained of the mediaeval
institutions. Ridicule gave the final blow and the whole
structure crumbled into dust. Ridicule shows the old
things as being but the semblance of reality, falsehood
disguised as truth, solemn social relations as convention-
alities, deceptions and simulacra of life.

Things and persons that have an important and sol-
emn aspect and are shown to be unimportant and trivial
are laughed at. In other words, things are ludicrous
when we show the superior to be really the inferior. This
is why imitations of the sacred, the elevated, the solemn,
grand, devotional and ceremonial easily lend themselves

54

DEVIATIONS AND THE LUDICROUS

to ridicule and mockery. The grand is ludicrous when it
is regarded as pomposity, and the holy is ridiculous when
it is looked upon as common and vulgar ; the pure is im-
pure and polluted; even wit may be turned into ridicule
by relating it to buffoonery. Ridicule and mockery are
dangerous weapons to wield, as they may be turned
against the very people who use them.

The degradation of the solemn and superior by rais-
ing the base, the inferior and the trivial so that the latter
imitate in appearance the former gives rise to parody and
travesty of which we give the following examples :

A tavern-keeper offended by his negligence the lawyers
who crowded his tavern. With one accord the lawyers for-
sook the tavern leaving behind them the following parody
on the Declaration of Independence:

"When in the course of human events, it becomes neces-
sary for a half-hungry, half-fed, imposed-on set of men,
to dissolve the bonds of landlord and boarder, a decent re-
spect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which have impelled them to separation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men
are created with mouths and stomachs; and that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,

As another example we may take a parody on Poe's
"Raven":

Once upon a midnight chilling, as I held my feet unwilling

O'er a tub of scalding water, at a heat of ninety- four ;

Nervously a toe in dipping, dripping, slipping, then out-
skipping,

Suddenly there came a ripping whipping, at my chamber's
door —

55

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

" 'Tis the second floor," I mutter'd, "flipping at my cham-
ber's door,

Wants a light — and nothing more!"

Ah! distinctly I remember, it was in the chill November,
And each cuticle and member was with Influenza sore ;
Falt'ringly I stirred the gruel, steaming creaming o'er the

fuel,

And anon removed the jewel that each frosted nostril bore,
Wiped away the trembling jewel that each reddened nos-
tril bore — •

Nameless here for evermore!

And I recollect a certain draught that fanned the window

curtain,
Chill'd me, rilled me with a horror of two steps across the

floor;
And besides, I'd got my feet in, and a most refreshing

heat in,

To myself I sat repeating — "If I answer to the door —
Rise to let the ruffian in who seems to want to burst the

door,

I'll be that and something more."

CHAPTER VII

RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

While persons, classes, professions, institutions, beliefs
are divested of their dignity, while they are thrown
down from the superior position which they occupy in
the eyes of the public, the public itself must be prepared
to appreciate the funny and the ridiculous side of what is
made an object of laughter. A Protestant, a Jew, a Mo-
hammedan may enjoy a joke at the expense of Catholi-
cism; a Catholic may laugh at some ludicrous aspect of
some other faith. A good Catholic, however, will be hor-
rified by a joke or an anecdote on the Catholic faith; a
religious person will be shocked at a jest at the expense
of religion. As the ancient Greek put it, "We should
praise the Athenians in Athens." "We here in America,"
our ex-president tells us, "hold in our hands the hope of
the world."

One cannot help agreeing with the Heraclitean para-
digm : "Fools, even when they hear the truth, are like
deaf men ; of them the proverb holds true : being present
they are absent."

In order to appreciate a joke the audience must al-
ready regard the object of the joke with lack of rever-
ence. The audience must subconsciously be prepared to
look upon the object of ridicule as inferior. The Hu-
manists could ridicule mediaeval ideas, the Reformers

57

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

could rail at the religious beliefs of the Catholic Church,
the French Encyclopaedists could treat lightly of the
French institutions and beliefs, because the latter were
already subconsciously undermined in the mind of the
French nation. In order, then, that ridicule may suc-
cessfully bring out the inferiority of the ridiculed object
the public must be willing to accept such a relation of
inferiority, nay, has already formed beforehand that
view of inferiority subconsciously. The ridicule brings
to the surface what has already been present in the sub-
conscious region of the mind. As the great artist brings
to the surface of consciousness the ideal of his time and
gives expression to the subconscious strivings of his con-
temporaries, so does the great comic writer give expres-
sion to the subconscious views of his fellow-men in
regard to the ideals, beliefs, and institutions that are in
the process of degeneration and generation, and of which
the people are as yet unconscious, or but vaguely con-
scious.

Such subconscious preparedness is one of the most
fundamental conditions of the ludicrous. Aristophanes
rails at the nascent ideas of cosmopolitanism against
which the narrow spirit of Athenian aristocratic, ex-
clusive democracy fought so desperately. In his
"Frogs," however, he does not hesitate to treat irrever-
ently the old religious beliefs ; he makes a burlesque and
farce of Bacchus and of Hades; yEschylus is made a
laughing stock for his clumsy, heavy, pompous, didactic
verses. In his "Birds" Aristophanes, no less than the
later irreverent Lucian and Voltaire, banters about the
sacred, ancient, mythological beliefs; he holds up the
gods for the amusement of his countrymen. The jokes
of Aristophanes were keenly appreciated by the Greeks,

58

RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

because he expressed the subconscious tendencies of the
Hellenic world.

The Greeks, like the Hebrews, were exclusive in re-
gard to all other nations. They were not in sympathy
with the high and broad humanitarian morality taught by
Socrates. Even Aristotle, the greatest thinker of antiq-
uity, was Greek at heart; he maintained that the Greeks
were masters by nature, and that all other nations, in-
cluded by him under the disparaging term of barbarians,
were the legitimate prey of the Hellenes, and especially of
the highly intellectual and refined Athenians. The Greeks
divided the world of mankind into Hellenes and aliens or
barbarians, just as the Jew regarded himself as the chosen
people of Yahweh, and regarded all other nations as be-
nighted pagans, heathen, and Goim. Socrates, preach-
ing in the streets, market places, and gymnasia of Athens,
could not have chosen a more unfavorable environment
for the dissemination of his humanitarian philosophy.
Like the ancient Hebrew prophets, with Jesus and the
Apostles as their culmination, Socrates preached his cos-
mopolitan, humanitarian philosophy to a crowd that was
called upon, in the name of a higher ideal, to renounce
their privileges as superiors and put themselves on a level
with the inferiors, barbarians and slaves. We know the
bitter opposition of the Greeks and the Macedonians to
the leveling and cosmopolitan spirit of Alexander of
Macedon. Aristophanes, in addressing himself to the
Greeks in his biting invective, in his ridicule at the new-
fangled ways of extreme, democratic institutions, at new
ideas and ideals, found a sympathizing audience in the
Athenian Demos whom he cajoled, whom he laughed at,
but with whose interests he was in the deepest sympathy.

The ancient mythology was internally decaying

59

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

among the ancient Greeks. The Athenian could not help
laughing when Aristophanes directed his jibes against the
old-fashioned, antiquated myths and old wives' tales, as
Plato characterized them. The keen mind of the ancient
Greek could not accept literally and in good faith the
stories and nursery-tales told him by the nurse-slaves, nor
could he have faith in the holy legends related to him by
his own mother and sister — all the more so as the Greek
cherished a feeling of contempt for all women as in-
feriors to men in general and to gentlemen (na\oi xdyaQoi)
in particular. The Athenians were thus prepared sub-
consciously for the sharp, critical, overwhelming ridicule,
scoffing, raillery, derision, and mockery of the Aristo-
phanic plays and comedies.

When the ancient faith died among the nations of the
Greco-Roman world they enjoyed the jibes of Lucian
against their gods. When the Catholic faith weakened
in many European countries the people began to enjoy
stories and anecdotes about priests and religion. When
the mediaeval institutions, with their ideals and beliefs,
began to totter the great French philosopher and satirist
injected into them the poison of his raillery, and the
whole of France and Europe were convulsed with laugh-
ter at the agonizing writhing of the old decaying order.
Aristophanes, Lucian, Voltaire gave expression to the sub-
conscious stirrings of the spirit of the times. The comic
writer points out the weak, the inferior aspects of the
object or subject which he makes the butt of his ridicule,
but the people who are made to laugh must first of all
be in deep, subconscious sympathy with the views of the
scoffer. In military and theocratic societies the mer-
chant, the trader, is an object of ridicule. In modern
business communities the learned man, the thinker, is

60

RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

regarded as a ludicrous figure. Novels and stories have
been written to that effect for the amusement of the prac-
tical business man.

Ghosts are usually regarded with awe and with fear.
A number of stories of ghosts and apparitions has been
written to arouse the feeling of awe. The ghost is re-
garded as something mysterious, awe-inspiring and be-
longing to a supernormal world far superior to our ma-
terial earthly existence. Harking back to our religious
fears of old, ghosts belong to the superior divine world
of spirits and gods. Ghosts have been worshipped by
mankind as gods. This belief still lingers in our faith
and is still deeply imbedded in our subconscious life.
With the awakening, however, of the modern spirit of
inquiry and scepticism, the world of ghosts has fallen
into disrepute with the more educated classes. Accord-
ingly we find that ghosts are treated with irreverence and
are held up to the ridicule of the subconsciously unbeliev-
ing crowd. To make a burlesque of a spectre is no
longer a sacrilege as it would have been regarded in early
ages of spirit worship. The spectres and ghosts begin to
be utilized as material for the amusement of the multi-
tude. Thus Thomas Ingoldsby, in "The Ingoldsby
Legends/' ridicules the usual ghost stories by regarding
them as dreams and silly nightmares.

' 'Tis known how much dead gentlefolks eschew
The appalling sound of 'Cock-a-doodle-do !' '

In another story, "The Spectre of Tappington," the
ghost is made to steal breeches and various other articles
of apparel. When the victim regards the matter as a
practical joke to his friend, the latter laughs :

61

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"Laugh as you will, Tom, be as incredulous as you
please. One fact is incontestable — the breeches are gone ! I
am reduced to my regimentals and if these go, to-morrow I
must borrow of you!"

Rochefoucauld says, "There is something in the misfor-
tunes of our very best friends that does not displease us;
certainly we can most of us laugh at their petty incon-
veniences, till called upon to supply them."

The ghost is further put in a ridiculous light when
the servant, in his Irish dialect, relates the way he has met
with the apparition :

"Sure then, and it's meself will tell your honor the
rights of it," said the ghost-seer. "Meself and Miss Paul-
ine, sir, — or Miss Pauline and meself, for the ladies come
first anyhow, — we got tired of the hobstroppylous skrim-
maging among the ould servants, that didn't know a joke
when they seen one ; and we went out to look at the comet,
— that's the Rory-Bory-Ale-House, they calls him in this
country, — and we walked upon the lawn, — and divel of
any ale house there was there at all ; and Miss Pauline said
it was because of the shrubbery maybe, and why wouldn't
we see it better beyonst the trees, and so we went to the
trees, but sorrow a comet did meself see there, barring a
big ghost instead of it."

"A ghost, and what sort of a ghost, Barney?"
"Och, then divil a lie, I'll tell your honor, a tall ould
gentleman he was, all in white, with a shovel on his shoul-
der, and a big torch in his fist, — though what he wanted
with that it's meself can't tell, for his eyes were like gig-
lamps, let alone the moon and the comet, which wasn't there
at all : — and 'Barney,' says he to me, — 'Cause why he knew
me, — 'Barney,' says he, 'what is it you're doing with
the colleen there, Barney?' — divil a word did I say. Miss
Pauline screeched and cried murther in French, and ran

62

RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

off with herself; and of course meself was in a mighty
hurry after the lady, and had no time to stop palavering
with him anyway; so I dispersed at once, and the ghost
vanished in a flame of fire!"

Frank Stockton with American levity, free from tra-
dition and superstition, treats ghosts with contempt and
covers them with ridicule. In his story, "The Trans-
ferred Ghost/' he makes ghosts look for positions as his
countrymen do for government places, and one of such
ghostly place hunters gets himself into trouble by obtain-
ing in his haste an extremely uncomfortable position to a
vigorous old man who refuses to die. The poor ghost
is full of terror of the old man and is haunted by the
very presence of the living reality. The tables are thus
turned, the ghost is haunted by the living. The superior
is lowered and becomes inferior. At the same time there
is a by-play of misapprehension in the conversation be-
tween the ghost and the principal character — the young
lady present thinks that the words directed to the unseen
and inaudible ghost are meant for her. The ghost finally
finds his rest when he gets transferred to another posi-
tion.

A similar play of the comic we find in Stockton's "The
Spectral Mortgage." The superior dignities and moral
elevation associated with ghosts are treated with similar
frivolity, ghosts are reduced from their high position
which they claim in the fancy and beliefs of the people.
The ghost is an old buck, he makes love to a young lady
who laughs at the poor devil, he collapses as soon as he
discovers the young lady was only fooling with him.
This is accompanied with a by-play of misapprehension
between lovers, a situation which enhances the comic
play.

63

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

From our present vantage ground we can well see
how our theory of the ludicrous agrees with the theory
of Bain : "The degradation of some personal interest pos-
sessing dignity in circumstances that excite no other
strong emotion." In fact, the idea of inferiority must
already be lodged subconsciously in the mind of the audi-
ence that laughs at the joke. Unless a bond of sympathy
be established between the audience and the person who
ridicules, the ridicule is a failure.

There is apparently no sympathy for the object or
subject of ridicule in the lower form of the comic. Such
a feeling seems to destroy the success of ridicule, but
there must be a subconscious tie of sympathy between the
man who makes the comic sally and the audience. In
the lower forms of comic art what the comic writer or
the man who laughs at somebody or at something guards
against is the awakening of sympathy or pity. Such
emotions are the antitoxin of the low stages of the
ludicrous. The merits, virtues, pain, and suffering of
the butt of ridicule are put in the background, and only
the demerits, the failings, the failures, the defects, the
shortcomings are in the foreground before the audience.
The audience in this respect is distracted from all other
considerations.

Perhaps we may say that in all art a slight form of
hypnoid-like state must be induced in the audience. In
the theater where comic plays are presented the condi-
tions of hypnoidization are favored by the distraction of
attention from all other objects, from all other qualities
of the object against which the comic is directed. Then
there is again the fixation of attention and limitation of
voluntary movements which form the main conditions in
the process of induction of subconscious states.

64

RIDICULE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Our view of the comic includes all the other theories
proposed since the time of Aristotle for the explanation
of the ludicrous, the funny, and the comic. "The ridicu-
lous," says Aristotle in his "Poetics," "is a certain error,
and turpitude unattended with pain and destruction.
Thus, for instance, a ridiculous face is something de-
formed and distorted without pain." Here Aristotle
points out the fact that the ridiculous deals with mak-
ing the subject of ridicule inferior, and he also refers to
the fact that the sympathy of the hearer is not awakened.
When the object is made ridiculous the fact of its pain
and misery or destruction which may result should be
put in the background. The joke, ridicule, or comedy
must be presented in its artistic garb with no harmful
consequences to the butt of ridicule. Like all art, the
comic must be performed for its own sake with no special
purpose except the higher ideal requirements of abun-
dance of energy, of ease and grace absent in the object
laughed at.

The motive which forms the source out of which the
ridiculous arises is disguised and hidden from direct
view. Bain corrects Aristotle's definition by adding that
Aristotle would have been nearer the mark, if he had ex-
pressed it "as causing something to appear mean that was
formerly dignified ; for to depict what is already under a
settled estimate of meanness has little power to raise a
laugh."

Hobbes maintains that "Laughter is a sudden glory
arising from sudden conceptions of some eminency in
ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or
with our own formerly." This theory fully agrees with
our own, only Hobbes gives it in a short definition which
he has left without any further development.

65

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

We shall, however, see further that, although Aris-
totle and Hobbes are right in the main, there are other
and higher aspects of the ludicrous which do not fully
fall within the frames of their definition. We cannot
help agreeing with Bain when he says that "the comic is
fed by false or faded dignities; by affectation and hy-
pocrisy; by unmeaning and hollow pomp."

CHAPTER VIII
THE LUDICROUS AND RESERVE ENERGY

We may once more return to a close scrutiny of the
ludicrous. We have shown that we laugh at any devia-
tion from the customary, from the normal, but, as we
have pointed out, the lower forms of the comic do not
awaken any other emotion except the sense of the
ludicrous. The one who ridicules, the comic writer, an-
aesthetizes his audience so that no attention should be paid
to anything else. Any thing, any action, or any saying
that manifestly falls below the social or the normal hu-
man standard is an object of ridicule. Why do we laugh
at the defective, at the abnormal? Because, as we have
shown, we feel our superiority, we feel that we are nor-
mal, that we possess the power, the energy which the
object of ridicule lacks. Such a feeling of superiority is
joyful, and we have the psychomotor manifestation char-
acteristic of joy, namely, smiles and laughter, at the
expense of another person. We feel bigger, because
another one is belittled; we feel the joy of superiority,
because another one has been made inferior; we are
raised, because another has been humiliated. "It is
sweet," sings Lucretius, "when on the great sea the winds
trouble its waters, to behold from land another's deep
distress; not that it is a pleasure and delight that any
should be afflicted, but because it is sweet to see from

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

what evils you are yourself exempt." This exemption
from evil or inferiority detected by the comic in another
is one of the main factors in laughter.

We must, however, also take into consideration the
response of a normal amount of energy to an external
stimulus found to be inferior in character. The super-
abundant, spontaneous overflow of unused energies gives
rise to joy and its accompaniment, laughter. When we
expect the normal and are adjusted to respond to it by
an amount of energy, and then the subnormal is discov-
ered, the amount of energy that is left goes into the over-
flow, giving rise to laughter.

We have shown that any amount of superabundant
energy, as in the case of children and vigorous people,
gives rise to joy and laughter. Hence, when some source
of reserve energy is tapped by an appropriate stimulus
the result is joy and consequent laughter. In fact, we
may say that any release of reserve energy is the source
of all laughter. This holds true in the case of laughter
due to the manifestation of animal spirits and sheer joy
of living in growing animals, children, and healthy, vig-
orous people. What the joker, the comic writer, does is
to release sources of reserve energy.

When there is apparent difficulty, ease is shown to
be present; where dignity is expected with its restraint
and stiffness, lightness and freedom are shown to be pos-
sible; where there is resistance, there no opposition is
shown; and where apparently effort is required, there
relaxation is amply sufficient; where strength is ex-
pected, there weakness is proven ; and where overwhelm-
ing effects of superior merits and qualities are ex-
pected, there are found demerits and defects. The
superfluous energy in response to the stimulus is

68

THE LUDICROUS AND RESERVE ENERGY

found superabundant and the overflow comes out in
hilarious laughter.

The disposition to see all those states may have been
subconsciously in the observer for some time, but passed
unnoticed. This disposition is revealed by the appropri-
ate joke or ridicule made by the person who first notices
the changed attitude and has the power and the courage
to express the subconscious changes. It is like water on
a still, frosty day, a stone thrown into the liquid freezes
the whole surface. The least motion brings about the
crystallization into ice, the disposition to which was pre-
pared by the low temperature of the water. The joke
brings to light the disposition of the soul; the joke
tumbles down structures hoary with age, but all rotten
within. The structure appears strong superficially, it is
good to look upon, but the first shock of ridicule shows
weakness, and at the same time releases subconscious
energies which are for the first time brought to light by
the laughing impact of the bearing down ridicule. We
may lay it down as a law that whatever reveals weakness
in an object of superior standing and releases in the audi-
ence subconscious sources of hidden reserve energy is a
fit subject for laughter and ridicule.

Conversely, as we have pointed out, when under
ordinary normal circumstances, more energy is spent
where less energy is requisite, the object is a matter
of ridicule — the observer regards the object as ludi-
crous.

This, however, does not mean that Freud and his
followers are right in claiming that economy of energy
is itself a groundwork of the ridiculous and the comic.
It is not the economy that is the cause of laughter; on
the contrary, the waste of energy may be very great and

69

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

still the pleasure of the feeling of joy with its accompany-
ing manifestations of laughter may be present. In fact,
where economy is required there is little occasion for
laughter. Laughter is the outburst of power, the mani-
festation of inner energy. In fact, the consciousness of
waste, the consciousness that such extravagance is pos-
sible for us, the assurance that we possess great supplies
of energy, such a state of consciousness is the very source
of the feeling of superiority and joy, it is the main cause
of laughter, ridicule, and the comic.

Play is the manifestation of inner subconscious ener-
gies which have been lying dormant during our ordinary
humdrum daily activities. The play of the comic is no
exception. We laugh when hidden reserve energies are
awakened in us. We laugh from the very joy of living.
Animals and children in their exuberance of energy are
hilarious and boisterous. Even serious-minded adults
become full of joy and laugh when the tide of inner
reserve energy keeps beating on their otherwise gray
and monotonous shore of life.

We do not wish for any economy of energy in our
life of joyful activities — such economy is good in busi-
ness, in manufacture, industry, and general occupation
of life. There is no economy in the joys of our playful
activities.

In the ludicrous the important element is not econ-
omy. In fact, where such economy is present laughter is
absent. The joys of laughter never go with economy of
energy. It is the consciousness of the ease of expendi-
ture, of waste of energy that forms the joy of laughter
and the merriment of the comic. The very waste of
energy with ease and grace, the consciousness of untold
riches, the unconsciousness of all else that may take place

70

THE LUDICROUS AND RESERVE ENERGY

afterward, these form the very backbone, the very es-
sence of inner joy and laughter.

Where there is relief from all economy of energy,
wherever we can spend with ease and with grace all we
will, there joy of laughter is present. As the smiling
roses in June, as the gladsome summer fields, as glades
full of daisies and buttercups and marigolds, as the rich
green of the grass and the living limbs of trees waving
their rich vestments of leaves in the summer sunshine,
and fanned by southern winds, come not out of the
thrifty economy of some artificial greenhouse, nor from
the parsimony of some commercial hothouse, but out of
the exuberant womb of Mother Nature, out of the vast
storehouse of the sun's energy, where expenditure is not
counted, whence endless hosts of life proceed, countless
masses of rich vegetation, mighty trunks, starlike flowers,
green foliage, and juicy fruits grow, bud, bloom, and
ripen, so is it with laughter. Laughter comes not out of
economy, but out of abundance.

Consciousness of reserve energy gives rise to joy and
merriment with their concomitant manifestations of
smiling and laughing. Whenever and wherever a stimu-
lus can tap a source of reserve energy which is mentally
experienced as an abundance, joy and laughter come to
life. There is no economy and no niggardliness in the
source of laughter. Laughter is born of lavishness and
dies with thriftiness. Out of ease, out of abundance
laughter grows, flowers, and ripens its golden fruit.
"They who sow in tears shall reap in joy" sings the
psalmist. "Weeping walks he who draws the burden,
but he comes with singing who carries the sheaves/'
The economy of sowing is sad, but the lavishness of the
crop is full of mirth, joy, and laughter.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

This agrees with the Spencerian doctrine that any
great accession of energy chooses laughter as its outlet.
The laughter that goes with the ludicrous is present
when anything regarded consciously as superior and sub-
consciously as inferior finds its expression of inferiority
in the consciousness of the hearer or of the observer.
The great task of comedy and of every amusement is to
be able to tap ever new sources of latent, subconscious,
reserve energy.

We can well understand why Groos connects the en-
joyment of the comic with the fighting instinct. There
is a forward, assailing element in the comic and laughter.
It is the daring to find inferiority and blemishes where
until now there have been respect, reverence, and even
fear. Laughter would never have come from the mere
pointing out of defects, failures, and shortcomings; it
mainly comes from exuberance of spirits, from latent
reserve, subconscious energy which it awakens to ac-
tivity. This reserve energy making man more active,
more daring in regard to superior persons and objects
of life, giving rise to the feeling of the joy of life which
accompanies the free manifestation of subconscious re-
serve energy, making man feel more courageous, more
energetic, and apparently careless as to consequences,
greatly resembles the fighting instinct.

There is no need, however, to identify such a state
with the fighting instinct, no more than an inventor or
scientific discoverer should be literally identified with a
scout and a spy. Under the influence of superabundant
energy, under the influence of the manifestation of re-
serve energy, man can attempt more than in his ordinary
normal condition. There is no more of the fighting in-
stinct in it than there are actual aggression and fight in

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THE LUDICROUS AND RESERVE ENERGY

the self -sacrifice of martyrs for their beliefs and ideas,
or in the preaching of Socrates, Jesus, and Buddha to a
sinful, erring world. Laughter and the fighting instinct
are akin only in so far as both of them are manifesta-
tions of superabundant energy. They differ funda-
mentally, inasmuch as fight involves a tendency to de-
struction of the object fought against, while in the ridicu-
lous or the comic the tendency to destruction must, even
in malicious laughter, be kept in the background, and in
most cases must be completely absent from the conscious-
ness of the audience. As Aristotle has pointed out long
ago, "the rid'culous is a certain error and turpitude un-
attended with pain and destruction."

CHAPTER IX
FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER

We have pointed out that laughter and ridicule and
their various species deal with free, unimpeded activity.
When activity is impeded, forced, constrained, and a
relief sets in, we have an outburst of accumulated energy
held in restraint, and the result is play, joy, with its
psychomotor manifestations of smiles and laughter.
From this point of view we may say that relief from
constraint of the cares and serious work forced on us
by the conditions of life and struggle for existence is an
outlet for energy which, instead of going on useful work,
for a definite purpose of life, flows out and is trans-
formed into play, joy, laughter — the enjoyment of the
ridiculous and the comic. May we not agree with those
writers who regard laughter and the comic as the out-
come of relief from constraints of the drudgeries and
monotony of life, as relaxation from all the worries
which business and cares of life carry with them? The
child freed from school is released from bondage, the
energy kept in constraint by the teacher, work and study,
becomes unobstructed, the attention kept in a state of
tension and concentration gets emancipated from re-
straints; there is a feeling of relief — the inner energies
are free, unimpeded. The result is the feeling of joy
with the consequent jumping, running, leaping, and bois-
terous laughter.

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FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER

When the business man or the student wishes to get
free from his cares, drudgery, and seriousness of work
he resorts to games and plays which give the needed
relaxation. The games, the theaters with their comic
plays, places of amusement, clubs with their mirth, jokes,
jests and anecdotes smooth out the cares, the crow's
feet, the wrinkles on the brow of many a worker whose
occupation is either monotonous or full of earnestness,
of seriousness, effort and concentration of attention.
Like school boys and school girls, men of the factory, the
office, the shop and the store become free agents and are
no longer hindered and cramped by rule and regulation
of business and trade. Free scope is given to their
cramped state of mental activity. Relaxation from con-
straint gives rise to free unimpeded activity; hence joy
and laughter. Relaxation goes with free activity.

The ridiculous and the comic have within them this
aspect of relaxation. The mind feels soothed and re-
laxed by the comic, the joke, the pun, the anecdote, the
amusing story, and the fable. There is a release from
pressure of limitations, conditions, regulations, and ef-
forts of conforming oneself to and squeezing one's indi-
viduality into a definite frame. When the consciousness
of such effort is gone, there is relief, and the feeling of
relaxation is present.

We can compare the comic and laughter with rest.
In fact, we may go further and compare laughter with
sleep; not with the sleep in which the senses and con-
sciousness are inactive, but with the sleep state in which
mental activities are present. May we not compare the
ludicrous with the dream? The dream occurs during
the rest state, during sleep. And what is sleep but a re-
lease from all the troubles and trammels of waking life?

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

In my work on "Sleep" I have shown that "we go to
sleep when we relinquish our hold on the relations of our
external environment. We fall asleep when our con-
sciousness is fagged, when we wish no longer to enter
into communication with the external world, when we
lose interest in our surroundings. When our interest in
external existence fags and fades away we go to sleep.
When our interests in the external world cease we draw
up the bridges, so to say, interrupt all external communi-
cation, as far as it is possible, and become isolated in our
own fortress. We repair to our own world of organic
activity and inner dream life. We fall asleep when the
vital interests in external being have fallen into the back-
ground; we awake when those interests are aroused.
When the struggle for existence ceases we repair to our
castle and battlements.

"Sleep is the interruption of our intercourse with the
external world ; it is the laying down of our arms for a
respite in the struggle of life. Sleep is a truce with the
world. When all psychomotor reactions to the stimuli of
external environment cease we sleep. We sleep because
we are no longer interested to take an active part in the
battle of life. From a teleological standpoint we may
say that sleep is a dismissal of the external world with
all its vicissitudes, troubles, and pains. We cease to de-
sire, we cease to react, and we sleep and dream in peace."
As Heraclitus puts it : "Those who are awake have one
world in common; those who are asleep retire every one
to a private world of his own."

We have further shown that sleep is brought about
"by a mass of impressions possessing little or no vari-
ability, by limitations, or by relative withdrawal of stimu-
lations, or, what is the same, by monotony of stimula-

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FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER

tions and by limitations of voluntary movements." The
thresholds in regard to stimuli coming from the external
environment are raised, that is — it becomes more and
more difficult for external stimuli to reach consciousness ;
the person, or the animal falls into sleep. The hold on
external life is gone, there is complete relaxation, both
physical and mental. The sleeper reacts neither with
muscle, nor with sense, nor with intellect to the various
impressions that come crowding on him from all sides.
The hold on external life is relinquished and the state is
one of passivity and relaxation.

The sudden release or relief from a great strain is
apt to make people laugh at the least occasion. In wars
and forced marches where there are great strain and
danger soldiers have been known to laugh at the most
trivial accident and remark. In school, in the lecture
room, in court, in the popular assembly, in church any
trivial incident calls forth laughter. The more dignified
the surroundings are, the more solemn the circumstances,
the more will the trivial appeal to us as ridiculous. On
such occasions the mind is tuned to the serious, and there
is a subexcitement of potential, subconscious, reserve
energy which is stimulated to life in order to respond to
the occasion. When the trivial appears the strain of the
immense amount of subexcited, subconscious, nervous
energy is relieved, the amount of energy overflows the
smaller muscles of the face and of respiration, the
tension is relieved, and the result is laughter. This is
akin to Spencer's view of laughter that it is the relief of
a strain, and also to that of Kant, who maintains that
"Laughter is the result of expectation which suddenly
ends in nothing." We may lay it down as a law that
relief from a great strain is an important aid to laughter.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

That is why often a flat remark made by a dull school-
master or by a heavy-witted professor in the college room
excites laughter — it is the relief from the strain of the
schoolroom.

Similarly a trifling incident in a church, such as the
bark of a dog or the sneeze of the minister or of one of
the congregation in the middle of a solemn hymn, excites
smiles and laughter. There is the contrast of the solemn
and the insignificant, the superior and the inferior, the ex-
cellent and the base. There is relief from a strenuous
state and release of subconscious energy adjusted and
tuned to a high occasion, energy no longer needed, now
spent in free activity of joy, overflowing the small, deli-
cate muscles of face and respiration, and manifested as
smiles and laughter. A situation that brings about relief
of a psycho-physiological state of high tension appears
as contrast giving rise to laughter and the ludicrous. We
may, therefore, lay it down as a law that the significant
and the insignificant, the noble and the ignoble, the
grave and the gay, the heroic and the grotesque, the un-
usual and the usual, the superior and the inferior, when
juxtaposed, raise laughter.

In the ludicrous and the comic we let go the earnest-
ness, the seriousness of life; we get free from the limi-
tations and the harassing hindrances of the external
world — business, work, trade is forgotten. The mo-
notony of the humdrum routine of life is left behind.
When we are no longer in contact with the actual facts,
as far as our interests are concerned, we are let loose
from all rules, laws, regulations, manners, and customs
to which we have to conform. We rise above the re-
quirements of life. With an activity unimpeded by the
conditions of the external environment, unclogged by the

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FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER

hard, material facts of daily life, we are freed from the
bondage of authority and control. The external world
with its hard, unwieldy realities no longer troubles us.
We become free agents. We soar in the air of spiritual
freedom, ease, grace, and power of superabundance of
energy. We bask in the light and the warmth of the
joyous, smiling ethereal energy radiating from the
depths of our spirit. We laugh as we watch the sparkle,
the rainbow colors, the kaleidoscopic display of rising
and bursting of resplendent bubbles playing above the
ocean of life.

In comedy and laughter there is a letting go of the
realities of life; there is present a relaxation from the
persistent concentration on the problems which life sets
before us; there is relief from the seriousness, irksome-
ness, and grinding demanded by the authoritative, de-
spotic decrees of the autocracy of the external environ-
ment ; there is a liberation from the limiting, controlling,
regulating social surroundings. We spin and weave airy
webs out of severe, inflexible realities, and destroy them
like soap bubbles, like gossamer and cobweb, with a smile
and a laugh. We take liberties with stern realities, cir-
cumvent them, transcend them, play with them, and laugh
at them. As in a dream, or, rather, in a day reverie, we
are no longer at the mercy of the external world. We
spin the yarn or web of life as fancy and caprice please.
In this respect the play of the comic and the life of dream
and reverie are alike.

There is, however, an important difference between
the comic and the dream. The dream is an inconsistent
rambling due to the lagging, sluggishness, and gradual
loss of tenacity of mental power; it is like the tottering
walk, the incoherent speech and thought of the drunkard.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

The dream is a fanciful weaving of the mind due to
mental paralysis and dissociation of consciousness.
Dreams and reveries are due to the feeble grasp on
the shuttle of active waking life. The comic, how-
ever, may even have a firmer hold on reality than
waking life; it may display a wider view and deeper
understanding of the complications and snarls presented
to us by external surroundings. In the comic as in art
we let our fancy work untrammeled by hard reality and
oppressive social life. Our fancy works with greater
and freer ease and energy than it does in the monotony
of the tasks set to us by our daily occupations requisite
for the maintenance of life. The sordid requirements
of life no longer concern us. We enjoy the life of the
free. Like the gods on Olympus, we laugh from the very
joy of the sense of freedom. Laughter is born of sur-
charge of power, of superabundance of energy.

When there is manifestation of reserve energy where
none has been expected then laughter comes to the fore-
ground. We laugh the triumphant, jubilant laughter
when ease, facility, dexterity, and grace emerge out of
difficulty, awkwardness, and perplexity. The sense of the
ridiculous, on the contrary, appears, when awkwardness,
perplexity, and uneasiness arise where ease and facility
are expected. We laugh from surcharge of energy, and
we laugh from the opposite state in cases where such
energy is found wanting. We laugh from strength and
we laugh at weakness. Laughter arises from the sense of
freedom of mental activities. We laugh from conscious-
ness of our superior power when we see the weakness of
the inferior.

When there is actual delight in the inferiority, in the
humiliation of another person, ridicule passes into the

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FREEDOM AND LAUGHTER

lower forms of sneering, sarcasm, scoffing, and jeering.
The obscene and scurrilous joke belongs also to the
lower forms of mental activities, inasmuch as the obscene
takes delight in the humiliation of the person ridiculed,
stimulates the sexual instinct, and arouses sexual energy.
Many such obscene jokes are found in Shakespeare,
especially in his comedy, "Measure for Measure," the
plot of which is laid in Vienna, full of vice, licentious-
ness, lewdry, and bawdry, the very city in which Freud,
by the irony of fate, centuries afterward, developed his
"scientific" sexual theories. However the case may be,
it remains true that laughter arises from the conscious-
ness of our superiority.

CHAPTER X

THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

The sense of the ridiculous, taking its origin in laugh-
ter at what is regarded as weakness and defects, may
develop in its gradual transformation, as it is becoming
more and more complex with the growth of personality
and individuality. When we pierce the illusions of life
which are maintained with the whole force of religious
and social sanctions, we laugh and see the ridiculous in
the unreality of social relations. We laugh at what is
regarded as all-important reality. We laugh at illusions
which are taken seriously as realities. The requirements
of social conventionalities impose illusions on us which
we regard as realities, which are worshiped as idols and
divinities. The disillusionment with social life played as
with stern reality is the domain of the comic in the higher
sphere of human culture. Beginning with the child that
makes merry at the game of imitation and make-believe,
and ending with Aristophanes, Lucian, Voltaire, and
Moliere, who laugh and make the observers roar at the
make-believe of the play of adults in social, political, re-
ligious, and family life, we find the same state of laugh-
ter at disillusionment of what is regarded as stern reality.
We laugh at the real unreality or unreal reality. To
quote from Schopenhauer :

Oh, for some Asmodeus of morality, to make not only
roofs and walls transparent to his favorites, but also to lift

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

the veil of dissimulation, fraud, hypocrisy, pretence, false-
hood and deception, which is spread over all things! To
show how little true honesty there is in the world, and how
often, even where it is least to be expected, behind all the
exterior outwork of virtue, secretly and in the innermost
recesses, unrighteousness sits at the helm! It is just on
this account that so many men of the better kind have
four-footed friends: for, to be sure, how is a man to get
relief from the endless dissimulation, falsity and malice of
mankind, if there were no dogs into whose honest faces
he could look without distrust?

For what is our civilized world but a big masquerade?
where you meet knights, priests, soldiers, men of learning,
barristers, clergymen, philosophers, and I don't know what
all! But they are not what they pretend to be; they are
only masks, and, as a rule, behind the masks you will find
money-makers. One man, I suppose, puts on the mask
of law, which he has borrowed for the purpose from a
barrister, only in order to be able to give another man a
sound drubbing; a second has chosen the mask of patriotism
and the public welfare with a similar intent; a third takes
religion or purity of doctrine. For all sorts of purposes,
men have often put on the mask of philosophy, and even of
philanthropy, and I know not what besides. Women have
a smaller choice. As a rule they avail themselves of the
mask of morality, modesty, domesticity, and humility. Then
there are general masks, without any particular character
attaching to them, like dominoes. They may be met with
anywhere; and of this sort are the strict rectitude, the
courtesy, the sincere sympathy, the smiling friendship, that
people profess. The whole of these masks as a rule are
merely, as I have said, a disguise for some industry, com-
merce, or speculation.

It is necessary that a man should be apprised early
in life that it is a masquerade in which he finds himself.
For otherwise there are many things which he will fail to

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

understand and put up with, nay, at which he will be com-
pletely puzzled, and that man longest of all whose heart
is made of better clay. Such, for instance, is the favor that
villainy finds; the neglect that merit, even the rarest and
the greatest, suffers at the hands of those of the same
profession; the hatred of truth and great capacity; the
ignorance of scholars in their own province; and the fact
that true wares are almost always despised and the merely
specious ones in request. Therefore let even the young
be instructed betimes that in this masquerade the apples are
of wax, the flowers of silk, the fish of pasteboard, and that
all things — yes, all things — are toys and trifles ; and that of
two men whom he may see earnestly engaged in business,
one is supplying spurious goods and the other paying for
them in false coin.

We have seen that the comic deals with disillusion-
ment of what is regarded as stern reality, with disen-
chantment of the false glories of life, with the bringing
down of the sham superior to the level of the inferior,
with the revelation of defects where dignity and per-
fection were believed to exist. The school boy makes
game of his master, and the subject finds amusement in
the anecdotes about the king, the monarch, and the auto-
crat. The higher, the more dignified and commanding
the personages, the greater the comic effect when ridicule
is directed against them. The high are humbled, their
greatness is shown to be a snare and delusion. This
brings us face to face with the most essential and char-
acteristic of human failings which often form the theme
of the ridiculous, namely, conceit, simulation, and
vanity. As Schopenhauer tersely puts it: "Nothing is
of greater moment to man than the gratification of his
vanity, and no wound is more painful than that which is
inflicted on it."

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

There are people who are so intensely subjective, so
morbidly introspective, that their only interest and atten-
tion are concentrated on themselves. "They always
think," says Schopenhauer, "of their own case as soon
as any remark is made. Their whole attention is en-
grossed and absorbed by the merest chance reference
which appears to affect them personally, be it never so
remote. The outcome is that they are totally unable of
forming any true objective view of things. They cannot
admit any validity in arguments which tell against their
interests or their vanity. They are so touchy, so readily
offended, insulted or annoyed that no matter how imper-
sonal the matter of discussion may be you must be ex-
tremely careful of your remarks which may possibly hurt
the tender feelings of those worthy and sensitive indi-
viduals. . . . Fine, subtle and witty sayings as well
as true and striking observations are lost upon them.
But they are most tenderly sensitive to anything that may
in the slightest way disturb their petty vanity or may
reflect prejudicially in the most remote and indirect way
on their exceedingly precious selves. They resemble the
little dog upon whose toes you are apt to tread inadvert-
ently ; you know it by the shrill bark the little cur sets up ;
they resemble the sick man covered with wounds and boils
who must be handled with great care."

In vanity the person displays before others external
advantages, such as wealth, titles, nobility, office, or some
other external possessions by which he wishes to indicate
his superiority over his fellows. In conceit the person
claims to be of superior nature, having some artistic, in-
tellectual, moral, and physical virtues not possessed by
his fellow beings; his superiority is one of personality,
of body, of mind, or of both. In his comedy, "Much

85

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Ado About Nothing," Shakespeare plays with vanity
and conceit as manifested in the characters of Beatrice
and Benedict.

The noble and the ignoble, the superior and the in-
ferior, the rational and the irrational are common con-
stituents of the ludicrous. They may be contrasted in
different persons, or they may be found in the same per-
son. The abnormal hides Jn the superior or the normal,
the noble or rational covers or disguises the ignoble and
irrational. When such a relation is discovered the effect
is invariably ludicrous. The discovery of the contrast
relation of superior and inferior constitutes the art of
the comic and the power of ridicule.

The force of irony consists just in the fact that, the
inferior is described in terms of the superior. Ambiguity
of words and of thought is often used to that effect. The
normal, supernormal, or the superior is spoken of, while
the underlying suggestion is inferiority. The effect is
greater the closer the inferior is made to resemble the
superior. Irony is a form of dramatic act — the inferior
is made to mimic the superior. The more successfully
the mimicking is carried through, the more closely the
copy resembles the original, so that the two are confused
and one is taken for the other, the greater the success of
the irony as a form of ridicule.

Irony reaches its climax of success when the original
itself takes the mimicked copy of the superior with all
the indirect suggestions of inferiority as a flattering pic-
ture of itself, or rather of what it intends to appear and
is not.

The meaning of irony is dissemblance, and dissem-
bling is the force of irony. We disapprove and contemn
under the form of regard, respect and praise. Irony

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

kills with faint praise. Irony is essentially dissemblance.
We convey by it the very reverse of what we say. We
say great when we mean small; good when we mean
evil ; success when we mean failure ; wise when we mean
silly and stupid. We feign to think as the original thinks
of himself. The more closely the ideal conception of the
original is*imitated, so that the original takes it as a true
imitation of his ideal self, the more effective is the force
of the irony. The bystanders or the audience are sup-
posed to know all the while in what direction the shafts
of ridicule are thrown. The more unconscious the butt
of irony is, the more successful is the irony and the
greater is the force of ridicule.

And now, when we come to think about it, may we
not regard irony and the comic as forms of reaction to
the dissemblance, subconscious or conscious, of the origi-
nal— a dissemblance, whether hypocritical or naive, in
which the original presents himself as a true and actual
incarnation of the ideal? Irony reacts to semblance
by a conscious dissemblance in which the original is ex-
posed in its true nature to the public gaze. Irony count-
eracts semblance by dissemblance.

There is nothing so effective against vanity, the
quintessence of all human infirmities and faults, as
irony. It gives the hypocrite and the vain the praise and
the glory which they crave and adds the sting of showing
their utter worthlessness :

The qualities three that in a bee we meet —
In the ironical never should fail —

The body should always be active and sweet,
And the sting should be left in the tail.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

In all comic the climax must be present. The climax
is that which clinches the train of thought and at the
same time gives the final sting. In irony, however, the
poison of the sting runs like an undercurrent through
the body of thought; it may come out suddenly with a
lash and sting and once more plunge and disappear below
the surface. This sudden coming to the surface in the
form of a climax, leaving its sting and disappear-
ing below the surface, out of sight, is characteristic of
irony.

Excellent examples may be found in the delicate
Socratic irony. To quote from Plato's "Dialogues" :

I should like to know what you think about another
definition of temperance, which I just now remember to
have heard from someone, who said that "temperance is
doing our own business." Was he right who affirmed that?

You young monster! I said; this is what Critias, or
some philosopher, has told you.

Someone else, then, said Critias ; for certainly I have not.

But what matter, said Charmides, from whom I heard
this?

No matter at all, I replied; for the point is not who
said the words, but whether they are true or not . . .

Then, as I was just now saying, he who declared that
temperance is a man doing his own business had another
and a hidden meaning; for I do not think that he could
have been such a fool as to mean this. Was he a fool who
told you, Charmides?

Nay, he replied, I certainly thought him a very wise
man.

Then I. am quite certain that he put forth his definition
as a riddle, thinking that no one would know the meaning
of the words "doing his own business."

I dare say, he replied.

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.THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

And what is the meaning of a man doing his own
business? Can you tell me?

Indeed, I cannot; and I should not wonder if the man
himself who used this phrase did not understand what he
was saying. Whereupon he laughed slyly and looked at
Critias.

Critias had long been showing uneasiness, for he felt
that he had a reputation to maintain with Charmides and
the rest of the company. He had, however, hitherto
managed to restrain himself; but now he could no longer
forbear, and I am convinced of the truth of the suspicion
which I entertained at the time, that Charmides had heard
this answer about temperance from Critias. And Charmides,
who did not want to answer himself, but to make Critias
answer, tried to stir him up. He went on pointing out
that he had been refuted, at which Critias grew angry,
and appeared, as I thought, inclined to quarrel with him;
just as a poet might quarrel with an actor who spoiled his
poems in repeating them. . . .

In another of his "Dialogues" Plato ridicules the
Sophists :

And you and your brother, Dionysodonis, I said, of all
men who are now living are the most likely to stimulate
him to philosophy and to the study of virtue.

Yes, Socrates, I rather think that we are.

Then I wish that you would be good enough to defer
the other part of the exhibition, and only try to persuade
the youth whom you see here that he ought to be a
philosopher and study virtue. Exhibit that, and you will
confer a great favor on me and on every one present ; for
the fact is I and all of us are extremely anxious that he
should become truly good. His name is Clenias, and he
is the son of Axiochus, and grandson of the old Alcibiades,
cousin of the Alcibiades that now is. He is quite young,

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

and we are naturally afraid that someone may get the start
of us, and turn his mind in a wrong direction, and he may be
ruined. Your visit, therefore, is most happily timed; and
I hope that you will make a trial of the young man, and
converse with him in our presence, if you have no objections.

These were pretty nearly the expressions which I used ;
and Euthydemus, in a manly and at the same time encour-
aging tone, replied : There can be no objection, Socrates,
if the young man is only willing to answer questions.

He is quite accustomed to do so, I replied; for his
friends often come and ask him questions and argue with
him ; and therefore he is quite at home in answering.

What followed, Crito, how can I rightly narrate? For
not slight is the task of rehearsing infinite wisdom, and
therefore, like the poets, I ought to commence my relation
with an invocation to the Memory and the Muses. Now
Euthydemus, if I remember rightly, began nearly as follows :

0 Clenias, are those who learn the wise or the ignorant?

The youth, overpowered by the question, blushed, and
in his perplexity looked at me for help ; and I, knowing that
he was disconcerted, said: Take courage, Clenias, and
answer like a man whichever you think; for my belief is
that you will derive the greatest benefit from their questions.

Whichever he answers, said Dionysodorus, leaning for-
ward so as to catch my ear, his face beaming with laughter,

1 prophesy that he will be refuted, Socrates. . . .

At these words the followers of Euthydemus, of whom
I spoke, like a chorus at the bidding of their director,
laughed and cheered. Then before the youth had time to
recover his breath, Dionysodorus cleverly took him in hand,
and said: Yes, Clenias; and when the grammar-master
dictated anything to you, were they the wise boys or the
unlearned who learned the dictation?

The wise, replied Clenias.

Then after all the wise are the learners and not the
unlearned ; and your last answer to Euthydemus was wrong.

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

Then once more the admirers of the two heroes, in an
ecstasy at their wisdom, gave vent to another peal of
laughter, while the rest of us were silent and amazed.
Euthydemus, observing this, determined to persevere with
the youth; and in order to heighten the effect went on
asking another similar question, which might be compared
to the double turn of an expert dancer. Do those, said he,
who learn learn what they know, or what they do not
know? . . .

The word was hardly out of his mouth when Dionyso-
dorus took up the argument, like a ball which he caught,
and had another throw at the youth. Clenias, he said,
Euthydemus is deceiving you. For tell me now, is
not learning acquiring knowledge of that which one
learns ?

Euthydemus was proceeding to give the youth a third
fall; but I knew that he was in deep water, and therefore,
as I wanted to give him a respite lest he should be dis-
heartened, I said to him consolingly: You must not be
surprised, Clenias, at the singularity of their mode of
speech: this I say because you may not understand what
the two strangers are doing with you ; they are only initiat-
ing you after the manner of the Corybantes in the mysteries ;
and this answers to the enthronement, which, if you have
ever been initiated, is, as you will know, accompanied by
dancing and sport; and now they are just dancing and
prancing about you, and will next proceed to initiate you;
imagine then that you have gone through the first part of
the sophistical ritual, which, as Prodicus says, begins with
initiation into the correct use of terms.

And now, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, I think that
we have had enough of this. Will you let me see you
explaining to the young man how he is to apply himself
to the study of virtue and wisdom? And I will first show
you what I conceive to be the nature of the task, and what
sort of a discourse I desire to hear; and if I do this in a

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

very inartistic and ridiculous manner, do not laugh at me,
for I only venture to improvise before you, because I am
eager to hear your wisdom: and I must therefore ask you
and your disciples to refrain from laughing.

This is in the vein of the subtle Socratic irony.

A few specimens of biting irony passing into sarcasm
in which the lash of ridicule is more evident may be
taken from the writings of Pascal :

The mind of the greatest man in the world is not so
independent of circumstances as to prevent his being dis-
turbed by the most insignificant noise. The report of a
cannon is not requisite to break the chain of his thoughts;
the creaking of a weather-cock or of a pulley will suffice.
Why should you be surprised that he cannot reason well
just now? How, let me ask, is he to put his thoughts to-
gether, as long as that fly is buzzing about his ears? If
you wish him to find out the truth, pray drive away the
insect that holds his reason in check, and disturbs that
powerful understanding which governs cities and kingdoms.

Why do you murder me ? A strange question ! Do you
not live on the other side of the water? If you lived on
this side, my good Sir, I should indeed be an assassin for
killing you; but you live on the other side: I am acting,
therefore, like a man of honor, and everything is as it
should be.

Cromwell was on the point of overturning all Christen-
dom ; the royal family would have been ruined, and his own
permanently established, if a small piece of gravel had not
lodged in his ureter. Rome herself was ready to tremble
before him, but this small grain, of no consequence else-
where, stopping in this particular part, he dies, his family
are reduced, and the king is restored.

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

Pascal ridicules the importance of human affairs and
the greatness of historical events :

Whoever would fully measure the vanity of human life
must consider the causes and the effects of the passion of
love. If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter the whole
face of the earth would have been different.

There is not only a slight on the royal personages
playing such important roles in historical life of mankind,
but also on the assumed importance of the historical
events themselves. The ridicule is brought about by the
play on the nose of Cleopatra and the face of the earth.

We may quote from Schopenhauer a few caustic re-
marks in which irony throws off its disguise and the chas-
tisement of ridicule appears in full force, passing into
strong, frank, blunt satire.

Should your opponent expressly challenge you to pro-
duce any objection to some definite point in his argument,
and you have nothing much to say, you must try to give the
matter a general turn, and then talk against that. If you
are called upon to say why a particular physical hypothesis
cannot be accepted, you may speak of the infallibility of
human knowledge, and give various illustrations of it.

If you know that you have no reply to the arguments
which your opponent advances, you may, by a fine stroke of
irony, declare yourself to be an incompetent judge : "What
you now say passes my poor powers of comprehension;
it may be all very true, but I can't understand it, and I
refrain from any expression of opinion on it." In this
way you insinuate to the bystanders, with whom you are
in good repute, that what your opponent says is nonsense.

When we come to look into the matter, so-called uni-
versal opinion is the opinion of two or three persons.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Goethe says somewhere that man is not without a vein
of veneration. To satisfy this impulse to venerate, even
in those who have no sense for what is really worthy,
substitutes are provided in the shape of princes and princely
families, nobles, titles, orders, and money-bags.

As a specimen of irony on American bigotry and
religious revivalism we may take the following sermon :

I may say to you, my brethring, that I am not an edicated
man an* I am not one of them as believes that edication
is necessary for a gospel minister, for I believe the Lord
edicates his preachers jest as he wants 'em to be edicated:
an' although I say it that oughtn't to say it, yet in the state
of Indianny, whar I live, thar's no man as gits bigger
congregations nor what I gits.

Thar may be some here to-day, my brethring, as don't
know what persuasion I am uv. Well I must say to you,
my brethring, that I'm a Hard Shell Baptist. Thar's some
folks as don't like the Hard Shell Baptists, but I'd rather
have a hard shell as no shell at all. You see me here to-day,
my brethring, dressed up in fine clothes; you mout think
I was proud, my brethring, and although I've been a preacher
of the gospel for twenty years an' although I'm capting
of the flatboat that lies at your landing I'm not proud, my
brethring.

I am not gwine to tell edzactly whar my tex may be
found ; suffice to say, it's in the leds of the Bible, and you'll
find it somewhar between the first chapter of the book of
Generations and the last chapter of the book of Revolutions,
and ef you'll go and search the Scriptures, you'll not only
find my tex thar, but a great many other texes as will do
you good to read, and my tex, when you shill find it, you
shill find it to read thus:

"And he played on a harp uv a thousand strings — sperits
uv jest men made perfeck."

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THE LUDICROUS AND THE INFERIOR

My tex, my brethring, leads me to speak of sperits.
Now, thar's a great many kinds of sperits in the world —
in the fuss place, thar's the sperits as some folks call ghosts,
and thar's the sperits uv turpentine, and thar's the sperits
as some folks call liquor, an' I've got as good an artikel
of them kind of sperits on my flatboat as ever was fotch
down the Mississippi River; but thar's a great many other
kinds of sperits, for the tex says, "He played on a harp uv a
t-h-o-u-s-and strings, sperits uv jest men made perfeck."

But I'll tell you the kind uv sperits as is ment in the
tex, is fire. That's the kind uv sperits as is ment in the
tex, my brethring. Now thar's a great many kinds of fire
in the world. In the fuss place thar's the common kind
of fire you light your cigar or pipe with, and then thar's
foxfire and campfire, fire before you're ready, and fire
and fall back, and many other kinds uv fire, for the tex
says, "He played on the harp of a thousand strings, sperits
uv jest men made perfeck."

But I'll tell you the kind of fire as is ment in the tex,
my brethring — it's Hell Fire! an' that's the kind uv fire as
a great many uv you'll come to, ef you don't do better nor
what you have been doin' — for "He played on a harp uv
a thousand strings, sperits uv jest men made perfeck."

Now, the different sorts of fire in the world may be
likened unto the different persuasions of the Christians in
the world. In the first place we have the Piscapalions,
an' they are a high sailin' and high-falutin' set, and they
may be likened unto a turkey buzzard, that flies up into
the air, and he goes up, and up, and up, till he looks no
bigger than your finger nail, and the fust thing you know,
he cums down, and is a fillin' himself on the carkiss of a
dead hoss by the side of the road and "He played on a harp
uv a thousand strings, sperits uv jest men made perfeck."

And then thar's the Methodis, and they may be likened
unto the squirril runnin' up into a tree, for the Methodis
beleeves in gwine on from one degree to another, and finally

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

on to perfection, and the squirril goes up and up, and up
and up, and he jumps from limb to limb, and branch to
branch, and the fust thing you know he falls, and down he
cums kerflumix, and that's like the Methodis, for they is
alters fallen from grace, ah ! and "He played on a harp uv a
thousand strings, sperits uv jest men made perfeck."

And then, my brethring, thar's the Baptist, ah ! and they
have been likened unto a possum on a 'simmon tree, and
thenders may roll and the earth may quake, but that possum
clings thar still, ah! and you may shake one foot loose,
and the other's thar, and you may shake all feet loose, and
he laps his tail around the limb, and clings and he clings
furever, for "He played on the harp uv a thousand strings,
sperits uv jest men made perfeck."

This close imitation of the conceit, vanity, ignorance,
and stupidity of itinerant preachers is an excellent irony
on the type of sermons delivered at American religious
camps and revival meetings.

Another example of irony keyed to a higher pitch
may be taken from Swift's immortal "Gulliver's
Travels":

The emperors of Blefuscu did frequently expostulate
by their ambassadors, accusing us of making a schism in
religion, by offending against a fundamental doctrine of
our great prophet Lustrog in the fifty-fourth chapter of the
Blundecral (which is their Al-Koran). This, however, is
thought to be a mere strain upon the text; for the words
are these: that all true believers shall break their eggs at
the convenient end.

This bit of irony on the stupid trivialities of religious
dogmas is a stroke of genius.

CHAPTER XI
VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

In vanity, conceit, and excessive pride generally su-
perior qualities, virtues, and merits are claimed by the
persons affected by such mental states. Such persons act
as superiors in regard to other people who have as yet to
find out whether such superiority is real, and whether
there is any substance to it, or whether it is all but a
shadow. The very doubt that arises in the mind of the
beholder as to the reality of such claims and, therefore,
appropriateness of such behavior predisposes to the pos-
sibility of ridicule. The claims of superiority may turn
out to be but a false idea, a sort of delusion. The person
affected by illusory claims shows weakness, defects. He
is regarded as living below the normal, thus becoming
an object of ridicule.

Persons that claim superiority must also meet with
a response, inasmuch as the superiority is related to a
state of inferiority in other people. Now few would
care to be subject to a state of inferiority, unless there
is sufficient cause and reason. Wherever, therefore,
claims of superiority are put forward there is a possibility
for laughter and derision. This is especially true in the
case of vanity. The vain person is anxious for the ap-
proval and recognition of his superiority by his neighbor.
As soon, however, as the neighbor becomes aware of the
fact that his recognition is looked for he immediately

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feels his superiority over the vain person. The tables
are thus turned and the subject of vanity becomes an
object of ridicule.

Conceit and pride have an exaggerated ego for their
foundation. The self-complacency, the extreme selfish-
ness, and often the disregard of other persons' wishes,
desires, sufferings, and aspirations deprive the vain of
all sympathy, and hence they become fit objects of the
comic wit who can see through the hollo wness of their
claims. The vain and conceited are greedy for other
people's opinions and praise. No sooner is this depen-
dence discovered than they become the playthings of their
neighbors' game. The neighbors become conscious that
all these proud and vain peacocks display ostentatiously
their gorgeous tails for the edification and amusement
of their acquaintances. The vain and the conceited be-
come dependent on those whom they regard as inferior
and fall below the level of the very people whom they
affect to despise — they are humiliated by their would-be
inferiors — the game is turned against them.

As soon as the inferiors refuse to acknowledge them-
selves as being on a lower level, as soon as they refuse to
bow before the alleged superiority, and repudiate all
claims of illusive paramount excellence, as soon as the
vain person is not recognized and even regarded as super-
cilious, he who struts about in a self-devised cloak of
honor, in a cloud of glory, becomes an object of derision,
jest, and ridicule. That is why all ceremonies, solemni-
ties, manners, and mannerisms whether of church, state,
office, title, rank, sect, class, or caste become vulnerable as
soon as their vain pomposity is exhibited to the view of
the people whom they wish to cast under the spell of their
superior charms, virtues, and merits. The charm is dis-

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

pelled by a joke and a laugh. The delusions of grandeur
and conceit are dispersed by rays of smiles and laughter.

The comic effects become more intensified by the fact
that, although vanity, conceit, and pride, with their man-
nerisms and ceremonies, are consciously displayed for
the benefit of the external observers so as to obtain their
admiration and thus make them feel their inferior posi-
tion, there is another side to it, namely, the unconscious-
ness of the attitude taken by the actors in the play. The
people, after all, may not be impressed by the superior
airs and may regard the whole situation as a form of
horse play.

The vain person is not conscious of his vanity and
'does not realize that other people see through his motives
and understand the pettiness of his condition and de-
pendence of his position on the good will of his neighbor.
The selfishness and self-glorification of the conceited and
proud man prevent him from understanding his supposed
inferiors and exclude him from sympathy with the lives
and motives of his fellow men. This lack of understand-
ing and sympathy produces not only an antagonism, but
also a lack of comprehension of the feelings and effects
of the esteem and respect after which the vain and con-
ceited so ardently strive. Hence many of their actions
appear in the eyes of the outside world as lacking in
adjustment to circumstances. Their striking attitudes
are regarded as inferior and are met with laughter and
ridicule.

The governing classes in plutocratic societies are spe-
cially apt to be affected by the malady of vanity and con-
ceit. The purse-proud parvenu is, therefore, an inex-
haustible theme for the comic writer. Aristotle in his
Rhetoric gives an excellent description of the rich upstart,

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

a psychological description which furnishes the reason
why the rich man is exposed to ridicule.

Anyone, without any great penetration, may distinguish
the disposition consequent on wealth; for (its possessors)
are insolent and overbearing, from being tainted in a certain
way by the getting of their wealth. For they are affected
as though they possessed every good ; since wealth is a sort
of standard of the worth of other things; whence every-
thing seems to be purchasable by it. And they are affect-
edly delicate and purse-proud; they are thus delicate on
account of their luxurious lives, and the display they make
of their prosperity. They are purse-proud, and violate the
rules of good breeding, from the circumstance that every
one is wont to dwell upon that which is beloved and ad-
mired by him, and because they think that others are emu-
lous of that, of which they are themselves. But at the
same time they are thus affected reasonably enough; for
many are they who need the aid of men of property.
Whence, too, that remark of Simonides addressed to the
wife of Hiero respecting the wealthy and wise; for when
she asked him, "whether it were better to have been born
wealthy or wise," he replied "wealthy ; for," he said, "he used
to see the wise hanging on at the doors of the wealthy."
And (it is a characteristic of the rich) that they esteem
themselves worthy of being in office; for they consider
themselves possessed of that on account of which they are
entitled to be in office. And, in a word, the disposition of
the rich is that of a fool amid prosperity.

The unconsciousness of their shallowness, vacancy,
and frivolity makes the vain and conceited persons spe-
cially weak in the eyes of their neighbors. Faults and
defects are unconsciously displayed for the amusement
of the world. What makes their condition all the lower
and hence more ludicrous is the fact that the very defects

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

are paraded as virtues of which the possessors are so
conceitedly proud. The weakness and the inferiority
become all the more prominent as the vain person re-
mains under the illusion that the neighbor takes his
weakness for strength and his defects for excelling vir-
tues. This illusion of his belief in his own strength, and
the delusion that his neighbor is under the same illusion,
make the position of the vain and conceited person all
the more ludicrous. One cannot help agreeing with
Schopenhauer :

The only genuine superiority is that of the mind and
character ; all other kinds are fictitious, affected, false ; and
it is good to make them feel that it is so, when they try
to show off before the superiority that is true.

And still, while vanity, conceit, and false pride form
the material of many a comical situation, and many a
comic writer has utilized these failings of human nature
as subjects for his work, these states are by no means
the only factors that call down ridicule upon their pos-
sessors. They are the streams that come from the source
of all human ridicule — the inner inferiority of what is
regarded as superior and excellent, and the recognition
of the unreality of what is believed as an excelling form
of reality. However the case may be, it remains true
that play with the realities of life, now regarding the
realities as illusions, now detecting the illusions regarded
as realities and making merry over them and rising su-
perior to them, will ever remain the subject of the comic.
To laugh at the infirmities of human nature, to prick so-
cial, moral, religious, and family bubbles and see them
explode will ever remain the joy and the essence of the
ludicrous. The comic in all ages and in all societies, as

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well as in all stages of human development, will always
consist in the play with the apparently contrasting, con-
tradictory combinations of the superior and inferior, the
real and the unreal, the actual and the illusory.

This brings out another important element in the
play of the ridiculous. We do not laugh at material,
inanimate objects, inasmuch as we cannot find there any
superiority or inferiority. We rarely laugh at land-
scapes, or at scenery, or at material objects in general.
Wherever we find such laughter we always discover that
we presuppose some agency behind the ludicrous. We
may laugh at some illusions made for us by somebody or
by some tricks of sleight of hand, but they all represent
the work or presence of some human activity. We may
laugh at some animal and its tricks. This is brought
about by our imagining the presence of some human
agency.

We may laugh at animals transformed by artificial
human taste and the deformities brought about in them
under the belief of a greater improvement and enhance-
ment of the beautiful. We may laugh at animals when
we imagine something working in them similar to the
human spirit. This is done only in so far as we hu-
manize them and demand of the brute creation a certain
standard. We laugh at the tricks of a pig, of a horse, of
an elephant, or of a monkey, because we can easily
imagine them to come near the individuality of man.

Again, an animal in an unnatural position or when
put under some unusual conditions making it look clumsy,
awkward, and below the ease and freedom of adjust-
ment characteristic of the species will be regarded as
ridiculous. Thus a dog drinking beer and becoming
unsteady and frisky, pigs eating decayed grapes and be-

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

coming intoxicated and wobbly on their legs remind one
of the maladjustments of a drunkard and are objects of
laughter. People may have a fit of uproarious laughter
on seeing a pig with a tin can on his snout. The tin can
on the hog's snout, the squealing, the helpless running
about, the contortions of his whole body, all that makes
the crowd roar with laughter. What is funny to the
crowd is the condition of the hog, his inferior state of
adjustment, his helplessness, his inability to get rid of
the tin can. Such a helpless state is regarded as ludi-
crous because of the association, though vague and sub-
conscious, with the ludicrousness of man under similar
circumstances. Clumsiness, awkwardness, and helpless-
ness in harmless struggle are ludicrous in man, and by
transference are ludicrous in animals.

We may remind the reader of the ludicrousness of
the man and the woman in the nursery tale which repre-
sents them with sausages sticking to their noses. In the
comic the factor of personification plays an important
part. Things and objects are laughed at in proportion
as they are personified and found inferior to the average
accepted animal, and more especially human standard.
We may formulate the law of transference : When ob-
jects, situations, and persons appear ridiculous, any
other similar objects^ situations, and persons appear ri-
diculous by association. Like waves in a liquid, laughter
travels and spreads by the process of transference. An
animal dressed up in man's clothing appears to many
people an object of laughter; a hog in a night cap is an
object of ridicule. The reason is that when we see a pig
dressed we think of a man reduced to the inferior place
of the pig. We get a mental picture of a hog-man. A
man seen on the street in a night cap is regarded as

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

placed in an inferior position because of the unusual
sight and association of the night cap with weakness,
sleep, and helplessness, but a hog under such circum-
stances is laughed at because we think of man being
ludicrous with a night cap on. The ludicrous effect is
intensified as the hog emphasizes the inferiority of the
situation.

Jacobs, the English humorist, brings about ludicrous
effects in a story of a captain who drank away his clothes
and who had to appear before his crew and the people on
the deck in the garments of a woman. Even the great
Shakespeare does not hesitate to utilize a similar situa-
tion to amuse his public. In his "Merry Wives of Wind-
sor" Shakespeare puts Falstaff in a ludicrous position
in having him escape the wrath of the husbands by
dressing him in the garments of an old woman. We
can well see the reason why such a situation appears
ludicrous to the crowd of spectators. For, besides the
fact that use and custom are against men being dressed
in feminine attire, the awkwardness and clumsiness of
the fit and the way the dress is handled by a man unused
to it add considerably to the ludicrous effect.

Above all, however, a woman is associated in the pop-
ular mind with weakness and inferiority, and a man in
woman's dress awakens associations of weakness and ef-
feminacy. A man in a woman's dress calls up the image
of a woman, and by association the image of woman
forms the compound of man-woman, an effeminate man.
The inferior situation of the person becomes an object of
ridicule. Thus we find that the law of personification and
the principle of transference play an important role in the
creations of the comic. The ludicrous is essentially hu-
man, and by the principle of transference is carried into

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

ever higher and more complex spheres and relations. At
the basis, however, of all the ludicrous we find present
relations of inferiority. A series of examples in which
the inferiority of bad habits or of defective intelligence,
misapprehension, ignorance, or moral baseness is pointed
out will best illustrate our point:

"Well, Pat, my lad," said the kindly doctor, "you must
drink this stuff. I'm afraid it's a case of kill or cure with
you now, my lad."

"Well, I don't care if it kills me, so long as it cures me
in the end," said Pat. "Gimme the bottle."

"What you need, madam, is oxygen. Once every after-
noon for your inhalations. They will cost you $4.00 each."

"I know that other doctor didn't understand my case,"
declared the fashionable patient. "He told me all I needed
was plain fresh air."

An Irishman was once serving in a regiment in India.
Not liking the climate, Pat tried to evolve a trick by which
he could get home. Accordingly he went to the doctor and
complained that his eyesight was bad. The doctor looked at
him for a while and then said :

"How can you prove to me that your eyesight is bad?"

Pat looked about the room and at last said: "Well,
Doctor, you see that nail on the wall?"

"Yes," replied the doctor.

"Well, then," said Pat, "I can't."

The British Medical Journal selects a few of the most
amusing blunders made by applicants for life insurance :

Mother died in infancy.

Father went to bed feeling well and next morning woke
up dead.

Applicant has never been fatally sick.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Father died suddenly; nothing serious.

Grandfather died from gunshot wound caused by an
arrow shot by an Indian.

Mother's last illness was chronic rheumatism, but she
was cured before death.

Said the gentleman who had been reading birth and
death statistics: "Do you know, James, that every time
I breathe a man dies?"

"Then," said James, "why don't you chew cloves?''

"I don't like your heart action," the doctor said, applying
the stethoscope again. "You have had some trouble with
angina pectoris."

"You're partly right" said the young man, sheepishly,
"only that ain't her name."

"Is the man dangerously wounded?" asked the police
sergeant.

"Two of the wounds are mortal," replied the Irish
surgeon, "but the third can be cured, provided the man keeps
strictly quiet for at least six weeks."

An Irish traveler who loved tenderly his wife and
his children once declared with enthusiasm that the best
thing about going away from home was getting back again !

"Oi congratulate yez, Moik; it's a father I hear yez
do be."

"Sure, an' it's two fathers Oi'm afther bein'. It's twins,
b-gorry."

The following verses bring out well the relation of
inferiority present in ridicule:

At a tavern one night
Messrs. More, Strange, and Wright
Met, good cheer and good thoughts to exchange.
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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

Says More, "Of us three

The whole town will agree
There is only one knave, and that's Strange!"

"Yet," says Strange, rather sore,

"I'm sure there's one More,
A most terrible knave, and a bite,

Who cheated his mother,

His sister, and brother."
"Oh, yes/' replied More, "that is Wright."

"When Mr. Casey died he left all he had to the orphan
asylum."

"Indeed! That was nice of him. What did he leave?"
"His twelve children."

An Irishman gave his advice to an English friend:
"Wherever you see a head, hit it !"

A peasant, undersized but wrathful, and with his
shillelagh grasped threateningly in his hand, was going
about the fair asking, "Who struck Buckley? Show me
the man who struck Buckley?" But when a stalwart and
dangerous looking man stepped forward, saying, " 'Twas I,"
the little peasant looked and said more quietly, "Well, afther
all perhaps Buckley desarved it."

"Phwat koind of a wreck wor it, Pat?" queried Larry
after a railway accident.

"Th' conductor said it wor tilliscope," replied Pat.

"A tilliscope?" said Larry. "Bedad, Oi guess that's phoy
Oi seen so many stars."

"Why do thim false eyes be made of glass, now ?" asked
Mike.

"Sure, an' how else could they say throo' 'em, ye thick-
head?" answered Pat.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

'That a blessing it is," said Pat, "that night never comes
on till late in the day, when a man is all toired out, and he
could not work any more, at all, at all, even if it was morn-
ing!"

An astronomer was trying to explain to an Irishman
that the earth is round but Pat would not believe it. After
some discussion the astronomer said, "Now where does the
sun rise?"

"In the east," said Pat.

"And where does it set?"

"Sure, in the west."

"Then how does the sun manage to get back to the
east?"

Pat scratched his head for a few seconds and looked
perplexed. At last his face lighted up, and he shouted
triumphantly: "Sure, sir, it slips back in the dark."

"I don't know that you're the man whose name is on
this check," said the bank cashier. "You'll have to be
identified before I can give you the money."

"Oidentifoyed, is it?" replied Pat. "Sure, thin, cast yer
eye on this bit of fotygraf, an' ye'll see that it's meself en-
toirely."

"Oi'd like a job wid ye, sor," said an Irishman to a
foreman in a factory.

"Well, I don't know. There isn't much doing just at
present. I don't think I could keep you busy," said the
foreman.

"Indade, sor," answered Pat, in a reassuring tone, "it 'ull
take very little to kape me busy."

" 'Tis a fine picther you have of the old man, it is," said
an Irishwoman to her neighbor, who had just been left a
widow.

"Isn't it?" replied the widow. "It is thot natural yez can
almost hear him swear."

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

The principle of blending may be pointed out here.
This consists in the procedure of blending the superior
and the inferior into such an inextricable mesh that the
two cannot be separated. Instead of sharply contrasting
the light and shade of the superior and of the inferior
the two are so united that they appear to form a whole.
The base and the mean are interconnected with the good
and the excellent. As a matter of fact, the superior and
the inferior are not entirely blended. Now the one, now
the other appears to view and suddenly disappears. There
is rapid kaleidoscopic change of the great and the little,
of the low and the high. The law of interchange is
really operative here, but in such way that there is rapid
change from the high to the low and from the base to
the good, so that the whole movement appears to the
mental eye as one continuous whole in which the constitu-
ent elements are intimately blended. The base is ex-
pressed in terms of the pure and the noble, while the lofty
and the good are debased and degraded. The whole, in
order to appear ludicrous, must give the immediate im-
pression of inferiority. In fact, in order to convey the
ludicrous aspect of the whole, the suggestion of inferi-
ority must be evident and overwhelming. The follow-
ing negro sermon (by W. H. Levison) may be taken as
a fair example of the workings of the law of blending in
the domain of the ludicrous :

Deluded Lams, you will find my tex for dis ebenin in
de Lemontations ob Solomon Moore, de Poet, when he
sat down on a cold frosty nite and tort on de coldness ob
his world. It am in very blank wors and reads dus :

I nebber hab

A piece of bread, nicely buttered
O're, but jis as I was a gwane
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

To take a bite, it fell swat on de

Floor, and always butter side

Down.

My frens, dar's no use denieing it, dis world am a de-
ceitful tretcherous back biting world, an sometimes I tink
I will jis role up my slebes and take hold ob de but end
ob it and reform it alto gedder; but den web I see how
berry little progress Brudders Greely and Beecher hab
made towards it, I git as sick as de monkey who eat up de
segar, ob de job, and I refrain, and sing off de notion.
Dis-appointment am jis as sure to follow a feller in dis
life as an unpaid washwoman; and jis as you tink your
prospecks am brightest, and you got ebery ting cut and
dried for success in it, sumfin steps up and laffs you out ob
temper, or else sets you a blubberin' in dispair, and you
can no more avert it than you can coax a hungry hog from
a pail ob swill by showing him a dogseartype likeness ob
he gran f adder. We got to take it, jis like de meezles, de
small pox, and de shingles.

My frens, we can no more understand de ways ob
Providence, dan a cow understands de signboards along
de raleroad, warning her to "look out for de locomotif,"
and we heed what little we do know about as much as a
bullefant wood de barking ob a whiffit pup. But some ob
dese days dis whiffit, dat you disdain so much, will turn into
de bullefant, and de fust ting you know he will swat you
on de coconut wid he trunk and smash you down. Den,
when you am prostitute on a bed ob sickness, you will turn
up de wites ob you eyes, like an egg in a pot of coffee, and
say, "Oh ! dat I had heeded de barkin of Providence !"

The good intentions, the religious feelings, the en-
thusiasm and moral earnestness are all interwoven with
the most inapt and inappropriate illustrations, while the
whole sermon is put in a ludicrous light by the marked

no

VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

negro dialect. The sermon presents a blending of the
good and the base expressed in a mean, ignoble form.

In his story "A Piece of Red Calico" Stockton pre-
sents the ludicrous character of a man who tries to match
a piece of red calico for his wife. Such an insignificant
affair in the eyes of an ordinary mortal is found to be
accompanied with petty, insurmountable difficulties which
begin to pile as the poor man keeps on chasing after his
piece of calico and is finally glad to get away with any-
thing he can obtain. Starting out with some trivial trifle
the apparent insignificance grows in extensity and inten-
sity, expands in magnitude and dimension and finally col-
lapses like an overblown bubble. This is the principle of
accumulation, in fact, we may term the mechanism of
this form of the jocose as the bubble of absurdity.

As another example of the bubble of absurdity and
folly used for the manifestation of the inner character
of the ludicrous may be taken the story "Our Fire-
Screen" by the same writer. The lady of the house makes
a pretty fire screen and the cabinetmaker constructs a
fashionable frame in the Eastlake style. This frame,
though stylish, is out of harmony with the rest of the
furniture. Two uncomfortable chairs of the Eastlake
fashion are bought to fit the frame. This in its turn is
out of harmony with the other furniture. The result is
that all the other furniture is sold to the brother-in-law,
Tom, who keeps on laughing at the fashionable taste and
who buys up the modern comfortable furniture as soon as
the Eastlake mediaeval furniture, inlaid with tiles, is be-
ing installed. The furniture in its turn does not harmon-
ize with the modern house. The house is rebuilt in the
old style. Then the landscape has to be altered to fit
the house. Home becomes more and more uncomfortable

in

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

as it is getting more and more Eastlake and stylish.
Finally the climax comes when Tom suggests that in
order to bring about more complete harmony the
modern dress should be discarded in favor of an East-
lake suit with pegs and with tiles in the back. This last
joke pointing out the absurdity of the whole situation is
the last straw that breaks the camel's back. Tom's mod-
ern house with the same "old" modern furniture is bought
by the fashionable couple who now thoroughly enjoy their
own discarded furniture. The full-blown bubble of folly
has collapsed.

This method of blowing of the bubble of folly and
absurdity with all its play of iridescent colors, until it
finally bursts, this heaping of absurdities until they accu-
mulate and form a pile which collapses on account of its
inner absurd instability, this method of bringing the ab-
surd to a climax by increasing its extension and intension,
is quite common with many comic writers. We find it
in the immortal comedies of Aristophanes, in his
"Clouds," in which he ridicules the sophistic philosophy
of his time ; we find it in "The Frogs," in which he heaps
scorn on the tragic poets, ^schylus and Euripides; we
find it again in his immortal burlesque "The Congress of
Women," in which Aristophanes with all the titanic
power of his comic genius rails at the whole political
structure of the Athenian commonwealth and holds up
to the ridicule of his contemporaries what twenty- four
centuries later will agitate the civilized world, — the cam-
paign of woman suffrage now carried on with so much
bluster, swagger, and storm.

In Lucian again we meet with the same method of
ridicule. Thus in "The True History" or in his "Trips
to the Moon," he rails and scoffs at the histories and

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

traditions of his time by piling preposterous nonsense on
stupid absurdities. In his introduction to "The True His-
tory" he says :

I do not blame (writers) for their falsehoods, seeing
that the custom has been sometimes authorized, even by the
pretenders to philosophy. I only wonder that they should
expect to be believed. Being incited by a ridiculous vanity
to transmit something to posterity I turned my thoughts
towards falsehood. I shall at least tell one thing true,
when I tell you that I lie and I mean to speak not a word
of truth. Know ye, therefore, that I am going to write
about what I never saw myself, nor experienced, nor so
much as heard from anybody else, and what is more, of such
things as neither are, nor ever can be.

Then Lucian gives full rein to his exuberant fancy.
He tells of rivers of wine full of fish, of the mark left
by Hercules' footstep, a mark that measured about an
acre, he describes beautiful women growing like vines
out of the soil. The limbs of the women "are perfect
from the waist, only from the tops of the fingers branches
sprung out full of grapes. They would not suffer us
to taste the grapes, but when anybody attempted it, cried
out as if they were hurt." He describes minutely the war
between Endymion, the king of the moon, and Phceton,
the king of the sun. He gives the most absurd descrip-
tion of the battle array and the most ludicrous names of
the warriors, such as flea-archers, millet-darters, mush-
room-men, acorn-dogs and garlic-fighters. The bat-
talions fight with garlic and radishes as their arms. Even
the Biblical Jonah's whale is present. The whale, how-
ever, is expanded and puffed up on the comic Lucian
scale, it is fifteen hundred stadia in length (a stadium is

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

about six hundred feet). The whale came near "and
swallowed us up at once, ship and all. He did not, how-
ever, crush with his teeth, — the vessel luckily slipped
through one of the interstices." Even the miracle of
walking on the waves of the sea is not unknown to this
irreverent comic writer. In his droll way he tells us how
he arrived at a "green and briny sea, where we saw a
great number of men running backwards and forwards,
resembling ourselves in every part, except the feet which
were all of cork." Lucian then scoffingly tells of his
visit to Paradise.

The whole city was of gold and the walls of emerald.
The seven gates were all made of one trunk of the cinna-
mon tree, the pavement, within the walls, of ivory, the
temples of beryl, the altars of one large amethyst. Round
the city flowed a river of the most precious ointment. The
baths instead of water were filled with warm dew. For
clothes they wear spider's web. They have no bodies, but
only the appearance of them, insensible to the touch, and
without flesh, yet they stand, taste, move, and speak.

Piling absurdity upon absurdity, he derides the beliefs
and traditions current in his time and brings discredit on
the credulity of his contemporaries.

Cervantes, in ridiculing the chivalry of the Middle
Ages, makes Don Quixote, the knight-errant, work him-
self up to a pitch of knightly phrenzy in which he loses
his wits so completely as to regard the inferior under the
glamor of the sublime and the superior. He takes a
country inn for a castle, the servant girls for princesses,
the innkeeper as the lord of the castle. He rights wind-
mills, regarding them as transformed giants, and attacks
herds of sheep under the idea that they are enchanted

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

armies. Cervantes keeps on heaping absurd incidents
in which the folly of the hero is exposed to the reader.
In weaving his web of glory around prosaic things the
ridiculous character of the knight of the sorrowful figure
of La Mancha stands out in an even clearer light with
the accumulation of absurd events and with the thicken-
ing of the plot of a supersensuous ideal folly.

Similarly Voltaire, when ridiculing the shallow opti-
mistic philosophy of the eighteenth century, makes Can-
did and Professor Pangloss pass through all sorts of
painful situations, exposing with ever greater power and
emphasis the weakness, the silliness, the stupidity of pro-
fessorial optimism. The vast accumulation of mishaps,
misfortunes and suffering in this best of all possible
worlds is concluded by Pangloss' remark :

"All events are inextricably linked together in this best
of all possible worlds; for look you, if you had not been
driven out of a magnificent castle by hearty kicks for pre-
suming to make love to Miss Cunegund, if you had not
been put into the Inquisition, if you had never run your
sword through the Baron or lost all your sheep from the
fine country of El Dorado, you would not be here now
eating candied citrons and pistachio-nuts."

"Well said !" answered Candid, "but we must attend to
our garden."

The full blown bubble of optimism made up of pain,
privation and suffering bursts and vanishes.

We may point out another important principle of the
ludicrous, that of interchange. Any interchange of cause
and effect of antecedents and consequents associated with
the relation of superior and inferior arouses the sense of
the ludicrous. Thus Stockton, in his humorous descrip-

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

tion of the haunted ghost, also in his directions or instruc-
tions given to the young American youth as to how to
bring up parents, makes us laugh at the interchange of
relations of superior and inferior. The superior reduced
to the inferior, or the inferior raised playfully to the
level of the superior gives rise to the ludicrous. In short,
any interchange of places in a series or in different series
of events in the contrasting relationship of superior and
inferior is the cause of laughter. Falling into a pit dug
for others, being caught into a trap laid for one's neigh-
bor, being entangled in a net intended for your friend or
enemy, all that is a source of amusement. Any fooling
with others and being fooled in turn cannot help awaken
the sense of the ludicrous.

We have here a double play on fooling, human folly
is doubly exposed to the view of the observer and hence
hilarious laughter. The ghost from haunting the living
is haunted by the living, the cheat is deceived by his
own well-laid schemes, the intriguer is caught in the net-
work of his own intrigues, the "wise" are entangled in
the meshes of their own conceit and folly, the joke is
turned on the joker; all such play of interchange of rela-
tions is sure to raise in us the laughter of ridicule. Any
interchange of links in series of events, giving rise to
associations of inferiority, arouses laughter. Many com-
ical situations are brought about by this principle of
interchange.

When by association a series of events becomes firmly
fixed in the mind, such as manners, customs and beliefs,
any change in the sequence of the events, any variation
in the order fixed by association of contiguity, a form
into which the human mind easily drifts, arouses in the
mind the sense of the ludicrous. The philistine regards

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VANITY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF RIDICULE

all variations from his accepted routine of life as some-
thing inherently absurd, silly and ridiculous. On the
other hand, nothing forms such a good subject for the
comic as the narrow-minded, hide-bound, Lilliputian phi-
listine when viewed from the heights of talent and genius.
Society and its ideal average, normal mediocrity with its
pleasing, mannerly, commonplace platitudes may have its
fling of jeering at genius for not conforming to social
usage and for breaking away from the well-trodden paths
or social ruts. Far more effective and deadly are the
stones of ridicule cast by the hand of genius at the
Philistine Goliath, strong in his brute social power,
but dull of wits. Social laughter is momentary, soon
burns itself out and passes away like the fire and smoke
of straw, but genius shakes the very skies with its last-
ing, inextinguishable laughter.

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CHAPTER XII

THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

Shakespeare in his comedies uses inferior, hu-
miliating, clumsy, and awkward situations to throw
ridicule on the characters which he wishes to make comic.
Thus in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" Shakespeare
makes Falstaff relate to Master Brook the adventures
passed through with Mistress Ford.

Pal. The peaking Cornute her husband, Master Brook,
dwelling in a continual 'larum of jealousy, comes in the
instant of our encounter, after we had embraced, kissed,
protested and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our
comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions,
thither provoked and instigated by his distemper, and,
forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love.

Ford. What, while you were there?

Fal. While I was there.

Ford. And did he search for you, and did not find you ?

Fal. You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes in
one Mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's ap-
proach ; and, in her inventions and Ford's wife's distrac-
tion, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.

Ford. A buck-basket!

Fal. By the Lord, a buck-basket ! — rammed me in with foul
shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins ;
that, Master Brook, there was the rankest compound
of villainous smell ever offended nostril.

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THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

The ridiculous situation in which Falstaff is put by
the humiliation and discomfiture of his adventure with
Mistress Ford is all the more enhanced by his relating
all that to Mr. Brook, who is no other than Mr. Ford,
the lady's husband in disguise. Falstaff unconsciously
tells of his humiliating and, hence, ridiculous situation
to the very man whom he would least have cared to meet.

Fal. Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have
suffered. Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple
of Ford's knaves, his hands, were called forth by their
mistress to carry me in the name of the foul clothes to
Datchet-lane : they took me on their shoulders ; met the
jealous knave their master in the door, who asked them
once or twice what they had in their basket: I quaked
for fear, lest the lunatic-knave would have searched it;
but fate, ordaining he should be cuckold, held his hand.
Well: on went he for a search, and away went I for
foul clothes. But mark the sequel, Master Brook: I
suffered the pangs of three several deaths; first, an
intolerable fright, to be detected with a jealous rotten
bellwether; next, to be compassed, like a good bilbo, in
the circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head ;
and then, to be stopped in, like a strong distillation,
with stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease:
think of that, — a man of my kidney, — think of that, —
that am as subject to heat as butter ; a man of continual
dissolution and thaw ; it was a miracle to 'scape suffoca-
tion. And in the height of this bath, when I was more
than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be
thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot in
that surge like a horse-shoe; think of that, — hissing
hot,— think of that, Master Brook.

Of his next adventure with Mrs. Ford, Falstaff tells
Mr. Brook:

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor old
man: but I came from her, Master Brook, like a poor
old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, hath
the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook,
that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you: — he beat
me grievously, in the shape of a woman, for in the shape
of man, Master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's
beam/'

Shakespeare tells us here why to dress like a woman
is comic, because it is inferior, it means to be unmanly,
cowardly, to be inferior to the high dignity of manhood.
The beating of an old woman by a strong man appears
to have been quite comical in the time of Shakespeare.
It was the expression of the superior way of triumph
over an old witch. The lack of sympathy, the brutality
of that age may be illustrated by the following anecdote
taken from a book on old English jokes :

A witch being at the stake to be burnt, she saw her son
there and, being very dry, desired him to give her drink.
"No, Mother," says the son, " 'twill do you wrong ; for the
dryer you be, you'll burn all the better."

In the enchanting fairy-comedy, "A Midsummer-
Night's Dream," Shakespeare represents the elf king
Oberon as putting Titania, the fairy queen, in an in-
ferior and hence ludicrous condition by throwing a
charm on her and having her fall in love with the vulgar
clown- weaver, Bottom, on whom the merry Puck claps
an ass's head. Bottom sings his asinine song:

. The ousel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
The wren with little quill.
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THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

Tita. [Awaking] What Angel wakes me from my flowery

bed?
Bot. [Sings]

The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,

The plain song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,

And dares not answer nay ; —

for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird?
who would give a bird the lie, though he cry "cuckoo"
never so?

Tita. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

Crowned with a chaplet of flowers Bottom's asinine
head reposes on the graceful bosom of the fairy queen.
Here Shakespeare avails himself of the still lower form
of degradation by making the delicate and exquisite fairy
queen fall in love with a hairy ass, a vulgar, low fellow
and brute, thus depriving her of all appreciation of the
good, true, and the beautiful. In fact, he makes her all
the lower and all the more ridiculous by putting the little
fairy queen in the position of taking the low, the in-
ferior, the vulgar as the superior, excellent, and refined.
Nothing can be more ridiculous than matching a fairy
and an ass, nothing can be more ludicrous than vulgar
taste in a fairy. As the Bible puts it: "As a jewel of
gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without taste
and discretion." The contrast emphasizes difference of
superior and inferior.

When Homer in his masterly strokes of genius pic-
tures the ludicrous, clumsy, awkward, and ungainly form

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

of the cyclop, Polyphemus, he gives the outlines of the
monster in a few humorous lines :

A form enormous! far unlike the race

Of human birth, in stature, or in face;

As some lone mountain's monstrous growth he stood

Crowned with rough thickets, and a nodding wood.

Ulysses conceives the idea of making the cyclop
drunk with wine :

Such was the wine; to quench whose fervent stream
Scarce twenty measures from the living stream
To cool one cup sufficed.

Ulysses then persuades the monster to taste of the
wine:

"Cyclop; since human flesh has been thy feast,

Now drain this goblet, potent to digest !"

He heard, he took, and pouring down his throat,

Delighted, swill'd the large luxurious draught.

"More! give me more!" (he cried) ; "the boon be thine,

Whoe'er thou art that bear'st celestial wine!

Declare thy name; not mortal is this juice,

But this descended from the bless'd abodes,

A rill of nectar, streaming from the gods"

He said, and greedy grasped the heady bowl,

Thrice drained, and poured the deluge on his soul.

His sense lay covered with the dozy fume;

While thus my fraudful speech I reassume

"Thy promised boon, O Cyclop! now I claim

And plead my title, Noman is my name."

The generosity of the monster is then humorously
set forth :

The giant then : "Our promised grace receive,
The hospitable boon we mean to give:
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THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

When all thy wretched crew have felt my power,
Noman shall be the last I will devour."

When Ulysses with his companions deprive the mon-
ster of his eyesight, the cyclop,

With voice like thunder, and a direful yell
Calls the Cyclops that around him dwell.

The cyclops come,

Inquire the cause, and crowd the cavern door:

"What hurts thee, Polyphemus ? What strange affright

Thus breaks our slumbers, and disturbs the night?

Does any mortal, in the unguarded hour

Of sleep oppress thee, or by fraud or power?

Or thieves insidious thy fair flock surprise?"

Thus they : the cyclop from his den replies :

"Friends, Noman kills me; Noman, in the hour

Of sleep, oppresses me with fraudful power."

"If Noman hurt thee, but the hand divine

Inflicts diseases, it fits to resign:

To Jove or thy father Neptune pray,"

The brethren cried, and instant strode away.

Thus does Homer amuse his hearers with the clumsy,
ungainly figure of the brutal, stupid monster by drawing
a picture of the inferior, savage type of man-cyclop to the
delight and ridicule of his Homeric audience.

In "The Tempest" Shakespeare, under different cir-
cumstances, draws a similar scene of the drunken mon-
ster Caliban:

The drunken sailor Stephana finds the cowering and
trembling monster Caliban:

Ste. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who
hath got, as I take it, an ague. ... I will give him
some relief if it be but for that. . . . He shall taste

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

of my bottle. . . . Come on your ways; open your
mouth; here is that which will give language to you,
cat: open your month; this will shake your shaking, I
can tell you, and that soundly: you cannot tell who's
your friend: open your chops again.

Under the influence of drink Caliban gets a ludicrous
fit of exaltation, displaying his low, mean type :

Col. [Aside] That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor :

I will kneel to him. . . .

I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy true subject; for

the liquor is not earthly.

Trinculo (the jester) O Stephano, hast any more of this?
Ste. The whole butt, man: my cellar is in a rock by the

sea-side, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf!

how does thine ague ?

Col. Hast thou not dropped from heaven?
Ste. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee; I was the man i'

the moon when time was.
Col. I have seen thee in her and I do adore thee: my

mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush.
Ste. Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I will furnish it

anon with new contents : swear.
Trin. By this good light, this is a very shallow monster!

I afeard of him ! A very weak monster ! The man i' the

moon! A most credulous monster! Well drawn, mon-
ster, in good sooth!
Cat. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island; and I

will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god.
Trin. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken monster !

when's god's asleep, he'll rob him o' his bottle.
Col. I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject.
Ste. Come on then ; down, and swear.
Trin. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed

monster.

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THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

We realize once more how Shakespeare, following
Homer, has his sport of the ugly, ungainly monstrosity
of a Caliban by making him resemble man, and then de-
priving him of all human qualities. The image of a
degraded, low, mean, and drunken man-Caliban is pic-
tured before the eyes of the spectators and stirs up
derision and ridicule.

In a similar ludicrous way Swift treats the classic
story of Baucis and Philemon, who, for their goodness
and piety, have been changed by Jupiter into a linden
tree and an oak. The miracle occurs to two wandering
saints, the house being changed into a church, of which
Philemon is made the parson :

They scarce had spoke, when fair and soft,

The roof began to mount aloft ;

Aloft rose every beam and rafter;

The heavy wall climb'd slowly after.

The chimney widen'd, and grew higher,

Became a steeple with a spire.

The kettle to the top was hoist,

And there stood fasten'd to a joist,

But with the upside down, to show

Its inclination for below:

In vain; for a superior force

Applied at bottom stops its course :

Doom'd ever in suspense to dwell,

'Tis now no kettle, but a bell.

Thus in his humorous way does Swift ridicule the
classic story and the church miracles by interweaving a
miraculous story of saints and holy church with the
pagan myth, interrelating the chimney with the church
steeple and lofty spire, converting the profane inverted
kitchen kettle into the consecrated bell. The saint, the

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

heavy climbing of the wall after the beam and rafter,
the church, the bell, and the kettle with its "inclination
for below" all become intertwined in the miraculous
myth. The whole forms an excellent parody in which
the solemn, the majestic, and the sacred are reduced to
the low, mean state of the vulgar pot and kettle.
Similarly Heine, in his "Ideas," writes :

I was once asked six times in succession, "Henri, what
is the French for the faith?" And six times, ever more
weepingly, I replied, "It is called le credit." And after the
seventh question, with his cheeks of a red deep cherry rage
color, my furious examiner cried, "It is la religion!" and
there was a rain of blows and a thunder of laughter from
all my schoolmates.

In another place Heine writes :

The Berliner appeared to listen to me somewhat dis-
tractedly— more attractive objects had drawn his attention —
and he finally interrupted me with the words, "Excuse me, if
you please, if I interrupt you, but will you be so kind as to
tell me what sort of a dog that is which runs there ?"

"That is another puppy."

"Ah, you don't understand me. I refer to the great
white shaggy dog without a tail."

"My dear sir, that is the dog of the modern Alcibiades."

"But," exclaimed the Berliner, "where is then the modern
Alcibiades himself?"

"To tell the plain truth," I replied, "the office is not as
yet occupied and we have so far only his dog."

In the first sally Heine ridicules religion by associat-
ing it with the lower form of business credit. Religion
with its high claims, unworldly views, ideals, and beliefs
is reduced to sordid credit, business, and cash. In the

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THE COMIC IN LITERATURE

second sally Heine ridicules the politics and statesmen
of his day by having them go to the dogs. The ridicule
is all the stronger by bringing in the illustrious classical
name of Alcibiades and then leaving in his place his pro-
verbial tailless dog. Where there should have been a
superior statesman, like Alcibiades, there we only find a
puppy without a tail. In both cases the ridicule consists
in showing a low, mean vulgarity where there should
have been superiority and excellence. We laugh because
we find the shadow instead of the substance, the vulgar
instead of the sacred, the tail instead of the body, and
where there should have been the man we only find a cur.
The grand ideals of faith are based on commercial credit
and the statesman is represented by a dog.

CHAPTER XIII

AMERICAN RIDICULE

In America ridicule has taken the turn towards blunt
humor. This is largely due to the absence of revered
traditions, fixed customs, unalterable habits and, above
all, to the absence of intolerance so characteristic of
American life.

Mark Twain ridicules Congress as fools and associ-
ates Jesus with broken pitchers, with miraculous gath-
ering of water in mantles, with the schoolmaster, the
birch, and whippings.

In another place Mark Twain ridicules the Biblical
stories and the hypocritical interest in Biblical subjects
as well as the credulity, the gullibility of the religious
public. Mark Twain travels in Palestine and is shown
the center of the earth and the tomb of Adam ! His com-
ments are not exactly inspired by reverence and piety.

Benjamin Franklin, with his true Yankee humor,
tells of a sectarian who modestly claims:

It had pleased God to enlighten our minds so as to see
that some doctrines which were esteemed truths were
errors, and that others which we had esteemed errors were
real truths. From time to time he has pleased to afford
us further, light, and our principles have been improving
and our errors diminishing. This modesty in a sect is
perhaps a single instance in the history of mankind, every
other sect supposing itself in possession of all truths, and

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AMERICAN RIDICULE

those which differ are so far in the wrong; like a man
traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before
him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog as well
as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on
each side, but near him all appears clear, though, in truth,
he is as much in the fog as any of them.

In a comic way Benjamin Franklin holds up to ridi-
cule the sermons of his countrymen :

We had for a chaplain a zealous Presbyterian minister,
Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men (soldiers)
did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations.
When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and
provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually
served out to them, one half in the morning, and the other
half in the evening; and I observed they were as punctual in
attending to receive it; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty:
"It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to
act as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out
and only just after prayers, you would have them all about
you." He liked the thought, undertook the task, and, with
the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed
it to satisfaction and never were prayers more generally
and more punctually attended; so that I thought this
method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some
military laws for non-attendance on divine service.

We offer two more examples of Franklin's ridicule
on the sharp, unscrupulous bargain driving of the unctu-
ous quaker, pious puritan, and his sanctimonious country-
men:

In going through the Indian country to carry a message
from our governor to the council at Onondaga, he (Conrad
Weiser) called at the habitation of Canassetego, an old
acquaintance, who embraced him, spread furs for him to

129

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

sit on, and placed before him some boiled beans and venison
and mixed some rum and water for his drink. When he
was well refreshed and had lit his pipe, Canassetego began
to converse with him; asked him how he had fared the
many years since they had seen each other, whence he
then came, what occasioned his journey, etc. Conrad an-
swered all his questions, and when the discourse had begun
to flag the Indian, to continue it, said : "Conrad, you have
lived long among the white people and know something
of their customs. I have been sometimes at Albany, and
have observed that once in seven days they shut up their
shops and assemble all in the great house. Tell me what
it is for. What do they do there?" "They meet there,"
says Conrad, "to hear and learn good things." "I do not
doubt," says the Indian, "that they tell you so — they have
told me the same; but I doubt the truth of what they say,
and I will tell you my reasons. I went lately to Albany
to sell my skins and buy blankets, knives, powder, rum, etc.
You know I used generally to deal with Hans Hanson,
but I was a little inclined this time to try some other mer-
chants. However, I called first upon Hans and asked him
what he would give for beaver. He said he could not give
any more than four shillings a pound; 'But/ says he, 'I
cannot talk on business now : this is the day when we meet
together to learn good things, and I am going to meeting.'
So I thought to myself, 'Since I cannot do any business
to-day, I may as well go to the meeting, too/ and I went
with him. There stood up a man in black and began to
talk to the people very angrily. I did not understand what
he said; but, perceiving that he looked much at me and
at Hanson, I imagined he was angry at seeing me there;
so I went out, sat down near the house, struck fire and
lit my pipe, waiting till the meeting should break up. I
thought, too, that the man had mentioned something of
beaver, and I suspected it might be the subject of their
meeting. So when they came out I accosted my merchant.

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AMERICAN RIDICULE

'Well, Hans/ says I, 'I hope you have agreed to give more
than four shillings a pound/ 'No/ says he; 'I cannot give
more than three shillings and sixpence.' Then I spoke to
several dealers, but they all sang the same song — three
and sixpence — three and sixpence. This made it clear to
me that my suspicion was right; and that, whatever they
pretended of meeting to learn good things, the real pur-
pose was to consult how to cheat Indians in the price of
beaver. Consider but a little, Conrad, and you must be
of my opinion. If they met so often to learn good things,
they would certainly have learned some before this time.
But they are still ignorant. You know our practice. If
a white man in traveling through our country enters one
of our cabins, we all treat him as I treat you : we dry him
if he is wet ; we warm him if he is cold and give him meat
and drink that he may allay his thirst and hunger; and we
spread soft furs for him to rest and sleep on. We demand
nothing in return. But if I go into a white man's house
at Albany and ask for victuals and drink, they say : 'Where
is your money?' and if I have none they say: 'Get out,
you Indian dog!' You see they have not learned those
little good things that we need no meetings to be instructed
in, because our mothers taught them to us when we were
children; and therefore it is impossible their meetings
should be, as they say, for any such purpose or have any
such effect: they are only to contrive the cheating of In-
dians in the price of beaver."

The following story is in the true Franklin style on
the dogmatic, authoritative faith of missionaries as well
as on their self -contentment and conceit :

A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the
Susquehanna Indians made a sermon to them, acquainting
them with the principal historical facts on which our re-
ligion is founded — such as the fall of our first parents by

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief,
his miracles and sufferings, etc. When he had finished
an Indian orator stood up to thank him. "What you have
told us," says he, "is all very good. It is indeed bad to
eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We
are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to
tell us those things which you have heard from your
mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have
heard from ours. In the beginning, our fathers had only
the flesh of animals to subsist on, and, if their hunting was
unsuccessful, they were starving. Two of our young
hunters having killed a deer made a fire in the woods to
broil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy
their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend
from the clouds and seat herself on that hill which you
see yonder among the Blue Mountains. They said to each
other: 'It is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling
venison and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her.'
They presented her with the tongue ; she was pleased with
the taste of it and said : 'Your kindness shall be rewarded ;
come to this place after thirteen moons, and you will find
something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you
and your children to the latest generations/ They did so,
and to their surprise found plants they had never seen be-
fore, but which from that ancient time have been cultivated
among us to our great advantage. Where her right hand
had touched the ground they found maize; where her left
hand had touched it they found kidney-beans." The good
missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said: "What I
delivered to you were sacred truths ; but what you tell me
is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood." The Indian, offended,
replied : "My brother, it seems your friends have not done
you justice in your education ; they have not well instructed
you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who
understand and practice those rules, believed all your
stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?"

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AMERICAN RIDICULE

The comments of the Indian on Sunday services and
the story about the missionary are in the true Socratic
vein of irony and ridicule.

Possibly no one can so well appreciate the characteris-
tic faults and comic traits of a nation as the best repre-
sentatives of the nation itself. Washington Irving, now
the classic in all American schools, saw clearly through
the business aptitudes of his countrymen. In his story
'The Devil and Tom Walker," Tom's wife tried to drive
a bargain with the devil, but she had the worst of it. Tom
and the devil began to haggle over terms. Finally the
devil proposed to Tom to turn usurer, to form a kind of
money trust, a form of trust which has of late become
so powerful in the land. Tom was eager to start into
business at once. He promised to charge rates double of
what the very devil would ask, to extort bonds, foreclose
mortgages, drive merchants into bankruptcy and gen-
erally to drive them to the devil.

These overreaching Yankee dealings which have re-
cently given rise to all the forms of trusts and monopolies
which, like a nightmare, weigh so heavily on the heart
of the people and have a mortal grip on the very life of
the nation, are comically foreshadowed in the burlesque
on the sharp business dealings of the early American
itinerant speculators, the ancestors of our modern king
financiers, oil magnates, steel princes and coal barons who
now, like rulers of old, claim the privilege of divine au-
thority.

We may take the following passage by Goodrich :

"Have you got Young's Night Thoughts?"

"Plenty."

"Let me see one."

Here I showed Mr. Fleecer the book.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

'This is not the right kind," said he, "I want that edi-
tion that's got the picter at the beginning of a gal walken
out by starlight, called 'Contemplation.' " I handed my
customer another copy, — he then went on, "Aye, this is it.
That are picter there, is a very material p'int, Doctor. The
young fellers down in Kentucky think it's a walloping kind
of story, you know, about some gal that's in love. They
look at that title-page, and see, 'Night Thoughts, by Alex-
ander Young/ Well, that seems as if it meant something
queer. So they look to the frontispiece, and see a female
all wrapped up in a cloak, goen out very sly, with nothing
under heaven but the stars to see what she's about. 'Hush,
hush/ I say, and look round as if afeard that somebody
would hear us. And then I shut up the book, and put it
into my chist, and deliberately lock the lid. Then the feller
becomes rampacious. He begs, and wheedles, and flatters,
and at last he swears. I shake my head. Finally he takes
out a five-dollar bill ; I slip it into my pocket and tell him
not to let anybody know who sold it to him, and not to
take off the brown paper kiver till he gets shut up tight in
his own room. I then say, 'Good-day, Mister,' and clear out
like chain lightning, for the next county."

"You seem to be pleased with your recollections,
Fleecer."

"Well, I can't help snickering when I think of them
fellers. Why, Bleech, I sold more than tew hundred o'
them Night Thoughts, for five dollars apiece, in Kentucky,
last winter and all the fellers bought 'em under the idea
that 'twas some queer story, too good to be altogether de-
cent."

"So you cheated 'em, ha?"

"I cheated 'em ? not I, indeed ! If they were cheated at
all, they cheated themselves, I guess. I didn't tell 'em a
lie. Couldn't they see for themselves? Haven't they got
eyes? Why, what should a feller du? They come smellin'
about like rats arter cheese, and ax me if I haint got some

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AMERICAN RIDICULE

rowdy books: I show 'em the 'Sky Lark' and 'Peregrine
Pickle/ and so on, but they want something better. Well,
now, as I told you afore, I'm a deacon's son, and I don't
like to sell 'Tom Paine/ and 'Volney's Ruins/ and that sort o'
thing. So thinks I to myself — I'll play them sparks a
Yankee trick. They want some rowdy books, and I'll sell
'em something pious. In this way they get some good, and
in course of providence, they may be convarted. Well,
the first one I tried, it worked like ginger. He bought the
book at a tavern. Arter he'd got it he couldn't hardly wait,
he was so fairse to read it. So he went into a room, and
I peeped through the key hole. He began at the title-page,
and then he looked at the figger of Miss Contemplation
walking forth among the stars. I could see his mouth
water. Then he turned to the first part, and begun to
read. I heerd him as plain as Doctor Belcher's sarmon; it
went pretty much like this, —

(Reads)

The Complaint. Night I* —
" 'Good— that's natural/ says he.

(Reads)

'On Life, Death, and Immortality/—

" 'Whew ! I suppose it's some feller in love, and is
going to cut his throat/

(Reads)

'Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!
He, like the world, his ready visit pays,
When fortune smiles/ —

" 'That's all gammon !'

(Reads)

'Night, sable goddess ! from her ebon throne/ —

'"What in nater is the fellow at?'

(Reads)
'The bell strikes one ; we take no note of time/ —

" 'Why, that's exactly what the parson said in his sar-
mon last Sunday !' "

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

He turns over several pages. (Reads)

'Night II. On Time, Death and Friendship.
'When the cock crowed, he wept/ —

" 'By Saint Peter, I'm gummed ! That d d Yankee

peddler has sold me a psalm-book, or something of the kind,
and made me believe it was a rowdy. The infernal hypo-
crite! And so I've paid five dollars for a psalm-book!
Well, it's a good joke, and the fellow desarves his money
for his ingenuity. He, he, he ! ho, ho, ho ! I must laugh,
tho' I'm as mad as a snapping- turtle. Zachary! If I
could get his nose betwixt my thumb and finger, I'd make
him sing every line in the book to a tune of my own. To
sell me a psalm-book ! — the canting, whining, blue-light ped-
dler! Fire and brimstone! It makes me sweat to think
on't. And he did it so sly, too — the wooden-nutmeg rascal !
I wish I could catch him !'

"By this time, I thought it best to make myself scarce.
I had paid my bill, and my horse and wagon were all ready,
for I had calculated upon a bit of a breeze. I mounted my
box, and having axed the landlord the way to Lexington,
I took the opposite direction to throw my psalm-book
friend off the scent, in case he was inclined for a chase ; so
I pursued my journey and got clear. I met the fellow
about six months arter, at Nashville; I was going to ax
him if he had a psalm-book to part with, but he looked so
plaguey hard at me, that I cocked my beaver over my right
eye, and squinted with my left and walked on. Sen then,
I haint seen him."

Bret Harte humorously pictures the rude life of the
American West, the shrewdness of the Yankee, and the
sharp way his countryman makes use of publicity, craving
for sensationalism, advertisement, and shallow curiosity
about worthless trifles and gossip.

One cannot help viewing in a ludicrous light the pas-

136

AMERICAN RIDICULE

sion that has seized so uncontrollably on the mind of the
American, the passion for sensation, news, trifling news-
paper gossip, insatiate love of notoriety, and unshakable
faith in the great utility of advertisement. The advertis-
ing spirit is in the land and the people worship it with all
their heart and with all their soul. One even reads "scien-
tific" researches by American scientists on the subject of
advertisement! More than half the value of American
goods consists in the immense waste spent on the crying
out their virtues. This holds true not only of commer-
cial lines, but also of political, moral, and religious. The
American public is like one vast howling mob in which
every one tries to outdo and outbawl his neighbor. The
nation is a vast multitude obsessed by the demoniacal
spirit of advertisement, notoriety, curiosity, small gossip,
and sensationalism, while really important news and live
facts are omitted, ignored, and suppressed by the adver-
tising spirit of money and large business interests.

In his story, "An Apostle of the Tules," Bret Harte
shows that under the cloak of religious revival there are
only animality, brutality, and degradation. He shows in
the revivalist, Brother Silas, the dull, emotional, hysteri-
cal, sickly, and inferior type of mind saturated by the
spirit of mediocre self -contentment, vanity, and conceit.
Where we should expect a spiritual expression we only
find a "stolid face, heavy, animal, and unintelligent."
Nero expounding the truths of Christianity, the gladiator
punctuating the Sermon on the Mount with a sword in his
hand, the prize-fighter holding revival meetings and illus-
trating Christian humility by boxing matches and prize-
fights, these are in accord with American revival meet-
ings. In this story Bret Harte shows the inferior under
the garb of the superior and hence the derisive laughter.

137

CHAPTER XIV
RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE

In the hunting out of the mean, the vulgar, and the
inferior under the dignified cloak of the great and the su-
perior is there necessarily present an element of malice?
Does ridicule disclose a mean, low, and malicious trait in
human nature? Does ridicule consist not only in reveal-
ing the mean side of the object laughed at, but also of the
persons who make merry over the defects and shortcom-
ings of others? In other words, is ridicule necessarily
the outcome of malice ?

Some writers claim that the comic and the ludicrous
flow from the malicious in human character. There is
no comic without malice. Thus Spiller gives the follow-
ing definition of the comic: "The comic implies a hu-
miliating situation where the sense of malice is aroused
so far as it satisfies and mechanically occupies the at-
tention." It is claimed that the comic writer displays his
narrow-mindedness in his lack of sympathy, in his lack
of realization of his common nature with the rest of
humanity.

While there is some truth in the assertion that a
number of jokes and comic situations have a malicious
element in them, still on the whole the statement is in-
correct; it is specially false of the higher manifestations
of the comic and the ridiculous. Children and men in
the lower stages of development, such as we find in the

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RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE

case of savages and barbarians, find enjoyment in the
comic and in the ridiculous without any regard to the
special humiliation of any particular persons and classes.
There is just laughter at funny situations, comic saws,
and plays. In so far as there is play with the serious
side of life the malicious element is completely absent.

There is comic play with the dignified and the sacred
out of the exuberance of life. The inner sources of re-
serve energy are let free and man can see himself
stronger, better, and superior to what he had been before.
There is laughter, both as the result of the consciousness
of his former weakness and shortcomings as well as from
the present sense of power and play. "All pleasure," as
Schopenhauer rightly puts it, "is derived from the use
and consciousness of power." The malicious element is
here entirely absent, and one who looks for fun, ridicule,
and the ludicrous from the narrow standpoint of malice
misses the fun of the play. There may be malicious
laughter, but it is not true, conversely, that all comic
laughter is majicious.

There is the comic laughter at the fun of play. The
child puts himself in an inferior position, as in the game
of blind man's buff, to satisfy himself and his playmates
in the manifestation of reserve energy which comes pour-
ing forth to the surface of their active life. Man often
laughs at himself for his own amusement and for the
amusement of his fellow men. There is certainly no
malice in that; there is the sense of one's limitations
which is at the bottom of such self-derisive laughter.

At the same time there is present the sense of the
spiritual transcendence of the limitations, the sense that
annuls such limitations by the consciousness of that fact.
We may play at a game and laugh at ourselves and have

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

others laugh at our clumsy, awkward, and ineffectual
efforts. Many children and adults obtain immense pleas-
ure from such games. They laugh uproariously at each
effort and consequent failure. There is, not the least
sign or feeling of malice about it.

As we reach the highest forms of comic art the per-
sonal element becomes more and more eliminated and the
ridicule is directed against impersonal ideas, ideals, be-
liefs, and institutions. What underlies such ridicule is
the righteous indignation against snares, deceptions, and
illusions that veil truth and reality from the gaze of hu-
manity. Laughter at the ludicrous is far from being
malicious, in fact, it is directed against evil and malicious
elements. This is the main power of the comic drama
and of all comic wit. All the examples brought above
from the immortal Aristophanes to Lucian, Cervantes,
Voltaire, and others, go to prove the important function
of comic art in social life.

If tragedy, according to Aristotle, purges one of evil
passions through sympathy with suffering, comedy
purges the spectator or the hearer from the evils of life
by means of sympathetic laughter. Laughter is directed
against the inferior from the standpoint of the superior,
who is thus purified from all sense of malice. Laughter
purges the superior from anger and vindictiveness with
the inferior.

In the higher forms of art ridicule flows from a
source of recognition of a higher principle which is seen
by the writer or poet who communicates his ideas, feel-
ings, and ideals to the spectators, the audience, or the
readers. Ridicule comes from a deep experience, from
a profound knowledge of truth, and from a sympathy
with human life. Through laughter man becomes

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RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE

purged of animal malice and rises to the highest forms
of human sympathy and divine love.

The prophet Isaiah thunders his ridicule and invec-
tive against idol worshippers, both Israelite and Gentile,
from the heights of monotheism which he has reached
and to which he is anxious to lift up his fellow men :

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it
out with the line; he fitteth with planes, and he marketh
it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of
a man according to the beauty of a man; that it may re-
main in the house.

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress
and the oak, which he strengthened for himself among
the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash and the rain
doth nourish it.

Then shall it be for a man to burn : for he will take
thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh
bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he
maketh a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof
he eateth flesh ; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied ; yea, he
warmeth himself, and saith, Ah, I am warm, I have seen
the fire.

And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his
graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth
it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art
my god.

The genius of the prophet places rightly the cause of
the ludicrous when he tells us:

And none considereth in his heart, neither is there
knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part
of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the
coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it; and shall I

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall
down to the stock of a tree?

After the prophet has poured out the vials of ridicule
on the idol worshippers he exclaims :

Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it; shout,
ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye
mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord
hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed
thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things;
that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth
abroad the earth by myself.

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have
redeemed thee.

In another place the prophet takes up the same mock-
ery and ridicule of idol- worship :

They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in
the balance, and hire a goldsmith ; and he maketh it a god ;
they fall down, yea, they worship.

They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and
set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall
he not be removed: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can
he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

The prophet soon becomes serious and declares the
source whence the power of his ridicule has come :

Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it
again to mind, O ye transgressors.

Remember the former things of old: for I am God,
and there is none else: I am God and there is none like
me,

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient

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times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand.

Thus we find that ridicule may flow from the highest
levels attained by man and may in turn give rise to love,
mercy, and forgiveness.

Even Christ with his deep love and sympathy for
erring humanity uses the potent tool of ridicule against
the Pharisees and the false prophets :

Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits . . .

And he adds the mordant ridicule :

Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

One cannot help finding ridicule in the casting out of
devils :

So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out,
suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said
unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went
into the herd of swine.

Now adds the Evangelist:

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus;
and, when they saw him, they besought him that he would
depart out of their coasts.

Christ ridicules the rich man by the metaphor of the
camel and the needle.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
heaven.

Jesus heaps ridicule on the Pharisees, thein vanity,
conceit, and hypocrisy, by characterizing them as "blind

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guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." He
compares the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the hypocrites
to men who clean the cup on the outside and leave the
filth in the inside. Finally He likens them to whitened
sepulchers beautiful on the outside and on the inside
full of rot. From the highest point of moral life reached
by Christ nothing looked so small, so mean, and so low
as conceit, vanity, and hypocrisy personified by him in
the Scribe and the Pharisee. This meanness Christ
pierces with the sharp shafts of his pointed ridicule.

When the woman of Canaan, a poor pagan woman,
came and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, help me," He
humorously assumed the dignity of the aristocratic, ex-
clusive Jew and scorned her with ridicule.

It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it
to the dogs.

Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their masters' table.

Thus the poor woman in her agony of grief replied,
and the love and pity for which the Gospels characterize
Jesus stood revealed behind the veil of ridicule on Gentile,
and especially on the Canaanite.

Then Jesus answered and said unto her: O woman,
great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.

In his more playful moods, when Peter, one of his
favorite disciples, rebukes him for trying to challenge
the scribes, the elders, and the priests in their own dens,
Jesus replies:

Get thee behind me, Satan.

Behind the ridicule, or, rather, banter of Jesus there
was no malice, there were pity, sympathy, and love for

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RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE

his persecutors, the Scribes and the Pharisees, on whom,
however, he did not hesitate to pour the vials of his most
invective ridicule. Ridicule may flow from the purest
source of human love.

Laughter, when free from all distressing and sad
emotions, is essentially human, and, what is more, is
humanizing, for it is the beginning of reconciliation
with our opponents. When we can laugh we are ready
to forgive. Laughter is the beginning of love.
Only he can truly laugh who can survey things from
ever rising mountain tops of human sympathy and
love.

To assert, then, as some do, with Hobbes that laugh-
ter, ridicule, and wit are intimately related to, and even
have their root in, the feeling of malice is to misunder-
stand one of the most fundamental of human functions.
Even the laughter of derision and scorn has the divine
in it, not only because, as we have just pointed out, it
indicates a higher standpoint, at least a recognition of
the fact that he who is laughed at is on a lower plane of
development, whether animal or human, but also because
there is the gleam of peace in a smile, however inimical,
provided there is willingness on the scorned side to ac-
cept the olive branch of peace. If the ridiculed person is
not proud, touchy, selfish, conceited, and vain the recog-
nition of the ridicule is the best form of reconciliation
and the formation of a deeper love. When Aristoph-
anes ridiculed Socrates and his school, Socrates stood
up in the middle of the play that the people could com-
pare the copy with the original. The Canaanite woman
attracted the love of Christ when she humbly acknowl-
edged the ridicule directed against her. Laughter, when
taken in the spirit of recognition of shortcomings and

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

reconciliation, makes for the best of friendship and for
the deepest form of human love.

In the comic, as in all art, man is taken out of his
narrow shell and made to transcend the limits of his
individuality. Instead of being occupied with the con-
stant harrowing cares and troubles of every-day life,
with the struggle for existence and the fears of self-
preservation, he is taken to a higher, freer region where
the light of the sun is not dimmed by cloud and fog,
where beauty never fades, where, fed on divine nectar
of mirth and ambrosia of laughter, the joy of life ever
fills the heart of man. Pain, misery, and sorrow are
touched by the magic wand of laughter, raising suffering
and distressed men to the lofty regions of inexpressible
joy by awakening the feeling of the power of the human
individuality. Like tragedy, comedy sounds the depth
of the human personality and reveals sources of human
reserve energy of which man in his every-day life re-
mains entirely unaware.

Tragedy represents man struggling with overwhelm-
ing fate and misfortune, "a thinking reed resisting and
opposing the elemental forces." The spectator catches a
glimpse of the subconscious reserve energy stretching
far into infinity. This glimpse is sufficient to have him
lifted out of his narrow, individual cell from which he
looks on the world. The bonds of individuality are mo-
mentarily broken and the person feels himself in har-
mony, in union, in deep sympathy with unhappiness and
misfortune, a sympathy which purges away all the evil
passions, as fire purifies gold from all dross. In tragedy
the person becomes free from all fear of the blind, ele-
mental forces — he becomes a free spirit.

In comedy the spirit of the human personality recog-

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RIDICULE, MALICE, AND THE HUMANE

nises itself through joy. The individual is lifted to a
higher standpoint, to loftier regions from which, like
the Olympic gods, he can look down rejoicingly on the
doings of men. Man is lifted above the cares of hum-
drum life; he sees the struggles, the fears, the pains, the
misfortunes, the distresses as trivial, small, and mean.
Like the Olympic gods, he passes his time in joy and
laughter. Man moves freely without fear, with a smile
and with laughter, above the worldly elements of chance,
accident, fortune, and misfortune. What is all that to
him? He laughs in joy and cares little for the turmoil
and chaos of life. He sees nothing but the smiling light
of the funny and the humorous. As the Bible puts it :

And the earth was without form, and void; and dark-
ness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good.

In the darkness of man's life laughter is the light of
the spirit. Through the comic the spirit of man moves
above the darkness of the deep. Man soars above the
gloomy void of existence, and smiles and laughs in
joy.

In the comic man transcends the evil spirit of dark
malice, and from the depth of his subconsciousness there
heave up forces, energies, higher views, and principles
which make him recognize imperfections, defects, faults.
Man can laugh at them through the ease and grace with
which they are overcome and transcended. The ma-
licious element when present must be hidden and trans-
formed by a deeper insight and higher standard of life
in order to gain the sympathy of laughter. The prickles

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

of ridicule guard the joy of life and beauty of the roses
of laughter. Mirth, like Venus, may be born of the
foam of life, but under the foam there are the depths
of the ocean of being over which smile and laughter
hover playfully.

CHAPTER XV
THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPID

Bergson, in his remarkable essay on laughter, claims
that the ridiculous is present wherever the automatic, the
absent-minded, the rigid, or the mechanical is detected in
the flexible, ever adjusting spirit of the living; in other
words, the ridiculous is the finding or revelation of the
rigid, automatic mechanism that takes up its abode in
the living soul. He studies the work of many comic
writers, he analyzes jokes and witticisms and tries in all
of them to find the mechanical behind life activity. Berg-
son lays down the law: "The attitudes, gestures, and
movements of the human body are laughable in exact pro-
portion as that body reminds one of a mere machine."
"Something mechanical encrusted upon the living."
"The body taking precedence of the soul. Matter seek-
ing to outdo the mind, the letter aiming at ousting the
spirit." "The laughable is something mechanical in
something living." According to Bergson, "comedy com-
bines events so as to introduce mechanism into the outer
forms of life." "What is essentially laughable is what
is done automatically." "Absentmindedness is always
comical." "Any arrangement of acts and events is comic
which gives us, in a single combination, the illusion of
life and the distinct impression of a mechanical arrange-
ment." "Inside the person we must distinctly perceive,
as though through a glass, a set-up mechanism. The

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

originality of a comic artist is thus expressed in the spe-
cial kind of life he imparts to a mere puppet."

It is true that mechanism in life is a factor in the
ludicrous, but it is not true when we assert the universal
proposition that the ludicrous is nothing but the me-
chanical in life. Bergson got hold of only one of the
factors of the ludicrous. It is true that the detection of
the mechanical, of routine in life is a source of ridicule,
it is, however, only one of the many streams from which
ridicule is drawn, but it is not the only one.

Moreover, the stream has not been traced to its
source. The mechanical in life is ludicrous not as mere
mechanical, but because it is in relation to an inferior
form of existence. The mechanical, the routine is ludi-
crous, because it is associated with deformities, mean-
ness, triviality, debasement, frivolity, and inferiority.
Bergson lays down the law : "We laugh every time a
person gives us the impression of being a thing." True,
but do we not laugh every time when a person gives us
the impression of being an animal, a brute, an ass ?

We do not certainly think of mechanism when we*
compare a person to a cow, an ass, or a mule. The me-
chanical in life may be granted to be ludicrous, but it is
by no means true that in every joke, pun, humor, and
wit we are to look for the rigid, the mechanical. We
laugh whenever we can detect the inferior under the
cloak of the superior, whenever we can show the low,
the mean, the base under the guise of the superior. We
laugh when we can discern the fool's cap under the
crown of the monarch, when we can see the ass's head on
a Bottom's body, conditions hidden from us in the case
of persons who happen to fascinate us by their superficial
manners of dignity. We laugh, not only at the man of

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routine, but laugh all the more when we can discern in
the respectable, dignified, moral, and religious man the
scoundrel, the knave, and the rogue. We laugh when-
ever we discover the illusory under the veil of reality.
We laugh whenever a low form of life attempts to im-
press us by superior airs. We laugh at meanness, medi-
ocrity, vanity, and conceit.

Perhaps we may now further advance in our search
for the nature of the ludicrous. We have pointed out that
the finding of the inferior under the guise of, the su-
perior, discerning the low form under the veil of the
higher is the essence of the ludicrous. Defects, devia-
tions from the normal, from the ordinary standard ac-
cepted in the given community — low states, mean con-
ditions of life paraded as merits and virtues, vanity, and
conceit in the garb of respectability and dignity, all are
good subjects for ridicule. The high form is shown to
be illusory, deceptive. The person ridiculed is uncon-
scious of his defects and shortcomings, and thinks that
his low form is really a high one. All his actions, say-
ings, and mental activity flow from that source of un-
consciousness, the unawareness of his low condition. In
fact, he even regards his low state as the very best and
the highest. Failures are taken by him as successes, and
demerits are regarded as virtues.

In its more developed forms the naive, unconscious
state rises to extreme vanity and conceit. He cannot see
himself as others see him. He is cursed with the delusion
of parading the inferior as the superior, he takes the low
as the high, the mean as the dignified. Is not the ludi-
crous a form of mental blindness?

There is no need to go far to look for this mental
defect. Like dirt, it is ever present, we must constantly

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

purify and clean ourselves from it. The ridiculous is
something that takes direct possession of the soul and
strikes at the very kernel of the human personality.
Ridicule purifies the soul encrusted with moral dirt.

What defect acts so as to paralyze a person into un-
consciousness of his own defects and failures ? Is it not
a defect of intelligence, a want of the reasoning powers ?
And still the defect, though mental, and affecting the
reasoning capacities, must not be of the nature of a men-
tal malady. For otherwise our pity would be aroused
and we would regard it rather as a misfortune which
would be more tragic than comic. The mental defect
must be of such a character as can be corrected, or as
something that may be rectified by the person. In short,
the subject of ridicule is foolishness, stupidity, ignorance.

When we come to examine closely the sources of
ridicule we find that possibly nothing so much answers
the purpose of the comic as the dull of wit and the stupid.
The boor, the yokel, the silly, the weakminded will ever
form the theme of comedy and anecdote. It is the fool
who is ridiculed. Whoever acts the superior being un-
conscious of his real inferiority or thinks that others
cannot see it, while it is patent to everybody that he is
below the average social standard of intellect, he is a
fool and he is laughed at for his stupidity.

An ignorant fellow who tries to pass off as a learned
professor or as a great scholar, even if he is conscious
of his ignorance, but is unconscious of the fact that oth-
ers can see through him, is a fit subject for ridicule. He
is stupid and a fool.

The ludicrous side becomes even more enhanced if
he is convinced that he is really a learned man and acts
and talks accordingly, thus being doubly ignorant, ig-

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THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPID

norant of his own condition and ignorant of the attitude
that others have toward him. He is doubly foolish and
the laughter at him is irresistible.

In cases where the cause of the ridicule is not clearly
shown a little examination reveals the fact that it is the
fool and human folly generally that excite the merriment
and ridicule of people, they are the constant topic of the
joker, the punster, the wit, and even of the earnest
prophet, the psalmist, and Christ. The central character
of comedy is the fool, and the subject of the comic is
human folly. Human folly, under all its disguises and in
all the endless forms of vanity, conceit, arrogance, false
pride, false overestimation of self and things, institutions,
manners, beliefs, and ideals, all defects and faults of the
human soul that come under the categories of silliness,
pig-headedness, asininity, are the subject of the comic and
the ludicrous.

Cervantes lays his finger on the cause of the ludicrous
by telling us plainly the source whence flow all the comic
manifestations of that Divine Comedy in which is penned
the immortal type of Don Quixote:

This gentleman (Don Quixote) gave himself up to the
reading of tales of chivalry. Among them all none pleased
him so much as those love speeches and challenges, where
in several places he found written: "The reason of the
unreasonable treatment of my reason in such wise, that with
reason I complain of your beauty," and also when he read :
"The high heaven of your divinity which divinely fortifies
you with the stars making you meritorious of the merit
merited by your greatness." With this kind of language
the poor gentleman lost his wits. In short, he so be-
wildered himself in this kind of study that his brain was
dried up in such a manner that he came to lose his wits.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Aristophanes, in ridiculing Socrates, makes him oc-
cupy himself with silly questions such as :

The other day Socrates asked his disciple how many
feet of its own feet a flea could jump. The disciple solved
the problem in the cleverest way. He melted some wax;
then took the flea and dipped its feet into the wax. When
this was cold, the flea had slippers on; these he undid,
and measured the distance.

The scrupulous exactness of this silly investigation
reminds one of similar clever investigations carried out
in many of our modern scientific laboratories, physical
and psychological.

How many a noteworthy thing [Heine writes] can be
adduced on ancient asses as opposed to the modern. How
intelligent were the former and, ah ! how stupid are the lat-
ter. How reasonably for instance spoke the ass of Balaam.
. .. . The modern asses are great asses. The antique
asses — who had reached such a pitch of refinement — would
turn in their graves could they hear how people talk about
their descendants. Once "Ass" was an honorable title, sig-
nifying as much as "Court Counselor," "Baron," "Doctor
of Philosophy."

In ridiculing the stupidity of German ideas Heine
writes :

My washerwoman complains that the Reverend Mr. S.
has been putting "ideas" into the head of her daughter,
which have made her foolish and unreasonable. The coach-
man Patterson grumbles out on every occasion, "That's
an idea! that's an idea!" Yesterday he was regularly
vexed when I inquired what sort of a thing he imagined
an idea to be. And vexedly did he growl "an idea is
an idea ! an idea is any d — d nonsense that a man gets into

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THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPID

his head." It is in this sense that the word is used, as a
title of a book, by the Court Counselor Heeren in Gottingen.

Heine tells us that the sources of his ridicule are the
fool and human folly :

I really become cheerful when I reflect that all these
fools whom I see here can be used in my writings; they
are cash down, ready money. I feel like a diamond in
cotton. The Lord hath blessed me, the fool crop has turned
out uncommonly well this year, and like a good landlord
I consume only a few at a time, and lay up the best for
the future. Like a rich, plump merchant who rubbing
his hands with genial joy wanders here and there amid
chests, bales, boxes, and casks, even so do I wander around
my people. Ye are all my own! Ye are all equally dear
to me and I love ye, as ye yourselves love your own gold,
and that is more than a little. Oh! how I laughed from
my heart when I lately heard that one of my people had
asserted with concern that he knew not how I could live,
or what rneans I had — and yet he himself is such a first
rate fool that I could live from him alone as on a capital.

Lack of intelligence, mediocrity, narrow-mindedness,
stupidity, have always been the butt of ridicule. Even
philosophers have castigated the philistine.

Schopenhauer's description of the small, narrow mind
of mediocrity, keen for insignificant, inessential, practical
points, may be interesting:

A philistine is a person with a small "normal" amount
of intellect and with no mental needs. ... A
philistine is a person who is seriously occupied with realities
which are no realities. . . . The philistine has no de-
sire to gain knowledge for its own sake, he has no experi-
ence of true aesthetic pleasure. ... His real pleasures
are of a practical and sensual character. ... If the

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

luxuries of life are heaped upon the philistine he becomes
bored, and against boredom he has a great many fancied
remedies — balls, theaters, parties, clubs, cards, games,
traveling, and so on. ... The peculiar characteristic
of the philistine is a dull, dry kind of gravity akin to that
of brutes.

Matthew Arnold, in his "Essays," writes on the sub-
ject:

"Philistines! Perhaps we have not the words because
we have so much of the thing. ... I think we had
much better take the term Philistine itself." A philistine is
a "man who regards the possession of practical conveniences
as something sufficient in itself, or something that compen-
sates for the absence or surrender of the idea of rea-
son." "Philistia has come to be thought by us the true
Land of Promise, and it's anything but that ; the born lover
of ideas, the born hater of common places, must feel in this
country, that the sky over his head is of brass and iron."

Perhaps the best expression of the ludicrous triviality
and banal commonplace of silly, meaningless platitudes
is conveyed by the following verse from "Mother Goose" :

When Bessie Brooks and Tommy Snooks

Went out on a Sunday,
Said Tommy Snooks to Bessie Brooks

"To-morrow will be Monday."

The philistine is laughed at as the fool.

When Falstaff is entrapped for the last time by Mrs.
Ford and pinched and burned by the supposed fairies,
Mrs. Ford finally, in a burst of laughter, exclaims:

Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet.
I will never take you for my love again; but I will always
count you my deer.

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THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPID

Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox, too; both the proofs are extant.

Shakespeare, in his "Midsummer Night's Dream/ '
raises the laugh on Quince in the prologue before the
Athenian duke, Theseus, by making the poet carpenter
stop on the wrong points and thus convey the reverse
meaning of what was intended. The speech is ridiculed
by having it turned through wrong stops into nonsense.

Enter Quince for the Prologue.
Pro. If we offend thee, it is with our good will.

That you should think, we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,

That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider, then, we come but in despite.

We do not come, as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight,

We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand ; and, by their show,
You shall know all, that you are like to know.
The. This fellow does not stand upon points. . . .
His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing impaired,
but all disordered. . . .

Shakespeare then presents the silly prologue, intro-
duces the characters of the play, and tells the whole stupid
plot, full of dull, meaningless alliterations such as :

Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,

He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast;
And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,

His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain
At large discourse, while here they do remain.
Exeunt Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Lion, and Moon-
shine.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

The. I wonder if the lion be to speak.
Demetrius. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when
many asses do.

Here the ridicule consists in making of the actors
fools and asses. Thus Pyramus, the lover of Thisbe:

O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
O night, whichever art when day is not!

The wall introduces itself as "one Snout by name."
Through this Snout, the wall, "the wittiest partition that
ever I heard discourse," the two lovers make love.
'Queen Hippolita comments :

This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.

When the Lion and Moonshine enter Theseus re-
marks :

Here come two noble beasts in, a man and a lion.

The Lion introduces himself to the audience :

You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear

The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,

May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar,

Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am

A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;

For, if I should as lion come in strife

Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.

Moonshine introduces himself :

All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn
is the moon; I, the man i' the moon; this thorn-bush, my
thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog.

When Pyramus stabs himself he declares :

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THE MECHANICAL AND THE STUPID

Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
Now am I dead
Now am I fled. . . .

On this comical death Theseus comments:

With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover, and
prove an ass.

The whole of this comic play turns on the stupidity
of the performers and the silliness of the tragedy which
they intend to present and which is thus made into a
comedy. The tragedy has become a comedy when shown
to be silly and stupid. The intelligence of the performers
is below the normal, their mental activity is inferior to
that of the average person. Lack of consciousness of
that fact on the part of the actors makes the play all the
more comic. The comic sounds the depths of human
folly.

We may quote from Daudet's "Tartarin on the
Alps":

"What a queer country this Switzerland is!" exclaimed
Tartarin.

Bompard began to laugh.

"There is no Switzerland any more." . . .

"Switzerland at the present time is nothing but an im-
mense Kursaal, to which people crowd for amusement from
all parts of the world ; and which is exploited by a wealthy
company possessed of thousands of millions.

"You will not find a corner which is not fixed up and
machined like the floor beneath the stage in the Opera:
waterfalls lighted up, turnstiles at the entrances of glaciers,
and for ascents of mountains, railways — either hydraulic
or funicular.

"At the bottom of the crevasses there is always present

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

a porter who is able to assist you up again, who will brush
your clothes, shake off the snow, and respectfully inquire
whether 'Monsieur has any luggage ?'" . . .

On ascending Mont Blanc, the cowardly Bompard be-
came frightened out of his wits:

"Tartarin/' Bompard exclaimed, "I hope that you have
had enough of this ludicrous expedition."

The great man opened his eyes with some anxiety in
them.

"What are you chattering about?"

Bompard drew a picture of the thousand terrible deaths
which menaced them.

Tartarin interrupted him —

"You joker! And the Company? Is not Mont Blanc
managed by a Company?"

"What! did you believe all that? Why, it was only a
guying. Among people of Tarascon, of course — you know
that what we say is — is-—"

When on Mont Blanc the "brave" Tartarin is full
of fear and trepidation of death; he makes his confes-
sion:

"Forgive me; yes, yes, forgive me. I have often been
unkind to you : I have treated you as a liar — "

"What does that matter?"

"Listen to me, friend; I have never killed a lion!"

"That does not surprise me at all," replied Bompard,
quickly. "But why worry yourself about such a trifle ?"

What Daudet specially regards as ludicrous is van-
ity, conceit, deceit, folly, mendacity, simulation, silliness,
stupidity and absurdity.

CHAPTER XVI
HOLY WRITS AND THE SAGES

The sacred Scriptures use ridicule as their weapon
and take the fool as the target at whom the shafts of
scorn are directed with power and sure aim. The psalm-
ist sings :

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. God
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand.

They have gone back.

Surely men of low degree are a lie: to be laid in the
balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Fools because of their transgressions, and because of
their iniquities, are afflicted.

The Proverbs specially abound in derision and ridi-
cule at the expense of the ignorant, the vain and the
foolish.

A foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple and
knoweth nothing.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. In the
mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride.

Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom.

Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather
than a fool in his folly.

Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise thy
wisdom.

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The writer of the Proverbs apparently discriminated
between the fool as the simpleton and the arrogant fool.
The treatment of the arrogant fool is : "Answer a fool
according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own con-
ceit," while that of the fool-simpleton: "Answer not a
fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto
him." Of the fool's wit the Proverbs pointedly remark:

The legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in
the mouth of fools.

As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that
giveth honor to a fool.

The great God that formed all things rewardeth the
fool.

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to
his folly.

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is
more hope of a fool than of him. The sluggard is wiser
in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.

Even the mild Christ did not hesitate to use the fool
as his butt. We all know the parable of the foolish vir-
gins. We are not surprised to find Schopenhauer having
his fling :

A wise man is wise only on condition of living in a
world of fools.

We find in the world of mankind, from a moral stand-
point, villainy and baseness, and, from an intellectual stand-
point, incapacity and stupidity. Stupid people are generally
malicious for the very same reason that the ugly and de-
formed are.

The fool, the defective, and even the physically de-
formed are put into the same category. This, however,
is but the maxim of a pessimist. The fool is not neces-

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sarily malicious, but he is certainly ludicrous. Igno-
rance, silliness, lack of wit, stupidity, naivete, stolidity,
sluggishness, misapprehension, error of understanding
will always be fit subjects for the shafts of ridicule and
remain everlasting themes of the comic.

The "Al Koran" is not without its laugh. Thus Mo-
hammed tells us:

When the Prophet entrusted as a secret unto one of
his wives a certain accident; and when she disclosed the
same, and God made it known unto him; he acquainted
her with part of what she had done and forbore to upbraid
her with the other part thereof. And when he had ac-
quainted her therewith, she said, Who hath discovered this
unto thee? He answered, the knowing, the sagacious God
hath discovered it unto me.

The Hindoo Scriptures ridicule the priests thus:

After lying still for a year, these Brahmans, the frogs,
have uttered their voices, inspired by the rain-god!

In the like vein is the "Upanishad," which compares
the priests, the Brahmans, who circle round the holy fire,
each holding the robe of him who walks before him, to a
row of puppies, each holding in his mouth his predeces-
sor's tail.

The holy Brahmans are compared to frogs and pup-
pies.

The Dhammapada of the Buddhists says:

If a fool be associated with a wise man, even all his life,
he will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the
taste of soup.

The Chinaman is grave and serious. Confucius is a
Chinaman par excellence, as he practically formulated the

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

rules of Chinese "proprieties," and has formed the mould
in which Chinese character and civilization have been
cast for over two thousand years. In the "Analects" we
find the Chinese sage, Confucius, occasionally relaxing
his grave demeanor and a smile and a laugh playing on
his stern countenance at the sight of man's shortcom-
ings:

Blade, but no bloom — or else bloom, but no produce —
ay, that is the way with some.

Whenever Tez-Kunz drew comparisons from others, the
Master would say, "Ah, how wise and great you must have
become ! Now I have no time to do that !"

Students of old fixed their eyes upon themselves; now
they learn with their eyes upon others.

Of Wei-shang-Kau he said :

Who calls him straightforward? A person once begged
some vinegar of him, and he begged it from a neighbor,
and then presented him with it!

"The blossom is out on the cherry tree,

With a flutter on every spray.
Dost think that my thoughts go not out to thee ?

Ah, why art thou far away !"

Commenting on these lines the Master said, "There
can hardly have been much 'thought going out!' What
does distance signify?"

Tsz-lu propounded a question about ministering to the
spirits (of the departed). The Master replied, "Where
there is scarcely the ability to minister to (living) men,
how shall there be ability to minister to the spirits?"

On his venturing to put a question concerning death, he
answered, "Where there is scarcely any knowledge about
life, how shall there be any about death?"

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HOLY WRITS AND THE SAGES

Through the intervention of Tzu-lu, Tsz-kau was being
appointed governor of Pi. "You are spoiling a good man's
son," said the Master.

Tsz-kung was consulting him, and asked, "What say you
of a person who was liked by all in his village?"

"That will scarcely do/* he answered.

"What then, if they all disliked him?"

"That, too," said he, "is scarcely enough. Better if he
were liked by the good folk in the village, and disliked
by the bad."

The sage Epictetus holds up moral and mental de-
fects to ridicule. The following extracts from Epictetus
are taken at random :

If we all applied ourselves as heartily to our proper
business as the old fellows at Rome do to their schemes;
perhaps we, too, might make some proficiency. I know
a man older than I am, and who is now superintendent
of provisions at Rome. When he passed through this
place on his return from exile, what an account did he
give me of his former life! and how did he promise that
for the future, when he was got back, he would apply him-
self to nothing but how to spend the remainder of his days
in repose and tranquillity. "For how few have I now re-
maining!" "You will not do it," said I. "When you are
once got within the smell of Rome, you will forget all this,
and, if you can but once again gain admittance to court,
you will go in heartily rejoiced and thank God." "If you
ever find me, Epictetus," said he, "putting one foot into
the court, think of me whatever you please." How, after
all, did he act? Before he entered the city he was met
by a billet from Caesar. On receiving it he forgot all his
former resolutions, and has ever since been heaping up
one encumbrance upon another. I should be glad now to

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have an opportunity of putting him in mind of his dis-
course upon the road, and of saying, How much more clever
a prophet am I than you!

A person was talking to me one day about the priest-
hood of Augustus. I say to him, "Let the thing alone,
friend: you will be at great expense for nothing." "But
my name," says he, "will be written in the annals." "Will
you stand by, then, and tell those who read them, 'I am the
person whose name is written there'? But, if you could
tell everyone so now, what will you do when you are
dead?" "My name will remain." "Write it upon a stone
and it will remain just as well." "But pray, what remem-
brance will there be of you out of Nicopolis?" "But I
shall wear a crown of gold." "If your heart is quite set
upon a crown, take and put on one of roses, for it will
make the prettier appearance."

Such a one is happy. He walks with a numerous train.
Well, I join myself with the crowd, and I, too, walk with a
numerous train.

An acquaintance of mine, for no reason, had determined
to starve himself to death. I went the third day, and in-
quired what was the matter. He answered, "I am deter-
mined." Well: but what is your motive? for, if your
determination be right, we will stay and assist your de-
parture; but, if unreasonable, change it — "We ought to
keep our determinations." What do you mean, sir? not
all; but such as are right. Else, if you should just now
take it into your head that it is night, if you think fit, do
not change; but persist, and say, "We ought to keep our
determinations."

With difficulty this person was, however, at last con-
vinced; but there are some at present whom there is no
convincing. So that now I think I understand, what before

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I did not, the meaning of that common saying, that a fool
will neither bend nor break. May it never fall to my lot to
have a wise, that is an intractable, fool for my friend.

There are some things which men confess with ease;
others, with difficulty. No one, for instance, will confess
himself a fool, or a blockhead; but, on the contrary, you
will hear every one say, "I wish my fortune was equal
to my mind." But they easily confess themselves fearful,
and say, "I am somewhat timorous, I confess; but in other
respects you will not find me a fool."

Do you not often see little dogs caressing and playing
with each other, that you would say nothing could be more
friendly; but to learn what this friendship is, throw a bit
of meat between them, and you will see. Do you, too,
throw a bit of an estate between you and your son, and
you will see that he will quickly wish you underground, and
you him; and then you, no doubt, on the other hand, will
exclaim, ''What a son I have brought up! He would bury
me alive !" Throw in a pretty girl, and the old fellow and
the young one will both fall in love with her.

Were not Eteocles and Polynices born of the same
mother and of the same father? Were they not brought
up, and did they not live and eat and sleep together? Did
they not kiss and fondle each other? So that anyone who
saw them would have laughed at all the paradoxes which
philosophers utter about love. And yet, when a kingdom,
like a bit of meat, was thrown betwixt them, see what
they say, and how eagerly they wish to kill each other.

Even the stoic, Marcus Aurelius, is not above the
use of ridicule. Thus he tells us in his "Meditations" :

Wheresoever thou mayest live, there it is in thy power to
live well and happy. But thou mayest live at the Court?
There then also mayest thou live well and happy.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Schopenhauer is lavish in ridicule. Of the many ex-
amples found in his writings we may take the one in
which he contrasts the successful, "clever man" with the
intellectual man who, in the opinion of the world, ap-
pears as lacking in "common" sense:

The clever man, when he converses, will think less of
what he is saying than of the person with whom he is
speaking; for then he is sure to say nothing which he
will afterwards regret; he is sure not to lay himself open,
nor to commit an indiscretion. But his conversation will
never be particularly interesting.

An intellectual man readily does the opposite, and with
him the person with whom he converses is often no more
than the mere occasion of a monologue; and it often
happens that the other then makes up for his subordinate
role by lying in wait for the man of intellect, and drawing
his secrets out of him.

Even the meek Tolstoy with his doctrine of non-
resistance to evil cannot resist the use of ridicule in his
chastisement of human folly and conceit :

Lately William II ordered a new throne for himself with
some special ornaments, and, dressing himself up in a white
uniform with patches, in tight trousers, and in a helmet
with a bird on it, and throwing a red mantle over it, came
out to his subjects. He seated himself on the throne, with
full assurance that this was a necessary and important act.
His subjects saw nothing funny in all this, they even found
the spectacle very majestic.

The Puritan, Bunyan, in his "Pilgrim's Progress,"
avails himself of the power of ridicule :

World. Why, in yonder village (the village is named
Morality) there dwells a gentleman whose name is Legality,

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HOLY WRITS AND THE SAGES

a very judicious man, and a man of a very good name,
that has skill to help men off with such burdens as thine
is from their shoulders; yea, to my knowledge, he hath
done a great deal of good this way; aye, and besides, he
hath skill to cure those that are somewhat crazed in their
wits with their burdens. To him, as I said, thou mayest go,
and be helped presently. His house is not quite a mile from
this place; and if he should not be at home himself, he
hath a pretty young man to his son, whose name is Civility,
that can do it (to speak on) as well as the old gentleman
himself: there, I say, thou mayest be eased of thy burden;
and if thou are not minded to go back to thy former
habitation, as indeed I would not wish thee, thou mayest
send for thy wife and children to thee to this village, where
there are houses now standing empty, one of which thou
mayest have at a reasonable rate: provision is there also
cheap and good ; and that which will make thy life the more
happy is to be sure there thou shalt live by honest neighbors,
in credit and good fashion.

They also showed him some of the engines with which
some of his servants had done wonderful things. They
showed him Moses' rod; the hammer and nail with which
Jael slew Sisera; the pitchers, trumpets, and lamps, too,
with which Gideon put to flight the armies of Midian.
Then they showed him the ox-goad wherewith Shamgar
slew six hundred men. They showed him also the jaw-
bone with which Sampson did such mighty feats. They
showed him, moreover, the sling and stone with which
David slew Goliath of Gath ; and the sword also with which
their Lord will kill the men of sin, in the day that he shall
rise up to the prey. They showed him, besides, many ex-
cellent things, with which Christian was much delighted.
This done, they went to their rest again.

Talk. What you will. I will talk of things heavenly,

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or things earthly ; things moral, or things evangelical ; things
sacred, or things profane; things past, or things to come;
things foreign, or things at home; things more essential,
or things circumstantial; provided that all be done to our
profit.

Now did Faithful begin to wonder; and stepping to
Christian (for he walked all this while by himself), he
said to him, but softly, What a brave companion we have
got ! Surely, this man will make a very excellent pilgrim.

At this Christian modestly smiled and said, This man,
with whom you are so taken, will beguile with this tongue
of his twenty of them that know him not.

Faith. Do you know him then?

Chr. Know him? Yes, better than he knows himself.

Faith. Pray, what is he?

Chr. His name is Talkative: he dwelleth in our town.
I wonder that you should be a stranger to him; only I
consider that our town is large.

Faith. Whose son is he? And whereabouts doth he
dwell?

Chr. He is a son of one Say-well. He dwelt in Prating
Row; and he is known to all that are acquainted with him
by the name of Talkative of Prating Row; and, notwith-
standing his fine tongue, he is but a sorry fellow.

Faith. Well, he seems to be a very pretty man.

Chr. That is to them that have not a thorough ac-
quaintance with him, for he is best abroad; near home he
is ugly enough. Your saying that he is a pretty man,
brings to my mind what I have observed in the work of
a painter, whose pictures show best at a distance, but very
near more unpleasing.

Faith. But I am ready to think you do but jest, because
you smiled.

Chr. God forbid that I should jest (though I smiled)
in this matter, or that I should accuse any falsely. I will
give you a further discovery of him. This man is for any

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HOLY WRITS AND THE SAGES

company, and for any talk; as he talketh now with you,
so will he talk when he is on the ale-bench; and the more
drink he hath in his crown, the more of these things he
hath in his mouth. Religion hath no place in his heart,
or house, or conversation; all he hath lieth in his tongue,
and his religion is to make a noise therewith.

And now to the second part of the question, which con-
cerns the tradesman you mentioned. Suppose such an one
to have but a poor employ in the world, but by becoming
religious he may mend his market, perhaps get a rich
wife, or more and far better customers to his shop; for my
part, I see no reason but this may be lawfully done. For
why?

1. To become religious is a virtue, by what means
soever a man becomes so.

2. Nor is it unlawful to get a rich wife, or more custom
to my shop.

3. Besides, the man that gets these by becoming re-
ligious gets that which is good of them that are good, by
becoming good himself; so then here are a good wife, and
good customers, and good gain, and all these by becoming
religious, which is good ; therefore, to become religious to
get all these is a good and profitable design.

The fatter the sow is, the more she desires the mire;
the fatter the ox is, the more gamesomely he goes to the
slaughter ; and the more healthy the lustful man is, the more
prone he is unto evil.

In all the extracts from "Pilgrim's Progress" we find
how Bunyan with all his earnest Puritanic zeal employs
ridicule in behalf of religion. We further realize that
ridicule consists in assimilating the irreligious, the un-
godly, the immoral, the rogue, the babbler, and the hypo-
crite with silliness, stupidity, meanness, conceit, deceit,
and vulgarity — with the pig, the sow, and the mire.

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CHAPTER XVII
IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

The ignorant and the foolish form the subject matter
of the comic ; they are the legitimate laughing-stock of the
world. If people are unaware of their ignorance, and
are na'ive in their statements, the effect is ludicrous, and
all the more effective when they deliver themselves about
their ignorance with the infallibility of the Grand Llama.

We smile at the city woman who was surprised at see-
ing the process of milking for the first time. "Why," she
said, "I thought a cow was milked by the twisting of her
tail."

When the telegraph was first introduced, the most
ludicrous ideas were entertained as to its manner of
working. It was thought that the letter carrier would
run on the wires and carry his mailbag with great ease.
Others thought that the wires would be used for the pur-
pose of dragging mail from station to station. "Wife,"
said a man, "I don't see for my part, how they send let-
ters on them wires without tearin' 'em all to bits." "Oh,
you stupid!" exclaimed the more intellectual helpmeet.
"Why they don't send the paper, they just send the
writin' in a fluid state."

A little darkey saw a piece of newspaper that had blown
up on one of the telegraph wires and caught there. He
ran into the house in great excitement and cried out:

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IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

"Come quick! Dem wires done buss and done let all the
news out!"

An Irishman heard that when one sense is under-
developed the other is overdeveloped. "I observed it, too,"
he said, "when one leg is shorter the other one is longer."

A Sunday school teacher asks one of the boys, "How
many commandments are there, Tom?" Tom thinks and
answers, "Perhaps a hundred!" Tom then asks one of
the boys what is the number of the commandments. The
boy answers promptly, "Ten!"

"Oh, go on !" exclaims Tommy, "I told the teacher there
was a hundred and he was dissatisfied!"

A doctor examined a young lady and told her that
her liver was not in good order.

"I trust," replied the lady, "that my other liver is all
right."

A doctor examined a patient and tapped him on the
left side of the abdomen. The patient in his curiosity
asked the doctor what he was looking for.

"I examine your spleen," answered the doctor.

"Why," exclaimed the patient, "I thought the spleen
was in the head !"

Doctor: "Do you have noises in your head?"
Patient: "Sure, Oi have thim all the time an' some
times I can hear thim fifty feet away!"

"Mamma," exclaimed the little city boy, "the cows chew
gum!"

The ignorance and shortcomings of physicians are
ridiculed in the following anecdote:

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

A father brings his dumb child to the doctor for
diagnosis. The child is mute. The doctor's diagnosis is,
she is mute, because she lost the power of speech. When
the father asks for further information, the doctor tells
him that it is because she has lost control of the faculty of
articulation.

A surgeon amputated a leg of one of his patients. "Is
there any hope now?" asked a friend anxiously. "Not the
least," said the doctor. "Why, then, make him suffer by
the operation?" "Why, sir, can a physician tell a patient
at once that he is doomed ? We must jolly him a little."

The Greek epigram on a physician is well pointed : The
sun shines on his successes and the earth covers his fail-
ures.

Similarly, ignorance, in giving faulty definitions, ex-
cites our merriment, as, for instance, the school boy who
told the teacher that the side opposite the right angle of a
triangle is termed "hippopotamus"; or that a mountain
range is a large-sized cooking stove. A similar definition
is that the pyramids (Pyrenees) are a range of moun-
tains between France and Spain.

If we analyze such jokes more closely, we find that
much that is regarded as ignorance is really silliness, dull-
ness, and stupidity. It is, after all, the fool and his folly
that are ridiculed. As Heine puts it tersely : "The folly
of my fellow mortals will live forever. For there is but
one wisdom, and it hath its fixed limits, but there are a
thousand illimitable follies. The learned casuist and
carer for souls, Schuup, even saith that in the world
there are mpre fools than human beings."

Ignorance, stupidity, and folly are the Trimurti of
the comic.

Feigned ignorance where the stupidity of the other

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IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

person is revealed is frequently a subject of the ludicrous.
Feigning of ignorance expressed in a delicate form of
ridicule elevated to the sublime regions of philosophy is
found in the "Dialogues" of the great philosopher and
artist, Plato. We may take for examination a few ex-
amples. Socrates ridicules the Sophist, Protagoras, and
his enthusiastic admirers:

Last night or rather very early in the morning, Hip-
pocrates gave a tremendous thump with his staff at my door ;
some one opened it and he came rushing in and bawled
out : Socrates, are you awake or asleep ?

I knew his voice and said: Hippocrates, i§ that you?
and do you bring any news?

Good news, he said; nothing but good.

Delightful, I said ; but what is the news ? and why have
you come hither at this unearthly hour?

He drew nearer to me and said: Protagoras is come.

(Socrates took it coolly). Yes, I replied, he came two
days ago. Have you only just heard of his arrival?

Yes, by the gods, he said, but not until yesterday morn-
ing. Protagoras is come. I was going to you at once,
and then I thought that the night was far spent. But the
moment sleep left me, I got up and came hither direct.

I, who know the very courageous madness of the man,
said: What is the matter? Has Protagoras robbed you
of anything?

He replied laughing: Yes, indeed, he has, Socrates, of
the wisdom which he keeps from me.

But surely, I said, if you give him money, and make
friends with him, he will make you as wise as himself.

After some discussion, in which Socrates makes Hip-
pocrates look sheepish for the rash decision to be in-
structed by a Sophist, he finally takes the young man

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over to the house of the wealthy Callias, where Protag-
oras stays as a guest. With one artistic touch Plato
ridicules the Sophists who crowd at the doors of wealthy
people.

And I think that the doorkeeper, who was a eunuch,
and who was probably annoyed at the great inroad of the
Sophists, must have heard us talking. At any rate, when
we knocked at the door, and he opened and saw us, he
grumbled: They are Sophists — he is not at home; and
instantly gave the door a hearty bang with both his hands.
Again we knocked, and he answered without opening: Did
you hear me say that he is not at home, fellows ? But, my
friend, I said, you need not be alarmed; for we are not
Sophists, and we are not come to see Callias ; but we want
to see Protagoras ; and I must request you to announce us.
At last, after a good deal of difficulty, the man was per-
suaded to open the door.

When we entered Protagoras was taking a walk in the
court. A train of listeners followed him; the greater part
of them appeared to be strangers whom Protagoras had
brought with him out of the various cities visited by him
in his journeys, he, like Orpheus, attracting them by his
voice and they following.

Plato thus ridicules the magic which Protagoras ex-
ercises on the stupefied men, and then represents the
ludicrous scene of the folly, of the adoration of their
master, and of the blind, irrational following commanded
by the archsophist.

Nothing delighted me more than the precision of their
movements : they took such care never to come in his way
at all; but when he and those who were with him turned
back, then the band of listeners parted regularly on either
side; he was always in front, and they wheeled round and
took their places behind him in perfect order.

IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

After the introduction is over and Protagoras finds
that a new wealthy pupil is brought to him he exhibits
his skill in oratory by going off into a long and windy
oration which Socrates ridicules with his powerful,
though delicate and almost imperceptible irony and
humor.

Protagoras ended

So charming left his voice, that I the while

Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear.

At length when the truth dawned upon me that he
had really finished, not without difficulty I began to collect
myself, and, looking at Hippocrates, I said to him : O son
of Apollodorus, how deeply grateful I am to you for having
brought me hither; I would not have missed the speech
of Protagoras for a great deal.

Then with his refined, delicate irony Socrates proceeds
to entangle Protagoras in the meshes of his dialectic.

I have one small difficulty which I am sure that
Protagoras will easily explain, as he has already explained
so much. If a man were to go and consult Pericles or any
of our great speakers about these same matters, he might
perhaps hear as fine a discourse; but then when one has
a question to ask of any of them, like books, they can
neither answer nor ask: and if anyone challenges the least
particular of their speech, they go ringing on in a long
harangue, like brazen pots which when they are struck
continue to sound unless someone puts his hand upon them ;
whereas our friend, Protagoras, can not only make a good
speech, as he has already shown, but when he is asked
a question, he can answer briefly ; and when he asks, he will
wait and hear the answer and this is a very rare gift.

After Protagoras is caught in the net of Socratic
dialectics he refuses to continue the discussion, the other

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great Sophists present exhort him not to interrupt the
argument. At the same time they take occasion to show
off, and hit Protagoras, the famous Sophist. Plato, with
his genius for the humorous, depicts this sophistic vanity
intertwined with the feelings of rivalry. Plato takes
occasion to ridicule the finely spun cobwebs, distinctions,
and platitudes for which Prodicus was so famous, and
also the well-known Hippias with his cosmopolitanism,
meanwhile exhibiting the Sophists in a ludicrous light.

Prodicus said: Those who are present at such dis-
cussions ought to be impartial hearers of both the speakers,
remembering however that impartiality is not the same as
equality, for both sides should be impartially heard, and
yet an equal meed should not be assigned to both of them ;
but to the wiser a higher meed should be given, and a
lower to the less wise. And I as well as Critias would
beg you, Protagoras and Socrates, to grant our request,
which is that you will argue with one another and not
wrangle; for friends argue with friends out of good will,
but only adversaries and enemies wrangle. And then our
meeting will be delightful ; for in this way you, who are the
speakers, will be most likely to win esteem, and not praise
only, among us who are your audience; for esteem is a
sincere conviction of the hearers' souls, but praise is often
an insincere expression of men uttering falsehoods con-
trary to their convictions. And thus we who are the
hearers will be gratified and not pleased; for gratification
is of the mind when receiving wisdom and knowledge, but
pleasure is of the body when eating or experiencing some
other bodily delight. Thus spoke Prodicus, and Socrates
adds "many of the company applauded his words."

This speech made by Prodicus reminds one of the silly
pedantic themes and briefs made by instructors and pro-

IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

fessors of English composition in our "foremost" Ameri-
can colleges.

A little volume on English composition, used as a text-
book in one of the leading Eastern colleges, among other
recipes for literary style, or the concoction of fine Eng-
lish phrases and polite letter-writing, gives gravely the
advice that in a letter "The salutation should be written
flush ( ? !) with the left-hand margin." As a climax the
book concludes with directions as to the all-important po-
sition of the postage-stamp ( !) : "The postage-stamp
should be attached in the upper right-hand corner. It
should be right side up, and its edges should be parallel
to the edges of the paper." ( !)

Here is a specimen of rules on "briefing," taken from
a college text-book on argumentation, an interesting
specimen of logical acumen and clearness of thought:
"In briefing the refutation always state the first as-
sertion that is to be refuted with such connectives, as,
'Although it is urged ... yet the conclusion is un-
sound, for . . .,' 'Although the case is cited . . .
yet the case is irrelevant, for . . ." Whatever our
modern educational institutions lack, they are not defi-
cient in a certain amount of unconscious dry humor.

Plato then ridicules the grandiloquent, cosmopolitan
sage Hippias:

All of you who are here present I reckon to be kinsmen
and friends and fellow citizens, by nature and not by law ;
for by nature like is akin to like, whereas law is the tyrant
of mankind, and often compels us to do many things which
are against nature. How great would be the disgrace then,
if we, who know the nature of things, and are the wisest
of Hellenes, and who, bearing such a high character, are
met together in this city, which is the metropolis of wisdom,

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and in the greatest and most glorious house of this city,
should have nothing to show worthy of this height of dig-
nity, but should only quarrel with one another like the
meanest of mankind! Let us be your peacemakers. And
do not you, Socrates, aim at this precise and extreme brevity
in discourse, but loosen and let go the reins of speech, that
your words may be grander and more becoming to you.
(And here is a stab at his rival Protagoras.) Neither do
you, Protagoras, go forth on the gale with every sail set
out of sight of land, into an ocean of words.

In "Euthydemus" Plato again ridicules the Sophists
by comparing them to prize-fighters and boxers, the idols
of our American public, crowds and mobs.

Crito. Neither of them are known to me, Socrates;
they are a new importation of Sophists, as I should imagine.
Of what country are they and what is the line of their
wisdom ?

Soc. As to their origin, I believe that they are natives
of this part of the world, and have migrated from Chios
to Thurii; they were driven out from Thurii and have
been living for many years past in these regions. As to
their wisdom, about which you ask, Crito, they are wonder-
ful— consummate! I never knew what the true boxer and
athlete was before; they are simply made up of fighting,
not like the two Acharnanian brothers, who fight with
their bodies only, but this pair of brothers, besides being
perfect in the use of their bodies, are invincible in every
sort of warfare. For they are capital in fighting in armor,
and will teach the art to anyone who pays them. They are
also most skilful in legal warfare; they themselves will
plead and teach others to speak and compose speeches which
will have an effect upon the courts. And this was only
the beginning of their wisdom, but they have at last carried
out the athletic art to the very end, and have mastered

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the only mode of fighting which had hitherto been neglected
by them. No one dares even to stand up against them, such
is their skill in the war of words, that they can refute any
proposition whether true or false.

Socrates then goes on with his story, in which he
holds up the two Sophists to ridicule :

I saluted the brothers, whom I had not seen for a long
time: and then I said to Cleinias: Here are two wise
men, wise not only in a small, but in a large way of
wisdom, for they know all about war — all that a good
general ought to know about the array and command of
an army, and the whole art of fighting in armor; and they
know about law, too, and can teach a man how to use
the weapons of the courts when he is injured.

They heard me say this, but only despised me. I ob-
served that they looked at one another, and both of them
laughed; and then Euthydemus said: Those, Socrates, are
matters which we no longer pursue seriously; to us, they
are secondary occupations.

Indeed, I said, if such occupations are regarded by you
as secondary, what must the principal one be; tell me I
beseech you what the noble study is?

The teaching of virtue, Socrates, he replied, is our
principal occupation; and we believe we can impart it
better and quicker than any man.

My God! I said, and where did you learn that? I
always imagined, as I was saying just now, your chief
accomplishment to be the art of fighting in armor. But
now if you really have the other knowledge, O forgive me :
I address you as I would superior beings, and ask you to
pardon the impiety of my former expressions. But are
you quite sure about it? The promise is so vast that a
feeling of incredulity steals over me.

You may take our word, Socrates, for the fact.

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Thus does Plato in the person of Socrates expose to
ridicule the conceit and folly of the "wise" Sophists.
The whole Socratic irony consists in the fact that by a
method of self-humiliation and reasoning he exposes the
self-delusion and the imposition of the Sophists who
claim wisdom while manifesting only conceit and folly.
What Socrates ridicules is the sham wisdom, the stu-
pidity of the Sophists.

In his "Symposium," which is full of the fire of
genius, both from an artistic and philosophical stand-
point, Plato handles the more delicate shades of the
ludicrous with the consummate skill of an artist. At
a banquet given by Agathon, among many other speak-
ers, the physician, Eryximachus, delivers his speech on
love, which, according to him, is the harmony of oppo-
sites. Meanwhile Aristophanes, the great comic writer,
is seized by a fit of the hiccoughs, which is treated by
Eryximachus. When the physician is through with his
speech on the harmony of love he turns to Aristophanes,
saying :

You, Aristophanes, may now supply the omission or
take some other line of commendation; for I perceive that
you are rid of the hiccough.

Yes, said Aristophanes, the hiccough is gone; not how-
ever until I applied the sneezing; and I wonder whether
the harmony of the body has a love of such noises and
ticklings, for I no sooner applied the sneezing than I was
cured.

Eryximachus said: Beware, friend Aristophanes, al-
though you are going to speak, you are making fun of me ;
and I shall have to watch your speech and see whether I
cannot have a laugh at you.

You are quite right, said Aristophanes, laughing. I

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IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

will unsay my words; but do you please not to watch me,
as I fear that in the speech which I am about to make,
instead of others laughing with me, which is the manner
born of our muse, I shall only be laughed at.

Aristophanes, then in his humorous way, represents
the perfect primeval man spinning like a top and running
on all fours, something like the monstrous half beastly
gods of the barbarians, with four hands, two faces, and
Janus-like in form. When these men, half human, half
brutes, became too insolent Zeus, with Greek cunning
and Aristophanic humor, splits them in two.

"Men," said the father of gods, "shall continue to
exist, but 1 will cut them in two and then they will diminish
in strength and be increased in numbers; this will have
the advantage of making them more profitable to us. They
shall walk upright and if they continue insolent and will
not be quiet I will split them again and they shall hop
on a single leg." Each of us when separated, having one
side only like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man,
and he is always looking for his other half.

With comic piety Aristophanes calls on men to be
reverent and obedient to the gods.

If we are not obedient to the gods, there is a danger
that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-
relievo, like the profile figures having only half a nose, and
that we shall be like tallies. Wherefore let us exhort all
men to piety, that we may avoid evil and obtain the good.

In spite of all his conservatism Aristophanes cannot
help having his jibe at gods, men, and the feeling of piety
so dear to the ancients, and he concludes :

This, Eryximachus, is my discourse of love which I

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must beg you to leave unassailed by the shafts of your
ridicule.

The physician hardly could make the oration more
comic. The human and divine were both, with that
semi-serious laughter characteristic of the subtle intellect
of the Greek, presented in a self-seeking, ignoble, animal-
like, jumping-jack-like, and stupid aspect. The primeval
"perfect" man spins on all fours; then man is split, like
a fish, always looking for his missing mate. The future
man may go about in basso relievo, be a mere profile of
man with half a nose, while the gods will reap the profit
of multiplied sacrifices.

Plato then ridicules the pompous style of the rhetoric
of Gorgias and his disciples. He represents it as a silly,
melodramatic, and meaningless piling of words and heap-
ing of sentences without rhyme or reason. And then
concludes Agathon's Gorgian speech on love with the
following dithyrambic:

Love is the fairest, best, and the cause of what is
fairest and best. And there comes into my mind a line of
poetry in which he is said to be the god who

Gives peace on earth and calms the stormy deep,
Who stills the winds and bids the sufferer sleep.
This is he who empties men of disaffection and fills them
with affection, who makes them to meet together at banquets
such as these: in sacrifice, feasts, dances, he is our lord,
who sends courtesy and sends away discourtesy, who gives
kindness ever, and never gives unkindness; the friend of
the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the
gods; desired by those who have no part in him, and
precious to those who have the better in him; parent of
delicacy, luxury, desire, fondness, softness, grace ; regardful
of the good, regardless of the evil: in every work, wish,

IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

fear — saviour, pilot, comrade, helper; glory of gods and
men, leader, best and brightest: in whose footsteps let
every man follow, sweetly singing in his honor and joining
in that sweet strain with which love charms the souls of
gods and men.

At the end of the speech there was the usual cheer.
Socrates, with his customary ironical bantering, humor
and ridicule, exclaims in mock confusion :

Why, my dear friend, must not I or any one be in a
strait who has to speak after he has heard such a rich and
varied discourse? I am especially struck with the beauty
of the concluding words — who could listen to them without
amazement? When I reflected on the immeasurable in-
feriority of my own powers, I was ready to run away for
shame, if there had been a possibility of escape. For I
was reminded of Gorgias, and at the end of his speech I
fancied that Agathon was shaking at me the Gorginian
or Gorgonian head of the great master of rhetoric, which
was simply to turn me and my speech into stone, as Homer
says, and strike me dumb.

By pointing out his own foolishness he really hints
at the folly of the Sophists and their ignorance of the
subject under discussion.

And then I perceived how foolish I had been in con-
senting to take my turn with you in praising love, and
saying that I, too, was a master of the art, when I really
had no conception how anything ought to be praised. For
in my simplicity I imagined that the topics of praise should
be true. And I felt quite proud, thinking that I knew the
nature of true praise, and should speak well. Whereas I
now see that the intention was to attribute to Love every
species of greatness and glory, whether really belonging
to him or not, without regard to truth or falsehood — that

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

was no matter. For the original proposal seems to have
been not that each of you should really praise Love, but
only that you should appear to praise him. And so you
attribute to 'Love every imaginable form of praise which
can be gathered anywhere ; and you say "he is all this" and
the "cause of all that," making him appear the fairest
and the best of all to those who knew him not, for you
cannot impose upon those who know him.

Here Socrates, in his ridicule, lays bare the sources
of the comic — imposition, stupidity, and folly.

Plato concludes his "Symposium" with the playful
irony :

Aristodemus was only half awake (all of the carousers
fell asleep and he did not hear the beginning of the dis-
course led by Socrates and listened to by Agathon and
Aristophanes). The chief thing which Aristodemus re-
membered was Socrates compelling the other two to ac-
knowledge that the genius of comedy was the same as
that of tragedy, and that the true artist in tragedy was
an artist in comedy also. To this they were constrained to
assent, being drowsy, and not quite following the argument.

The mean, the low, and the ignoble, the defective
and the proud, conceited, ignorant, and the foolish, un-
aware of themselves, are legitimate prey for the search-
light of one who has superior insight. They are ludi-
crous subjects for the merriment and laughter of the
spectator. Wherever we find lack of judgment and in-
telligence, where such are expected, we cannot re-
strain our smiles and laughter. Ignorance, naivete,
silliness, imbecility, absentmindedness, absurdity, fool-
ishness, human folly in general form the ingredients of
the ludicrous and the comic. In our analysis of jokes,

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IGNORANCE AND THE LUDICROUS

jests, puns, banter, burlesque, humor, raillery, anecdotes,
farce, fun, irony, and witticisms we find that it is the
witless and the fool who form the central characters of
laughter.

As illustrations we may take the following jokes :

During a discussion at a meeting a speaker mentioned
the extraordinary circumstance that, in China, if a man
were condemned to death he could easily hire a substitute
to die for him; "and I believe," continued the debater,
"that many poor fellows get their living by acting as sub-
stitutes in that way."

"How far is it to Cork ?" asked a stranger.
"Six miles," was the reply ; "but, sure, if you walk fast
you can make it in four."

An Irish officer, who had been in India many years
and enjoyed the best of health, could not bear to hear
the Indian climate run down as it usually is.

"A lot of young fellows," he said, "come out here, and
they drink and they eat, and they eat and they drink, and
they die. And then they go home and say that it was the
climate that did it !"

"Sure," said Pat, pointing toward his heart, " 'twas
here where I was struck with the inimies' bullet, and "

"Ay, man," interrupted Sandy, "if ye had been shot
through the heart you wad a been kilt."

"Begorra, ye spalpeen," retorted Pat, "at the toime I
was shot me heart was in me mouth."

An officer, who was inspecting his company, spied one
private whose shirt was sadly begrimed.

"Patrick O'Flynn!" called the captain.

"Here, your honor!" promptly responded Patrick, with
his hand to his cap.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"How long do you wear a shirt?"
"Twenty-eight inches," was the rejoinder.

An Irishman, who was to undergo trial for theft, was
being comforted by his priest.

"Keep up your heart, Dennis, my boy. Take my word
for it, you'll get justice."

"Troth, yer riverence," replied Dennis in an undertone,
"an' that's just what I'm afraid of."

In all these examples we find ignorance, stupidity,
and imbecility exposed to laughter and ridicule. The
fool and his folly are at the very heart of the ludicrous.

CHAPTER XVIII
SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

We have referred to the fact that the appreciation of
a joke or of anything ridiculous depends on the audi-
ence. The same joke which sends one audience into con-
vulsions of uproarious laughter meets with indifference
and even disapprobation and hisses from a crowd under
different circumstances. Education, race, religion, na-
tionality, industrial and political interests, class and pro-
fessional prejudices must all be taken into consideration.
An ancient Hebrew, Greek, Roman, modern European,
Chinaman, Hindoo, Zulu, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Mo-
hammedan, capitalist, workman, artist, physician, engi-
neer, all of them have their special jokes, pleasantries,
and play, which appeal to particular people and to no
others.

Conditions and circumstances should be taken into
consideration. On solemn occasions, in cases of devotion
and loyalty, or in times of grief and misfortune, the
making of jokes and manifestations of mirth and laugh-
ter are not only unappreciated, but are even resented.
"As the grating of the pot under a pot so is the laughter
of fools." Jests and jokes out of time and place not only
show the absence of sympathy, but also the lack of
understanding, and are often turned against the person
who made them. The laughter-rousing activity, like all
human activities, must have its function and fit into the

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

general organic system of social relations. The joke
must not be offensive to the people in whom we wish to
arouse laughter. The joke should be made at the proper
time and when the people are ready for the ludicrous.

The social element and the psychological moment are
possibly the most important factors in the appreciation of
the ludicrous. There are times when people are ready
to burst out into laughter at the slighest provocation. It
remains for man to tap his audience, take aim and fire
off his joke or jest at the proper moment. When a per-
son makes a joke without regard to the social element and
to the psychological moment the joke falls flat and the
person is regarded as lacking in taste, tact, and under-
standing. He is regarded as a fool and people laugh, not
with him, but at him. In other words, the joke is like a
suggestion which must take into account the character of
the person's suggestibility in order to release the special
subconscious energies and get good effect.

In the comic and the ludicrous the currents of thought
may be analogous and parallel, or they may be opposite,
but there must be suggestiveness which leads to the rela-
tions of contrasted superiority and inferiority.

A lusty young man after he had been married a few
months began to fail, and grew very feeble. One day,
seeing a butcher run over a ploughed field after a bull, he
asked the reason of it.

"Why," says the butcner, "it is to tame him."
"Oh," says the fellow, "let him be married; if that don't
tame him I'll be hanged."

We have here a play on analogy of associations with
strong suggestions of the state of the fellow and ridicule
on marriage.

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SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

An Irishman was standing near the railroad, when a
freight train passed. There was a green flag on the rear
of the caboose. The Irishman asked the man standing
nearest him what that green flag meant. The man said:
"It means another coming." A few days later, the man
met the Irishman and his wife. They were wheeling a
baby carriage. The carriage had a green flag on it.

A witness in a law-case was asked : "On what authority
do you swear to the mare's age ?"

"On the best authority."

"Then why don't you say what it is?" urged the im-
patient lawyer.

"I had it from the mare's own mouth."

Here we have a play on association by analogy and
a suggestion of the lawyer's stupidity.

"These things in the room are very dusty," said a
mistress to her servant girl.

"If you please, ma'am," said the girl, "it is not the
things that are dirty, it is the nasty sun that comes in and
shows the dust on the things."

We find here the elements of opposition and anal-
ogy with a strong suggestion of stupidity.

The same is found in the anecdote of the man who
fed his hens on sawdust to have them lay wooden planks.
A similar example is found in the story of the Irishman
who fed his hens on sawdust and then said that the
young chicks had wooden legs and that one of the chicks
was a woodpecker. Here the analogy is carried all
through the anecdote, giving rise to absurdities.

The joke is often represented as a dramatic play in
which the state of inferiority is played now on one, and

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

now on the other of the dramatis persona. The follow-
ing may be taken as examples :

An Irishman who was hit with a brick engaged a lawyer
to put in a claim for $100. The claim was granted. The
lawyer gave Pat $10. Pat with the money in his hand kept
on looking hard at the bills.

"What is the matter?" said the lawyer.

"Begorra," said Pat, "I was just wondering who got hit
with the brick — you or I."

A man walking along the street of a village stepped into
a hole in the sidewalk and broke his leg. He engaged a
famous lawyer, brought suit against the village for one
thousand dollars and won the case.

After the claim was settled the lawyer sent for his client
and handed him one dollar.

The man examined the dollar carefully. Then he
looked up at the lawyer and said: "What's the matter
with this dollar? Is it a counterfeit?"

Pat met the village doctor, who was a sportsman, and
who was carrying his gun.

"Shure, Doctor," he said, "ye're a careful man, if yer
physic misses 'em, ye always carry yer gun."

"Well, nurse," said the doctor, "did my prescription
prove effective?"

"Shure, an' it did, sorr," was the reply. "He died this
morning as quiet as a lamb."

"Don't you know that the sun will injure your brain
if you expose it in that manner?" said a priest to a laborer
who was busily working on the roadside with his head bare
under the broiling sun. The man wiped the sweat off his
forehead and looked at the clergyman. "Do you think I'd

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SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

be doin' this all day, if I had any brains?" he said, and
he gave the handle another turn.

Speaking of her boy to the priest the doting mother
said, "There isn't in the barony, yer riv'rence, a cleverer
lad nor Tom. Look at thim," pointing to two small chairs
in the cabin. "He made thim out of his own head ; and, fair,
he has enough wood left to make me a big armchair."

Waiting till Pat came out of the saloon the priest ac-
costed him thus, "Pat, didn't you hear me calling?"

"Yes, your riverence, I did, but — but I had only the
price of one."

A priest, discoursing one Sunday on the miracle of the
loaves and the fishes, said in error that five people had been
fed with 5,000 loaves and two small fishes. It having
come to the priest's knowledge that his mistake had given
rise to a large amount of controversy (one Murphy declared
particularly that he nimself could do such a miracle), he
(the clergyman) decided to rectify the mistake. Next Sun-
day, on concluding his sermon, he said, "I should have told
you last Sunday that 5,000 people had been fed with five
loaves and two small fishes." Looking down on Mr.
Murphy, he said, "You could not do that, Mr. Murphy,
could you?"

"Ah! sure yer riv'rence, I could aisily," he replied.

"How would you do it, Mr. Murphy?"

"Why I'd give them what was left over from last
Sunday," answered Mr. Murphy.

"Now, Pat/' said a magistrate sympathetically to an
"old offender," "what brought you here again?"

"Two policemen, sor," was the laconic reply.

"Drunk, I suppose?" queried the magistrate.

"Yes, sor," said Pat without relaxing a muscle, "both
av them."

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Two witnesses were at the Assizes in a case which
concerned long continued poultry stealing. As usual
nothing could be got from them in the way of evidence
until the nearly baffled prosecuting counsel asked in an
angry tone of voice, "Will you swear on your soul, Pat
Murphy, that Mike Hooligan has never to your knowledge
stolen chickens?"

The responsibility of this was too much even for Pat.
"Bedad, I would hardly swear by my soul," he said, "but
I do know that, if I was a chicken and Mike about, I'd
roost high."

An individual of somewhat doubtful appearance was
applying for a situation as a van driver. On being asked
for references, he mentioned one of the dealer's old hands,
who was called in and questioned as to the applicant's
honesty. The referee rubbed his chin meditatively for a
moment, and said, "Honest ? Well, guv'nor, his honesty has
been proved agin and agin. Faith, he's bin tried sivin
toimes for stealing, and eschaped ivery toime!" The ap-
plicant was not engaged.

"How about reference ?" inquired another mistress, after
she had talked matters over with an applicant for a situa-
tion.

"Oh, Oi like yer looks, mum," said the applicant, "an*
Oi won't ask yez for any."

"Bridget, I don't hardly think it is the thing for you
to entertain company in the kitchen."

"Don't ye worry, mum. Sure, an' I wouldn't be afther
deproivin' ye of the parlor."

"Goodness, Jane, what a kitchen!" exclaimed Mrs.
Brown. "Every pot, pan, and dish is dirty, the table is a
perfect litter, and— why, it will take you all night to clean
things up! What have you been doing?"

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SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

"Sure, ma'am, explained Jane, "the young ladies has
just been showin' me how they bile a pertater at their
cookery school."

"Is Mrs. Wicks at home?" asked a caller.

"No, mum," said Bridget.

"Oh, I'm very sorry," said the caller.

"So am I, mum, but she's really out this time."

"And remember, Bridget, there are two things that
I must insist upon — truthfulness and obedience!"

"Yes, mum," said Bridget, pointedly. "And when you
tell me to tell the ladies you're out when you're in, which
shall it be, mum?"

"Tintion !" exclaimed the sergeant to the platoon, "front
face, and tind to rowl call! As many of ye as is prisint
will say 'Here' and as many of yez as is not prisint will
say 'Absent/ "

"If ye was to be stung by a wasp, Pat, phat would ye
do first?" asked Mrs. Murphy.

"Howl, bedad !" was Pat's laconic reply.

"Are ye much hurt, Pat?" inquired Mike of his com-
panion, who had met with an accident. "Do ye want a
docthor?"

"A docthor, ye fule," exclaimed Pat. "After being
runned over by a throlley car ? Phat Oi want is a lawyer."

An Irish navvy once changed his lodgings. The fol-
lowing morning, when he got up, his new landlady asked
him how he had slept.

"Not a wink," said Pat, as he began scratching himself.

"Why! what's the matter? There's not a single flea
in the house !" snapped the landlady indignantly.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"No, be jabers," replied Pat, "they're all married and
got children."

At a favorite watering place two Irishmen went out in
a small boat, and one of them jumped into the water to
have a swim. After indulging to his heart's content he
was making for the boat when his companion picked up
the towel, and threw it overboard to him, saying, "Shure,
if ye come in jist now, yez will wet the boat, so yez had
better dry yerself where yez are before coming aboard."

"Pat, why didn't you wipe the cobwebs off this cham-
pagne bottle before you brought it to the table?" said the
host.

"Well, sor," replied Pat, "I thought I'd better not, as
I saw you putting them on only last night, sor."

The following series of jokes may, with benefit, be
studied. The inner meaning of the ludicrous is disclosed
on the basis of my theory of implied relation of the
superior and the inferior :

A man once received as a present from a sea captain
a fine specimen of the bird which sailors call the "laughing-
jackass." As he was carrying it home, he met a brawny
navvy, who stopped and said to him, "What kind of burrd
is that, sor?"

"That's a laughing- j ackass !" explained the owner,
genially.

But Pat was not to be taken in with any story of that
kind, and, with a twinkle in the eye, he responded, "It's
not yerself; it's the burrd Oi mane, sor!"

An Irish peasant, who was anxious to know what a
phrenologist was, inquired of a friend, and received the
answer, "Why a person that can tell by the feel of the
bumps on your head what kind of a man you are."

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SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

"Bumps on me head, is it!" exclaimed the peasant.
"Begor, then, they'd tell him more what kind of a woman
my wife is!"

"Why don't you get your ears cropped?" cried a big
cabman to an Irishman who was trudging after a drove of
donkeys. "They are a precious sight too long for a man."

"Are they?" said Paddy, turning round and looking his
assailant fully in the face. "Then, be jabers, yours are
much too short for an ass !"

"Are there any fish in the pool to-day?" asked a gentle-
man of an Irish peasant.

"Fish is it?" said the peasant. "It's fair polluted with
them !"

A man who was much annoyed at Pat's muttering one
day said, "Pat, does it never occur to you that your constant
talk and muttering to yourself are a great annoyance to
people who happen to be about? Why do you talk to
yourself?"

"Shure, sir, Oi have two raysons for that."

"What are your reasons ?"

"Wan of thim is that Oi like to talk to a sinsible man
and the other is that Oi like to hear a sinsible man talk."

Edmund Burke was one day addressing a crowd in favor
of the abolition of slavery. In spite of his eloquent appeals
the crowd began to get hostile, and at last a rotten egg
caught him full in the face. He calmly wiped his face
and quietly said, "I always said that the arguments in favor
of slavery were rather unsound!" The crowd roared, and
from that time he was unmolested.

Barry Sullivan, the tragedian, was playing in "Richard
III." When the actor came to the lines, "A horse, a horse,

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

my kingdom for a horse!" someone in the pit called out,
"Would a donkey do, Mr. Sullivan?"

"Yes," responded the tragedian, turning quickly on the
interrupter. "Please come round to the stage room."

"And who is it lives there, Mike, in that big stone
house?" inquired a tourist.

"Why," replied Mike, "that old gentleman I was telling
you of, that died so suddint last winter."

An Irishman on weighing his pig exclaimed, "It does
not weigh as much as I expected, and I never thought it
would."

Mike, on opening his pay envelope, exclaimed, "Faith,
that's the stingiest man I ever worked for."

"Phwat's the matter wid ye; didn't ye git as much as
ye expected?" asked a fellow workman.

"Yis," was the reply, "but I was countin' on gittin'
more than I expected."

" Tis very fortunate," remarked Mr. Grady wisely,
"that hay be not as hivy as coal."

"For whoy, Pat?"

"Shure a ton of the stuff would weigh so much thot
a poor man could not afford to kape a cow."

An Irish squire, seeing a man who was engaged in
painting a gate on his estate working away with unusual
energy, asked, "What are you in such a hurry for, Murphy ?"

"Sure, I want to get through before me paint runs out !"
was the reply.

The published report of an Irish benevolent society says,
"Notwithstanding the large amount paid for medicine and
medical attendance, very few deaths occurred during the
year."

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SUGGESTION AND THE COMIC

"My britheren," said an Irish preacher on one occasion,
"there are some German philosophers who say there is no
Resurrection, and, me britheren, it would be better for
them German philosophers if, like Judas Iscariot, they had
never been born."

An Irishman was one day hurrying along a country
road in the south of Ireland, when he was met by a friend
who exclaimed, "Why, Patrick, what's all your hurry to-
day?"

"Och, be jabers," replied Pat, without stopping, "I've
got a long way to go, and I want to git there before I'm
tired out."

"There's a man in the dinin' room, sor, makin' trouble
because he can't have his regular seat," said a waiter,
addressing a hotel proprietor.

"Go back, Mike, and propitiate him," said the proprietor.

"Look here, misther," said the waiter to the guest a
little later, "if yez don't like the way things is run in this
house, get out or I'll propitiate yez pretty lively."

In all those examples, when closely studied and their
character fully realized from the standpoint of sugges-
tiveness and allusion, we invariably find that the subject
of laughter is mental failure, stupidity , human folly,
whether individual or social.

CHAPTER XIX
THE LUDICROUS AND THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

When a mental process, instead of attaining its aim,
suggests the reverse inference of what has been intended,
the laugh is raised by the failure and by the mental stu-
pidity of the person. The following is an example :

A committee was accused of not attending to its work
assiduously ; only one half of the committee was doing any
work, the others being idle. One of the members of the
committee, an Irishman, undertook in a meeting the defence
of the committee. "We are accused," he exclaimed, "that
only one half of the committee is doing work, the other
half being idle ; as a matter of fact the reverse is the case."

We often find that the comic writer or speaker avails
himself of suggestiveness and double play. There is first
present the joke or the comic situation, and this is further
emphasized by its lack of comprehension which reveals
the stupidity of the person who manifests it by some
foolish or absurd remark. The manifestation of the
double play heightens the sense of the ludicrous.

"To make a slow horse fast," advised a wag, "is not
to give him to eat."

"Would not the poor beast die?" asked an Englishman
with much concern.

An American in playing golf with an Englishman said
jestingly that in the United States golf balls squeak when
they are lost. The Englishman was amazed at such a re-

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

markable invention. An hour later he came to the American
and told him that the invention was really extraordinary, but
he could not understand how the golf ball knew when it was
lost.

Often the stupidity of the person ridiculed is mani-
fested by having him repeat a joke. The repetition is so
constructed that the point of the joke is lost or even com-
pletely perverted. This is a form of dramatic play.
In the first place, a joke is introduced, thus arousing the
sense of the ludicrous; and, in the second place, a char-
acter is introduced on the scene, which is raised to a
climax of the ludicrous by dullness of understanding.
The ludicrous is emphasized by a process of double ridi-
cule. The factor of suggestiveness runs all through the
play.

We may take the following anecdote directed against
the Englishman :

An American and Englishman chanced to pass by a
small country station and saw an announcement "Ten miles
to town. They who cannot read should ask the gateman."
The American laughed and the Englishman followed suit.
On his arrival home the Englishman told of the notice and
exclaimed: "How silly! Suppose the gateman were not
there."

Uncle Will reads the London Times in his office. Enters
young Henry.

"Why, uncle,'* exclaims Henry, "I see you are behind
the Times!"

Uncle Will laughs at the joke. In the evening, at
dinner, Uncle Will repeats the joke to his wife, "Mary, a
fine joke Henry made this morning. I read the paper and
Henry said, 'Why, uncle, I see you are behind the news-
paper.' " Uncle Will wondered why Mary did not laugh.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

An Englishman saw an inscription on a tombstone:
"Here lies an honest lawyer." No name was given, because
the lawyer's name was Strange and every passerby, on
seeing the inscription, would exclaim, "How Strange !" On
coming home the Englishman related his experience of the
nameless epitaph of the lawyer, Strange : " 'Here lies an
honest lawyer/ Everybody who will pass by will exclaim:
'How peculiar!'"

Jack laughed at Harry's coat because it was too short.
On which Harry remarked that it would be long enough
before he got another one. Later on Jack communicated
the joke to his friend Tom.

"Tom," he said, "I heard a capital joke made by Harry.
I told Harry that his coat was too short, and he said that
it would be a long time before he got another."

"Where is the joke," asked Tom.

"Ah," exclaimed Jack, "but it was an excellent joke
when Harry made it."

A man named Herring fell into a ditch. A wag passing
by said: "There, Herring, you are in a fine pickle." A
gentleman thick of wits heard it and told the story to his
friends.

"A man by name Herring fell into a ditch and a fellow
passed by and said : 'There, Herring, you are in a fine con-
dition.' "

"Well," observed one of the company, "where is the
joke?"

"It was a good one when I heard it."

We have pointed out before that a joke falls flat if
addressed to people who have not the proper training,
knowledge, and experience. The comedies of Aristoph-
anes will hardly be appreciated by a Hindoo or by a

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

Chinaman, nor would Boccaccio or Voltaire have been
appreciated by a Greek or Roman audience. One must
take into consideration the knowledge and experience of
the people addressed. If the mass of associations,
whether conscious or subconscious, is wanting, the whole
play is lost. The joke does not call forth the appropriate
associations and is either ignored or is even misunder-
stood. To appreciate a joke it must first of all be under-
stood, and this presupposes the presence of conscious and
subconscious associations which form the mass that ap-
perceives the joke.

If we inspect the inner structure and function of the
ludicrous, in whatever form it may be expressed, we find
that these so-called apperceiving or synthetizing masses
of association, whether conscious or subconscious, form
the mainsprings of the joke or of the ludicrous. The
force of the joke or of the ludicrous lies in the upheaval
of masses of conscious and subconscious associations.
All these associations must converge toward one focus
in showing the low standard, the silliness of what is
claimed to be normal, or what is thought to be superior.

The main force of the joke or of the situation re-
garded as ludicrous is the allusion, the suggestiveness,
the great mass of associations of inferiority and superi-
ority which becomes stirred up in the depths of the mind,
conscious and subconscious. The stronger the allusion
or the suggestiveness the greater the mass of conscious
and subconscious associations. The more such associa-
tions are awakened to activity, the keener is the apprecia-
tion of the joke or of the ludicrous side of the object,
of the person, or of the given situation. The allusion,
the suggestiveness of the inferiority of the object laughed
at forms the mainspring of the witty and the comic. In

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

fact, we may say that this holds true, not only of, the
comic, but of all wit.

Aristotle pointed out the important fact that mental
activity of the free and artistic type is one of the greatest
sources of enjoyment in human life. Now, in a joke, as
in all good wit, the hint is given and the rest is left to
the listener or the reader. If the whole mass of associa-
tions heave up at the hint given and the target aimed at
is hit by the reader or listener, the latter feels the joy of
free activity accompanied with the feeling of superiority
and the consciousness of inferiority of the ridiculed ob-
ject. The listener has the consciousness of wisdom, and
the object is an example of folly and stupidity. This is
the source of the comic.

Putting it from a purely logical standpoint, all forms
of wit, among which the comic takes its place, are what
Aristotle terms enthymems — a syllogism in which some
of the premises are omitted. The reasoning is left to the
reader. It is the ability to realize the reasoning, to sup-
ply the missing links that forms the essence of the comic
and gives a special pleasure to the readers or to the audi-
ence. The whole force of the wit, the comic, and of
jokes consists in the fact that the listener is left to sup-
plement the rest from his own mind. The supplementary
systems of associations must be present in the mind, con-
sciously or subconsciously.

The person who makes the joke must be able to
reach by an appropriate phrase and allusion the asso-
ciation of systems. The delight of the listener consists
in the fact. that these associations become by an adroit
and happy hit manifested in a free and easy way. In
the case of the comic and of the joke the inferiority of
the object, person, institution, or of the thought must

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

be present, but in a veiled form. The force is in the al-
lusion. The audience takes special delight in supplying
the last links, in spontaneously forming the finale of
the act or of the thought. The listener in this respect
feels himself intellectually the actor and takes active
part in the artistic piece of work presented to him. This
delight in suggestiveness of the inferior is the soul of
the comic.

Humor, irony, sarcasm, satire, various forms of jokes
deal with the ludicrous and are species of wit, wit being
the genus. We may in passing point out that some au-
thors, such as Freud, for instance, have confused wit with
the ludicrous. A good joke must be witty, but the witty
need not concern itself with the ludicrous. Man is a mor-
tal being, but not every mortal being is a man. ^sop's
fables, the parables of the Gospels, the proverbs of the
Old Testament are witty, but they do not necessarily deal
with the ludicrous. In all the different forms of wit of
which the ludicrous is one of the varieties allusion must
be present. The factor of suggestiveness specially plays
an all-important role in that species of wit which excites
the ridiculing, the derisive laughter of man — the ludi-
crous.

In my "Psychology of Suggestion" I have pointed out
that in the normal state indirect suggestion is specially
efficacious. I formulated the law of normal suggesti-
bility : "Normal suggestibility varies as indirect sugges-
tion and inversely as direct suggestion.'1 This holds true
in the case of all wit, of all forms of the ludicrous and
the comical. The more veiled the suggestion, the greater
the indirect suggestion, the higher is the effect. Along
with the conscious systems of associations subconscious
systems of associations must become subexcited, and the

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

total effect is proportional to the amount of psycho-physi-
ological activity brought into play by the artistic work of
the person who arouses in us the sense of the ludicrous.

The joke and the comic, like all wit, are addressed
both to the conscious and subconscious sides of mental
life. The conscious side finds, as Aristotle has pointed
out, immense satisfaction in the independent and free
mental activity given by the veiled and subtle allusions,
while the subconscious side is aroused to activity accord-
ing to the law of normal suggestibility. The effect is
especially enhanced when the two factors belonging to
the conscious and the subconscious sides of human nature
become inextricably intertwined. Allusion and indirect
suggestion are the two main factors that make wit preg-
nant with meaning and make the comic so irresistibly
ludicrous when the hidden reference is a relation of in-
feriority and superiority.

We can realize now why so many investigators and
thinkers have misunderstood the nature of wit, the comic,
and the joke. Freud regards brevity, condensation, econ-
omy of thought as the essentials of wit and the ludicrous.
This is as far from the mark as possible. It is like the
Aristotelian actor who explains the lightness and quick-
ness of the flying statues of Dcedalus by the ingenious
hypothesis of their bodies being filled with quicksilver.

If condensation and economy of phraseology or of
thought constitute the essence of wit and the ludicrous
then an algebraical formula or geometrical theorem
should be good examples of wit and the comic. "The
law of gravitation," says Karl Pearson, "is a brief de-
scription of how every particle of matter in the universe
is altering its motion with reference to every particle. It
simply resumes, in a few brief words, the relationships

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

observed between a vast range of phenomena. It econo-
mizes by stating in conceptional shorthand the routine of
our perceptions which form for us the universe of gravi-
tating matter." In fact, according to Pearson, scientific
law "is a brief description in mental shorthand of as
wide a range as possible of the sequences of our sense
impressions/* It is an economy of thought. Surely it
would be absurd to class Newton's laws or the binominal
theorem as wit, or regard them as a joke.

The principle of economy in science is also laid stress
on by Mach. The principle of economy holds true in
science as well as in business and in industry. In fact,
economy holds true in all utilitarian activities of man.
In the aesthetic activities, and especially in the play ac-
tivities, the principles of economy break down completely.
The principle of reserve energy takes the place of econ-
omy. In all play the manifestation of surplus energy is
the sole aim. The feeling of free unimpeded activity,
the consciousness of the presence of reserve, surplus
energy is the predominant motive in play, in wit, and the
comic.

Human stupidity, or rather a suggestion at it, a mere
hint at human folly, which brings into play the inner
mental resources of the audience, is sufficient to set us
in a roar of laughter. We may lay it down as a funda-
mental law that allusion to human stupidity is the root
of all comic. The effect of the ludicrous is greatly en-
hanced when along with stupidity there is also present
some form of physical and moral defectiveness. If, how-
ever, one digs deep enough into the comic, the 'jocose,
and the humorous he will invariably find human stupidity.
Any example will answer the purpose. We may take the
first examples that come to hand :

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"If you plaze," said an Irish recruit, to the sergeant,
"I've got a splinter in the hand."

Sergeant: "Wot yer been doing? Scratchin' yer 'ead?"

A certain ingenious gentleman proposed, as the best and
most effectual way of sweeping chimneys, to place a large
goose at the top and then by a string tied round her feet
to pull the animal gently down to the hearth. The goose
would struggle against it with all her might; and during
this resistance would move her wings with such force
and rapidity as could not fail to sweep the chimney com-
pletely.

"Good heavens !" cried a lady present, "how cruel would
that be to the poor goose !"

"Why, madam," replied the gentleman, "if you think
my method brutal to the goose, a couple of ducks will do."

A silly old fellow meeting his godson asked where he
was going.

"To school," replied the boy.

"That is well," said the old fellow. "There is a penny
for you. Be a good boy. Mind your book, and I hope
I shall live to hear you preach my funeral sermon."

This may be matched by the story of the Irish soldier
who, when taken to task for cowardliness in running away
from battle, replied: "I'd rather be a coward for half an
hour than a corpse the rest of my born life."

"What is the difference?" asked the captain of artillery
of the Archbishop Whatley, "between an archbishop and
a donkey?"

Whatley gave it up and received the following reply:
"The one carries his cross in front and the other in back."

"Very good, indeed," said Whatley laughing, "and now
can you tell me the difference between a donkey and a
captain of the artillery ?"

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

"No, indeed I cannot," replied the officer.
"Nor I either," rejoined Whatley.

Bassompiere, the French ambassador to Spain, was one
day telling Henry IV. how he entered Madrid. "I was
mounted on the very smallest mule in the world," said the
ambassador.

"Ah, what an amusing sight to see the biggest ass
mounted on the smallest mule!"

"I was your Majesty's representative," was the quiet
rejoinder.

An Irish servant was instructed what to tell a gentleman
who was expected to come a few days later. The servant
soon returned and asked what she should tell the gentleman,
if he should not come.

An officer gave his servant two dollar bills and told
him to buy for a dollar tobacco, and provisions for the other
dollar. The servant returned perplexed. He did not know
for which dollar to buy tobacco and for which to buy
provisions.

A fool said that his simplicity was not his fault; he
was bright at birth, but his nurse exchanged him for an-
other child who was a fool.

Recruit to officer: If I told you you were an ass, what
would you do, sir?

Officer: I should put you under arrest.

Recruit: And if I only thought it?

Officer: Then I could do nothing ; thoughts are invisible.

Recruit: Well, I am thinking it.

We may add that we derive a good deal of pleasure
from the readiness and quickness with which a person
repels all insinuations in regard to himself or in regard
to anything which is near and dear to him. Readiness of

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

reply reveals a source of free and unimpeded energy
which gives us pleasure to witness on account of inner
imitation with the activities of other men. When a man
without a moment's notice is taken at a disadvantage and
is accused of some defect we rejoice and laugh when he
is able in the form of a joke or what we term repartee
to turn the point of ridicule against the man who assails
him. He shows that the other man does not understand,
that the defect is only apparent and should be really
counted to his credit, or that the defect really belongs
to the assailant. A few examples may answer our pur-
pose:

An Englishman and an Irishman were riding in a car-
riage and chanced to pass by a gallows. "Where would you
be," said the Englishman, "if everybody had his due?"

"Alone in the carriage," was the response.

A judge threatened to fine a lawyer for contempt of
court.

"I have expressed no contempt for court," said the
lawyer, "on the contrary, I have carefully concealed my
feelings."

A nobleman seeing the great philosopher, Descartes, en-
joying a good meal, said to him sarcastically: "What! do
philosophers enjoy such sweets?" "Why," replied Descar-
tes, "do you fancy that nature has produced all its good
things only for fools?"

In the first joke the suggestion of the criminality of
the Irishman is answered by the suggestion that the real
criminal is the Englishman. In the second example the
lawyer, while denying in so many words the contempt
of court for which he is threatened with a fine, really af-
firms by indirect suggestion his actual contempt of the

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

judge. In the third example, Descartes points out the
folly of the nobleman. This action and reaction, this play
of opposites, of contrasts, affirming by denying and deny-
ing by affirming, constitute an important element of all
wit, joke, and the comic. Really what we have here is the
playful manifestation of the fundamental factor of what
we have termed suggestiveness. Like a lambent flame the
joke plays around the subject and suggests, consciously
and subconsciously, possible, vague, distant associations
of moral and mental inferiority.

The late Bishop Williams of Connecticut was sitting in
a box in an opera house where collegiate commencement
exercises were being held. The toilettes of the ladies were
extremely decollete. After looking round the house with an
opera glass one of the ladies exclaimed : "Honestly, Bishop
Williams, did you ever see anything like it in your life?"

"Never," gravely replied the Bishop. "Never, madam,
since I was weaned."

Here the insinuation was naively made that the Bishop
had seen such immoral sights before. The Bishop in
self-defence had to say "no." The sting, however, of the
ridicule is added and is directed against the audience of
women. Instead of simply replying, "No, I have never
seen anything so bad and immoral," he puts the negative
reply in an affirmative form, denying and affirming such
a spectacle. "I have not seen it since I was weaned."
Such a state was only seen by him when nursing at his
mother's breast. This further gives rise to a vast num-
ber of associations, all tending to bring out the inap-
propriateness, the shamelessness of the women who ex-
pose themselves without having the pure motives of
motherhood. In other words, it is a spectacle not fit for

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

adults, but only for babies and sucklings. At the same
time there are dissociation of the exhibition from all dig-
nified human life and association with the purposes of
nursing. These women are stupid and silly and be-
have like wet-nurses. The ridicule is directed against
the woman whose person, dissociated from the beautiful,
becomes associated with wet-nurses and sucklings. The
sting of the ridicule is against the attire of the women,
which is fit for nursing purposes; such decollete is fit
only for the gaze of innocent infants. In other words,
the attire is ugly and stupid, and shows the mental in-
feriority of the women who dress in such an inappropri-
ate and silly fashion.

"I am willing," exclaimed the candidate, "to trust the
people."

"Great Scott!" yelled a man in the audience. "I wish
you'd open a grocer's shop."

Here we have the pun on the word "trust" with the
strong suggestion that the candidate had better turn store-
keeper or grocer, and with the indirect suggestion of the
candidate being what the French term epicier (grocer)
or philistine. In other words, the candidate is stupid.

Misapprehension, stupidity, and ignorance, various
forms of mental inferiority, form the butt of ridicule.
The effect is specially ludicrous when both the one who
criticizes and the one who is criticized are involved in
the dramatic action, one playing the part to bring out the
fault of the other.

A good old-fashioned darkey was bitterly complaining
about the delinquencies of her niece who had greatly of-
fended her sense of propriety. When asked, "Dinah, can
Mabel read and write ?" she looked scornfully at her mistress

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THE LAW OF SUGGESTION

and answered: "Yes'm, she got a fine edgecaeshun ; that's
the reason she's sich a fool and ain't got no sense!"

There is the laughter at the ignorance and stupidity
of what the darkey misapprehends by education. There
is laughter at the one who gets such an education. At the
same time, in the background of our consciousness or
subconsciousness there is lurking the suspicion that a
good deal that goes under the name of education is noth-
ing but silly stupefaction of natural good sense. Edu-
cation in the ordinary sense is associated with increase of
knowledge and of wisdom, but there is a good deal of
education which deprives one of original thinking and
makes of one an educated fool.

At a trial for murder the counsel for the accused asked
the examining physician if prussic acid was not sometimes
spontaneously evolved from the stomach. "I do not know,"
answered the witness, "but if it be so, it must be very
dangerous to have a stomach."

The lawyer, as is usual with his tribe, wishes
to confuse the physician by some clever puzzling ques-
tion and so to discredit the physician before the jury both
as to intelligence and knowledge. The reply of the phy-
sician, when fully developed, is to the effect that the
counsel's question displays ignorance and shows that he
is stupid. Prussic acid is one of the most powerful
poisons for the organism. If the stomach should give
rise to prussic acid, the stomach, one of the most impor-
tant animal organs requisite for the normal nutrition
and life of the organism, would not only be useless, but
would be a positive danger to the individual. The coun-
sel thinks he is a clever man, but he is really ignorant
and stupid.

213

CHAPTER XX
WIT AND RIDICULE

Wit often employs metaphor, double sense, equivoca-
tion, and brevity, so as to play with the audience, give
information, and make it think. Aristotle, who had
analyzed so many different forms of thought, refers also
to wit, though in a rather incoherent and incomplete way.
In his "Rhetoric" he says: "Also the greatest number
of elegancies arise from metaphor, and from additionally
deceiving the hearer (more correctly surprising the hear-
er's expectation) ; for the point becomes more clear that
he has learned something from the meaning being op-
posite of what it was supposed, and the mind seems to
say, 'How true is this ! I, however, was wrong.' '

The arousal of subconscious ideas by means of sim-
ilarity and contrast, by synonyms, homonyms, and an-
tonyms constitutes the essence of wit. "In all such
cases," says Aristotle, "if one introduce the term ap-
propriately under an equivocation or metaphor then there
is wit. The same, too, is that commended saying of An-
axandrides, 'It is honorable to die before doing aught
worthy death'; for it is the same as saying, 'It is worthy
a man to die when he is not worthy the punishment of
death, when he has not committed acts worthy that pun-
ishment.' Now the form of the diction of these sentences
is the same; but in proportion as the idea happens to be
enunciated in fewer words and with antithesis, in the

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WIT AND RIDICULE

same proportion is it more approved. And the reason is
that the information becomes by means of the antithesis
fuller; by means of brevity more rapid." In another
place Aristotle displays rather unusual contempt for the
hearer as he tells us that one should be brief, to the
point, and not put many questions "by reason of the im-
becility of the hearer. On which account we ought as
much as possible to compress even our enthymems."
The principal object of good wit is not to confuse the
listener, but to stir him up, to make him think and to
bring about the right exercise of the mental powers which
is one of the greatest pleasures of man.

Wit employs double sense, equivocations, metaphors,
simile, brevity. Still all these are but the implements, not
the essence, not the actual spirit of true wit. These
implements may be used in the construction of sen-
tences which are thoroughly flat, silly, and stupid.
The characteristic of wit is the sudden, unexpected
realization of new and strange views brought by
simple means within the mental horizon of the audience,
or the realization of something customary, usual, habitual,
and familiar bearing the aspect of the unhabitual, un-
usual, uncustomary, and strange. Wit should therefore
be regarded as a form of words and sentences which
suddenly opens a new horizon, gives a surprising, sudden
new view, accompanied by an agreeable shock, stirring
up to activity masses of mental and emotional systems
with their subconscious reserve energy, arousing feelings
of power due to greater mental activity, deeper insight
into things, and wider knowledge of the world. Wit,
therefore, does not deal with the ludicrous only, it may
touch on the grave, and, in fact, it often does deal with
serious matters of human life.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

The main thing, however, is the fact that in wit we
^experience a sudden, unexpected, surprising arousal of
subconscious reserve energy. The force in all wit is the
; sudden stimulation of mental activity. In wit the saying
is brief, pithy, not only because the hearer is usually
stupid, but because the hearer is supposed to be stimu-
lated to do thinking for himself and to be able to draw
conclusions independently. The pleasure derived from
wit is self -activity , the arousal of subconscious reserve
energy. The person who hears a witty saying, realizes
the meaning, and is enabled to draw the hidden infer-
ences, feels stronger mentally, experiences an uplifting
of the spirit.

The object of wit, as I pointed out, is stimulation of
subconscious reserve energy, the calling forth of mental
self -activity. The pleasure consists in the free, spon-
taneous activity due to the stirring of his subconscious,
reserve energy. The function of wit is to widen the
sphere of human thought, to strengthen his energies, and
to call forth in him the joy of being, action, and life.
In this respect wit is similar to ridicule, but wit radically
differs from ridicule by the fundamental characteristic
of the absence of and emphasis on relations of inferi-
ority. There is present in wit the feeling of joy due
to an increase of being and activity, development, and
growth of mental life, but without any relation of in-
feriority; there is in wit the presence of excellence of
spirit without the relation of degradation.

We have pointed out the fundamental error made by
many writers on the subject of laughter in that they con-
fuse wit with ridicule, the- ludicrous, and the comic.
They consider the witty as something inherently laugh-
ter-raising, and hence they identify the witty with the

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WIT AND RIDICULE

joke, the jest, and ridicule. This is a radical error. Wit
and ridicule are by no means identical. Ridicule falls
under the category of wit, but the witty may have noth-
ing to do with ridicule. There are witty sayings, anec-
dotes, and stories in which the ludicrous has no place.
Many folk proverbs, the proverbs and parables of the
Bible, i3±sop's or Hindoo fables are witty, but they lack
the element of the ludicrous. Similarly, charades, puz-
zles, enigmas are witty, but we cannot regard them as
having even a shadow of ridicule. Plato's myth of the
creation and education of man, as told by him in his
"Protagoras," may be considered not only as beautiful,
but also as witty, although there is not a grain of
ridicule in it. The simile of the soul to a charioteer and
two horses in "Phsedrus," the story of Gyges in the "Re-
public," the metaphor of Love in the "Symposium," as
an immortal daemon born of Poros or Plenty and Penia
or Poverty, may all be regarded as excellent illustrations
of good wit from which ridicule is entirely absent.

As an illustration of our point of view we may take
the story told by Aristotle in his "Politics" of Eubulus,
who, when Autophradates was going to besiege Atarneus,
told him to consider how long the operation would take,
and then reckon up the cost which would be incurred in
time. " Tor/ Eubulus said, 'I am willing for a smaller
sum than that to leave Atarneus at once/ ' These words
of Eubulus made an impression on Autophradates, and
he desisted from the siege. Aristotle also mentions the
story of the tyrant Periander, when the herald was sent
by Thrasybulus to ask counsel of him in regard to gov-
ernment. Periander said nothing, took the herald to the
field, and cut off the tallest ears and brought the field to
a level. The herald did not understand the meaning of

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

the action, but came and reported to Thrasybulus what he
had seen. Thrasybulus took the hint that he was to cut
off the principal men in the state. Such stories are
witty, but there is nothing in them of the ludicrous.

Many of the sayings in the Confucian "Analects,"
paradigms, maxims, aphorisms by philosophers, poets,
and wise men, such as Heraclitus, Antisthenes, Mon-
taigne, Pascal, Schopenhauer, or the Bible, are witty, but
they cannot be regarded as a matter of ridicule. A series
of illustrations will help us most in the differentiation of
wit and ridicule. We may take at random a few of the
witty Biblical proverbs and sayings :

As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so
is the sluggard to them that sends him.

As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman
which is without discretion.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled
ox and hatred therewith.

The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found
in the way of righteousness.

Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his
soul from troubles.

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like
a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.

As in water face answereth face, so is the heart of man
to man.

We may take as examples the witty and pithy sayings
of Ecclesiastes :

A living dog is better than a dead lion.

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the
appetite is not filled.

Be not righteous overmuch, neither make thyself over-
wise, why shouldst thou destroy thyself ?

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WIT AND RIDICULE

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,
neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to the man
of understanding, nor yet favor to the man of skill; but
time and chance happeneth to them all.

Confucius, the grave Chinese sage, likewise has his
witty sayings :

I have not yet met with a man who loves Virtue as he
loves Beauty.

Some one asked him, "What say you of (the remark)
'Requite enmity with kindness'?"

"How then," he answered, "would you requite kind-
ness?— Requite enmity with straightforwardness (justice)
and kindness with kindness."

We may take as illustrations a few Oriental proverbs,
the wisdom of folklore :

A devil with experience is better than an angel without.
Speak little and you will hear much.
He who speaks the truth must have one foot in the
stirrup.

Montaigne is full of wit :

The fear of the fall more fevers me than the fall
itself.

I find that our greatest vices derive their first propensity
from our most tender infancy, and that our principal educa-
tion depends upon the nurse.

We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves.

Of what is the most subtle folly made, but of the most
subtle wisdom?

From the rare and quick agitations of our souls proceed
the most wonderful and wildest frenzies; 'tis but a half
turn of the toe from the one to the other.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Similarly Pascal :

Man is the feeblest reed in existence, but he is a thinking
reed.

It is the contest and not the victory that gives us pleasure.

It is easier to suffer death without thinking of it than
to think of it when in no danger of suffering it.

A horse does not trouble itself about the admiration
of its fellow.

The last thing we can settle in the composition of a
thing is how to begin it.

We may cull a few witty sayings made by the genius
of Shakespeare :

Fear and scruple shake us.

All things that are, are with more spirit chased than
enjoyed.

A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross.

The world is still deceived with ornament. Ornament
is but the gilded shore to a more dangerous sea.

My blood speaks to you in my veins.

When fortune means to men most good, she looks upon
them with a threatening eye.

O, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth ! Then
with a passion would I shake the world!

He that stands upon a slippery place makes nice of no
vile hold to stay him up.

Jealousy is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
the meat it feeds on.

We may also take a few of the witty sayings of the
ancient Greek philosophers and sages :

That judges of important affairs should hold office for
life is not a good thing, for the mind grows old as well
as the body. — Aristotle.

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WIT AND RIDICULE

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. — Aristotle.

Man's character is his fate. — Heraclitus.

Bear all thou canst; for Can dwells nigh to Must. —
Pythagoras.

One to me is as good as ten thousand, if he be the
best. — Heraclitus.

Strength of body is nobility in beasts, strength of
character is nobility in men. — Democritus.

My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man
who means to wrong me. — Democritus.

Truth is in the depth. — Democritus.

One should attend to one's enemies, for they are the
first persons to detect one's errors. — Antisthenes.

We may give a few witty sayings of American sages :

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,

And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. —

Emerson.

Man lives by pulses.

We thrive by casualties.

The poets are liberating the gods.

The quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to
freeze.

Divinity is behind our failures and follies also.

A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster
as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular
angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.

Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are
strung. — Emerson.

We may also refer to Franklin's "Poor Richard's
Almanac" :

The cat in gloves catches no mice.
Little strokes fell great oaks.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OP LAUGHTER

We may conclude with a few verses from the "Ru-
baiyat of Omar Khayyam," whose poetry is full of
beauty, grandeur, and wit:

Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.

There was the Door to which I found no Key ;
There was the Veil through which I might not see :

Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was — and then no more of THEE and ME.

What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke
A conscious Something to resent the yoke

Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain
Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke!

What! from his helpless Creature be repaid
Pure Gold for what he lent us, dross-allay'd —

Sue for a Debt he never did contract,
And cannot answer — Oh the sorry trade!

Oh Thou, who Man of baser Earth didst make
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake;

For all the Sin wherewith the Face of Man
Is blacken'd — Man's Forgiveness give — and take !

A Moment's Halt — a momentary taste
Of Being from the Well amid the Waste—

And Lo! — the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The Nothing it set out from — Oh, make haste!

A study of all the examples chosen from many writ-
ers, poets, and sages of various countries and different

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WIT AND RIDICULE

ages goes to show that wit is the opening of new hori-
zons before the mental eye by means of the usual and
the habitual associated with the unusual and the un-
habitual ; and again by dissociation of elements and traits
of the customary from their habitual surroundings and
reassociation with the strange, the unusual, and uncus-
tomary. Along with it there must be present an awak-
ening of reserve energies, both in him who makes the
witty remark and in him who hears it and appreciates it.
When the association belongs to the class of superior and
inferior, then does the ludicrous arise. Wit may
deal with relations of inferiority, but the emphasis is not
necessarily on inferiority as it is in all the forms of ridi-
cule. Wit is that form of thought and its expression
which gives rise to free, spontaneous mental activity due
to the arousal of subconscious reserve energy.

We may add that the popular, now vulgarized, say-
ing that "brevity is the soul of wit" is but a superficial,
glittering generality not based on the real nature of wit.
Brevity in itself may be silly and stupid. It is only when
the customary, the usual, the habitual relations of life
become transcended by a sudden manifestation and play
of reserve energy, it is only then that true wit comes
into being. Wit is the result of union of widely differ-
ent and contrasting ideas. Wit is the outcome of the
clash of colliding, remote, customary concepts. As the
heat, light, and life of new worlds are born out of col-
lisions of cold, lifeless masses gravitating in space, so
is wit.

CHAPTER XXI
THE SLUGGISH AND THE LUDICROUS

From our standpoint we can realize why the awkward,
clumsy, the mechanical, the automatic are ludicrous. It
is because awkward and clumsy motor reactions are in-
dications of the mind behind them and indicate a slug-
gish intellect. Now a sluggish mind is essentially re-
garded as a stupid mind, a mind falling below the normal
intellect, and is on that account an object of ridicule,
of jokes, and of the comic. It is not economy of motor
reactions, nor is it economy and thriftiness that are in-
volved here. On the contrary, it is the reckless expendi-
ture, but without effort on the part of the person. We
can spend all we want and there is more energy left.
The person who spends his energy, physical and mental,
with effort gives the impression of one who lacks en-
ergy and needs economy. When no disagreeable con-
sequences are associated with such an impression the
effect is invariably ludicrous.

The prodigal is rarely laughed at, it is the close, the
stingy, the miserly that form the butt of ridicule. As
Schopenhauer strongly puts it : "Avarice is the quintes-
sence of all vices . . . This utterly incorrigible sin,
this refined and sublimated desire of the flesh, is the ab-
stract form in which all lusts are concentrated, and to
which it stands like a general idea to individual particu-
lars. Accordingly, avarice is the vice of age, just as

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THE SLUGGISH AND THE LUDICROUS

extravagance is the vice of youth. Laughter never
comes from economy, but from superabundance of en-
ergy. Laughter is by no means due to an economising
process, it is essentially a dissipation of energy. The
ludicrous, the comic is the trigger that opens in the audi-
ence stores of accumulated reserve energy.

We may then say that suggestiveness, indirect sug-
gestion in regard to inferiority in general and mental
inferiority in particular, forms the mainspring, the chief
source of the ludicrous and of the comic. In the last
analysis, however, we may say that we ridicule stupidity
in all its forms.

Sluggishness of mind, stupidity, especially human
stupidity, under all its forms and disguises is the sole
source of the ludicrous. All disguises are ludicrous, not
so much because they are disguises, but because under
them we discern the silly, the stupid, and the self-con-
tented, arrogant, foolish ignorance. We laugh at the
judge, at the lawyer, at the professor, at the physician,
at the official who hide their ignorance and stupidity
under the cloak of solemn ceremonies and obsolete mean-
ingless mummeries. All ceremonies, all stereotyped, sol-
emn actions are ridiculous, when behind them we discern
the meaningless, the stupid, and the ignorant.

It is not the automatic, nor the "mechanical encrusted
upon the living/' as Bergson would have it, that brings
about the ridiculous, but it is always stupidity revealed
to the eye of intelligence. The very examples brought
by Bergson show, not mechanism, but stupidity of the
persons at whom the ridicule is directed.

An M. P. questions the Home Secretary on the mor-
row of a terrible murder which took place in a railroad
carriage: "The assassin, after dispatching his victim,

225

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

must have got out the wrong side of the train, thereby
infringing the company's rules." There is nothing me-
chanical about it except the fact that the remark shows
the stupidity of the M. P. In the same way Doctor
Bahis' maxim, "It is better to die through following the
rules than to recover through violating them," is not an
indication of the mechanical, but an example of stupidity,
of lack of understanding of the actual purpose of medi-
cine. This may be duplicated by the following anecdote :

Irish doctor: Well, I've knocked the fayver out of him

anyhow.

Wife: O Doctor, do you think there is any hope?
Doctor: Small chance, I'm afeard, madam ; but you'll have

the satisfaction of knowing he died cured.

The stupid and therefore ludicrous side of the situa-
tion is brought out in the physician's last phrase that the
patient died cured. This stupidity of misconceiving the
end of cure, which should lead to life instead of death, is
often directed against the surgeon who reports a suc-
cessful operation and death of the patient. The stupidity
ridiculed is against the professional narrow-mindedness
which concentrates its attention on the knocking out of
the "fayver," on the successful operation from a purely
professional standpoint, without regard to the patient
himself, for whose life and welfare the treatment and
operation were undertaken. This sort of stupidity is
common with professional men who think more of their
profession than of the welfare of their patients and
clients for whom the profession ultimately exists.

This stupid narrow-mindedness into which profes-
sional men are apt to drift forms the constant butt of
ridicule. Bergson is right in his remark, though he gives

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THE SLUGGISH AND THE LUDICROUS

it the wrong interpretation: "Bridoison's words are
significant : 'F-form, mind you, f-form.' A man laughs
at a judge in a morning coat, and yet he would quake
with dread at the mere sight of an attorney in his gown.
'F-form, all a matter of f-form/ ' This is perfectly
true. It is the function of ridicule to pierce the thick
crust of professional bigotry. Pascal puts it quite for-
cibly :

"The greatest and most important thing in the world
is founded on weakness ; and the foundation is admirably
firm ; for nothing can be more certain than that the peo-
ple will be feeble.

"Our magistrates are adepts in this mystery. Their
halls of justice, their robes of scarlet and ermine, with
the other insignia of their office, are all necessary."

It is the function of ridicule to rend the cloak of
form and ceremony, and show the hidden emptiness,
weakness, and stupidity. It is the function of ridicule
to tear away the mantle that hides senseless form, hollow
hypocrisy, and imbecility. We laugh at stupidity under
all its forms and disguises. In fact, we may say that all
ridicule, even where it concerns physical defects and
motor clumsiness and awkwardness, is aimed at mental
deficiency and intellectual turpitude. Stupidity is the
target of the shafts of ridicule.

CHAPTER XXII
RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

Laughter is the result of tapping new sources of sub-
conscious reserve energy; the element of suddenness, or
of surprise must be taken into consideration. The turn
in the joke or in the ludicrous must come in a sudden
sharp way, thus heightening the contrast effects and set-
ting the hidden energies into activity by liberating the
unused, accumulated surplus energy. When the same
joke is repeated a few times it becomes stale. When the
result of the comic becomes known beforehand the laugh-
ter is deadened. Surprise at the unexpected, when of a
pleasant character, is generally provocative of a smile or
of laughter, but when connected with the elements of in-
feriority and stupidity of the object or of the given
situation the laughable effect is irresistible.

The audience must have the feeling of expectancy
and of surprise at the outcome. The outcome must not
be too obvious. A veil must be skillfully thrown over
the last results. The inference must be left to the lis-
tener or to the looker-on. As Aristotle would put it, the
joke and the comic must be of the nature of an enthy-
meme, the conclusion should be omitted. A veil of a
gauzy, transparent character must be thrown over the
outcome. The conclusion must not be seen, and still it
must be sufficiently indicated indirectly so that the audi-
ence should be sure to supply it from its own mental
resources.

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RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

This artistic illusion of suggestiveness, of indirect
suggestibility, is one that specially delights the audience.
In the joke, as in the comedy, the audience is apparently
made to participate in the act. The audience is thrown
skillfully on its own inner resources and is artfully made
to supply the missing links. Such a skillful maneuver,
when successfully carried out, sets the audience in an
uproar of uncontrollable laughter.

The joke and the comic are constructed like a riddle,
but unlike the usual riddle or charade the solution must
be given in the puzzle. The answer must be given in the
very substance of the joke or of the comic. In the riddle
and in the conundrum the solution is hidden, and the
more hidden the solution is, the better the riddle is appre-
ciated. Not so is it in the joke and the comic — the solu-
tion is hidden and still is fully apparent or transparent
to the audience. The riddle needs an explanation, and
the harder it is to find the explanation, the more difficult
the solution is, the better is the riddle. Quite opposite
is the case with the joke and the comic. Nothing kills
a joke so much as an explanation. The joke and the
comic resemble the riddle in the fact that the conclusion
or the solution is not given, but while in the riddle all
efforts are made to hide the solution, in the joke and the
comic the solution lies on the surface ; the hiding is only
a matter of playful semblance.

In the different forms of the ludicrous, in the joke
and in the comic, the riddle is such that one has to find
out at a glance where the defect, the subnormal, the
stupid lies. Now the stupid may be in act, in behavior,
in manners, in costume, or it may be in a higher sphere,
namely, in the moral and in the intellectual — it may be
a lapse or permanent defect of moral or of reasoning

229

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

capacities. In the ultimate analysis all these different
varieties can be referred to sheer stupidity.

When a man runs and slips we may laugh when the
person is young. What is expected of him is agility,
motor control which indicates an active mind. The slip-
ping of a young person is an indication of a sluggish
mind. Should the person suffer from motor disturb-
ances or be old there would be compassion and not laugh-
ter. A young person playing croquet, for instance, and
taking his aim and missing is laughed at, because it is
an indication of his psychomotor sluggishness. Simi-
larly I once observed great hilarity in onlookers at a
person who was sitting on a stout branch and sawing it
in front of him, and then coming down, branch and all.
The laughter was clearly on account of the person's
stupidity.

When again a man walks in a solemn way, slips,
falling into mud, showing signs of ill temper, the ten-
dency to laughter is enhanced in the bystanders. The
person reveals by his anger his silliness, which is laughed
at. A marionette acting like an intelligent person is
laughed at because of the absence of reason which we
find in it. Thus Collodi in his "Pinochio" describes
"the people in the street, seeing the wooden marionette
running as fast as a rabbit, stopped to look at it, and
laughed, and laughed." They laughed at the marionette
and at the awkwardness of the men chasing a wooden,
senseless marionette. A person acting like a thing or
like a machine is laughed at. For mechanical action,
automatism, indicates lack of reasoning, deficiency of
intellect — stupidity.

A person tossed about like a ball, as Sancho Panza,,
is ludicrous, because he becomes assimilated to a wooden

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RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

object or to a rubber ball ; in other words, the image of
the blockhead hovers before our mind and we regard
the man as a fool. Similarly clowns behaving stiffly
like wooden sticks and treating their heads like wooden
balls are ludicrous, because they clearly, though
indirectly, tell the audience by their actions: we are
marionettes, we are blockheads. All awkward, clumsy,
motor adjustments are ludicrous, because they in-
dicate to people who judge of the mind by the motor
reactions that the intelligence is dull, torpid, and in-
active.

Even in the case of moral defects we do not laugh
at the clever rogue, but at the knave and the scoundrel
who, through stupidity, disclose their dishonesty and
knavery. We do not laugh at the crimes and sins of
guilty persons, but we laugh at their silliness and stu-
pidity. In the same way worn-out ceremonies, customs,
manners, rites, and beliefs are ridiculed, because there
is no sense behind them, because they are stupid. It is
not moral depravity that is laughed at, but it is torpid,
mental inactivity, stupidity. Crime and sin are punished
by law and religion, but stupidity is chastened by
laughter.

We must, however, remind the reader of the im-
portance of the surprise element. The foolishness
pointed out should not be of a character to which we
are accustomed, which we know and with which we are
familiar in the ordinary intercourse of life. The nov-
elty of the silly aspect is an important element in the
ludicrous. What we are accustomed to no longer arouses
our energies, it falls below the threshold of stimulation.
A joke by repetition becomes stale. Repetition is fatal
to the comic. Ever new displays, ever new insights into

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

mans stupidity and into the depths of human folly are
the requirements of the ludicrous.

It is the first solution of the puzzle that pleases,
there is no second solution. In the same way with the
ludicrous it is the first realization of the joke and of
the comic that electrifies us, the second one leaves us
indifferent, and the third or more makes us turn up our
nose. We positively dislike a joke that is often re-
peated, it is an indication of poverty of thought, of
stupidity, and as such is apt to excite in us a derisive
smile at the person who tells it.

The novel aspect of human folly is a requisite of
laughter. We do not laugh at what is usual and cus-
tomary, even if at first we may regard it as silly and
foolish. Custom is the tyrant of men and holds them
in bonds stronger than steel. Gradually the ludicrous
side dwindles away as we get used and accustomed to
the stupidity and take it as part and parcel of life. On
the one hand, the customary, as it becomes interwoven
with our spirit, becomes by it rationalized, and, on the
other hand, the unusual, the strange, the uncustomary,
even if good and rational, appears to us as irrational and
therefore seems to us ludicrous. A good example is the
Asiatic coming into European society. We may also
quote Herodotus in the strong contrasts he makes be-
tween Egyptian and Hellenic customs, contrasts which
must have greatly amused the Greek world. It requires
the whole force of genius to discover stupidity in hal-
lowed custom, or to see the rational in the unusual.

In his essays Montaigne expresses tersely the great
power of custom :

He seems to have had a right and true apprehension
of the power of custom, who first invented the story of

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RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

a country woman who, having accustomed herself to play
with and carry a young calf in her a/ms, and daily continuing
to do so as it grew up, obtained this by custom, that, when
grown to be a great ox, she was still able to bear it. For,
in truth, custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress.
She, by little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the
foot of her authority, but having by this gentle and humble
beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it,
she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance,
against which we have no more the courage or the power
so much as to lift up our eyes. ... I do believe that
no so absurd or ridiculous fancy can enter into human
imagination, that does not meet with some example of
public practice, and that, consequently, our reason does not
ground and back up.

The factor, or, rather to say, the process which is
quite frequently taking place in the bringing about of
the ludicrous is that of dissociation. The object, the
precept, the idea, the situation must be dissociated from
its customary associations and then brought again into
association with concepts, ideas, images, and situations
of an inferior character, physical, mental, and moral.
A word, or phrase, is detached from its usual meaning
and a different meaning of an inferior character is given
to it. The meaning of inferiority is not directly given,
but only implied, being strongly suggested to the lis-
tener. This, for instance, may be exemplified in the
remark made on an actor: "Jokes aside, he is a fair
actor." Now the meaning of fair means nice and good,
but it also means a market place. In other words, the
critic, while apparently saying that the acting is fair,
good, and beautiful, really implies or suggests the idea
that the acting is fit for a fair, for a market place.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

The adjective fair, which is indicative of excellence, is
made use of as a noun and thus conveys the idea that
the acting is poor and that the actor is but a clown.
The word fair is dissociated from its meaning as good
and excellent and is associated with the clown of the
market place.

Take again the following example:

Unfortunate lady, how sad is your lot!
Your ringlets are red, vour poems are not.

Here the play is on the word red, the lady's hair is
red and her poems are not readf they are not good. The
looks of the lady and her poems are both brought into
a relation of inferiority.

When Horner Tooke was asked by George III. whether
he ever played cards, he replied, "I cannot, your Majesty,
tell a king from a knave."

The relation of the king and knave of cards is dis-
sociated from the play of cards and brought into rela-
tion with the real king and the knave. It is like saying
in so many words that there is no difference between a
king and a knave.

To take another example :

At a banquet the host presented his wines to the guests
by the little speech: "I am not a connoisseur, but I have
some wines fit for the gods."

An Irishman present took the hint. When he gave a
banquet he made the following introduction: "I am not
O'Connor, but I have some whiskey fit for Christ!"

Here the structure of the joke is brought out even
more clearly, inasmuch as the meaning is changed
through a misconception of words due to ignorance and

234

RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

to similarity of associations in the Irishman's mind. It
is a play on resemblance of words connoisseur and
O'Connor, as well as a play of association expressed in
similar concepts such as wine and whiskey, the gods and
Christ. The joke clearly shows an interchange of the
inferior for the superior and suggests the ignorance and
stupidity of the Irishman.

Some remarks of Coleridge, rather of a democratic
character, were greeted with hisses, at which he exclaimed :
"I am not at all surprised that, when the red hot prejudices
of aristocrats are suddenly plunged into the cool element
of reason, they should go off with a hiss."

Here the play on similar words is accompanied by a
similarity of associations which reveals the irrationality
and stupidity of his opponents.

"I hope I did not weary you by the length of my sermon,
Doctor," said a young preacher at dinner.
"No, nor by its breadth either."

The play here is on the word length, which is used
originally in regard to time; while the interlocutor
utilizes the word in a different sense he employs the as-
sociated word of breadth, but with reference to thought.
In other words, he tells the preacher that the sermon
lacked in thought, thus indirectly telling him that the
sermon was dull and stupid.

The misapprehension of a word showing the igno-
rance and stupidity of the man who used it is itself
often a source of laughter.

"There are some spectacles," exclaimed an orator, "that
a person never forgets."

"I'd like to know whar dey sells them," remarked an
old colored man.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

There is one point we must always have in mind,
and that is that the climax or sting of the joke or of
the comic, though wrapped and covered up by a sugared
capsule, should invariably carry the suggestion of de-
fect, of shortcomings, of moral and mental inferiority,
of dullness and stupidity. Perhaps a series of - examples
will best help a clear understanding of the matter :

Clergyman: I've lost my portmanteau.
Traveler: I pity your grief !
Clergyman: All my sermons are in it.
Traveler: I pity the thief!

"I cannot understand," says Dick,
"What it is that makes my legs so thick ;"
"You do not understand," says Harry,
"How great a calf they have to carry."

In the first one the implication is that the sermons
are poor and pitiful, and in the second one the ridicule
lies in telling Dick that he is a big calf and stupid.
Both of them have their climax.

"So you refuse to buy my car, do you?"
"I certainly do. When I want a car like yours, I'll
go to the five and ten cent store and get a new one."

We may complete the thought left suggested and
reveal the sting of the reply. A car like the one you
wish to palm off on me is cheap and worthless even as
a new one. You are silly if you think me such a fool
as to buy your car.

"If you were my husband, I would give you poison."
"Madam, if I were your husband, I would take it."

The woman tells the man that he is so bad that he
deserves to be poisoned, while the man retorts that

236

RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION; AND SURPRISE

under such conditions he would willingly take poison,
as his life would be so miserable that death is prefer-
able, because she is such a mean shrew. While she tells
him that he deserves death, he replies indirectly that
she is worse than death. And now mark another point.
The woman in disparaging him makes the slip in re-
garding the man as a possible husband. This stupid,
contradictory slip is taken occasion of, and the woman
is made the butt of ridicule. At the same time it may
be well to notice here the effect of the principle of dis-
sociation often present in the comic. The original
thought, the death of a man, is dissociated and put in
the light as death of her husband. This dissociation
frees the man from the stigma of being a bad man and
puts the woman in a ludicrous light as being both a bad
woman, a bad wife, and brings out her stupidity in mak-
ing the slip by the suggestion that he could possibly be
her husband.

Two men who had not seen one another for a great
while meeting by chance, one asked the other how he did.
He replied he was very well and had been married since
he saw him.

"That's good news, indeed/'' said he.

"Nay, not such good news, neither," replies the other,
"for I married a shrew."

"That was bad," said the friend.

"Not so bad, neither; for I had two thousand pounds
with her."

"That's well again," said the other.

"Not so well, neither," said the man, "for I laid it out
in sheep, and they all died of the rot."

"That was hard, indeed," said his friend.

"Not so hard," said the husband, "for I sold the skins
for more than the sheep cost."

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"That made you amends," said the other.

"Not so much amends, neither, for I laid out my money
in a house, and it was burnt to the ground."

"That was a great loss, indeed," said the friend.

"Not so great a loss, neither; for my wife was burnt
in it."

We have here present the baffling sense of surprise
so important in wit and the comic, while the story
winds up with a climax full of surprise. The whole
force of the ridicule is sustained and leads up to the
evil in women and the misery of married life.

Take the passage from Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wake-
field" :

Olivia undertook to be our prolocutor, and delivered the,
whole in a summary way, only saying, "We were thrown'
from our horses." At which account the ladies were greatly
concerned ; but being told the family received no hurt, they
were exceedingly glad, extremely glad ; but being informed
that we were almost killed by fright, they were vastly sorry ;
but hearing that we had a very good night, they were
extremely glad

"Were yez iver shtruck be loightning, Pat?"
"Oi don't remimber."
"Don't remimber?"

"No. A mon that's bin married tin years don't remimber
sich troifles as thot."

Foreman (at the door) : Did yer husband hov a new suit

av clo'es on this mor'nin', Mrs. O'Malley ?
Mrs. O'Malley: He did.
Foreman: They're ruined entirely.
Mrs. O'Malley: How did ut happen?
Foreman: He was blown up be a charge of dinnymite.

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RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

Once an Irish advocate was examining a witness, and,
failing to get a correct answer, said : "There is no use in
asking you questions, for I see the villain in your face."

"Did you, sir?" said the man ; "faix, I never knew before
that my face was a looking-glass."

Pat: What be yer charge for a funeral notice in yer paper?
Editor: Five dollars an inch.

Pat: Good heavens! An' me poor brother was six feet
high.

Pat was in the museum looking at a copy of the "Winged
Victory."

"And phat may yez call thot ?" he asked an attendant.

"That is a statue of Victory, sir," was the answer.

Pat surveyed the headless and armless statue with re-
newed interest.

"Victhry, is it?" he said. "Then begorry, Oi'd loike to
see the other fellow."

The following remarks by Lichtenberg disclose the
suggestive nature of relations of inferiority characteris-
tic of ridicule: "When a head and a book come into
collision, and one sounds hollow, is it always the book ?"
We take another example from the same author, an ex-
ample which even more clearly expresses the relation of
inferiority inherent in ridicule : "Works like this are as
a mirror ; if an ass looks in, you cannot expect an apostle
to look out."

Sa'di, in "The Gulistan," expresses the same idea
more directly when he says : "I grew weary of instruct-
ing brutes, and of holding up a mirror to an, assembly
of the blind."

A close inspection of all such jokes clearly reveals
the fact that the laughter is at some moral, mental, or

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

logical inferiority disclosed unexpectedly to the view of
the reader or listener At the same time we observe
the process of dissociation and the element of climax.

The following verses from Goldsmith illustrate the
climax in the comic :

Good people all, with one accord,

Lament for Madam Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word —

From those who spoke her praise.

The needy seldom passed her door,

And always found her kind;
She freely lent to all the poor —

Who left a pledge behind.

She strove the neighborhood to please
With manners wondrous winning;

And never followed wicked ways —
Unless when she was sinning.

At church, in silks and satins new,

With hoop of monstrous size,
She never slumber'd in her pew —

But when she shut her eyes.

Her love was sought, I do aver,

By twenty beaux and more;
The King himself has follow'd her —

When she has walk'd before.

But now her wealth and finery fled,

Her hangers-on cut short all;
The doctors found, when she was dead —

Her last disorder mortal.

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RIDDLE, DISSOCIATION, AND SURPRISE

Let us lament, in sorrow sore,

For Kent Street well may say,
That had she lived a twelvemonth more —

She had not died to-day.

Mental and moral inferiority are well brought out in
each climax.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE GROUNDWORK OF THE COMIC

The most general way in which the comic effect is
brought about is what may better be termed as the
process of deviation. A deviation from the original
meaning with a suggestion to the inferior is invariably
one of the great sources of the ludicrous. A deviation
from the normal to the subnormal, from the moral to
the immoral, from the intelligent to the unintelligent,
from the wise to the stupid, from the superior or normal
to the inferior is the great source of all comic and ludi-
crous. Any change or variation in the phrase, in the
emphasis, accent, or in the order of the words tending
to a different and disadvantageous meaning to the
speaker excites laughter. Any variation or deviation in
the relation, or in the order of events, or in the environ-
ment in which the set of events is given with a tendency
toward a suggestion of the inferior is invariably re-
garded as comic.

Associations of contrast are frequently utilized for
ludicrous effects. The great is contrasted with the
small, the grave with the gay, the good with the
bad, the wise with the foolish, the superior with
the inferior. The ludicrous is formed by the blending
of contrasting shades and colors in the physical, moral,
and intellectual world — the one passing and melting into
the other, always with the suggestion toward the lower

242

THE GROUNDWORK OF THE COMIC

side of life, always with the hidden grin and leer in the
direction of what is mean, low, wicked, silly, and stupid.
The shock given by the contrast and the suggestive
glimpse into the world of the great combine to awaken
the sense of the ludicrous. The grandiose, the pompous,
the sublime, ending in the low, in the mean, in the stupid,
result in the jocose and the comic. Instance the verse:

The thunder roared, the clouds grew big,
The lightning flashed — and struck a pig.

This transition from the pompous to the despicable,
from the grand to the vile and the mean, has the effect
of the ludicrous. .

Take an example from Byron:

They mourned for those who perished in the cutter,
And also for the biscuits, cakes and butter.

His Majesty was confined to his house with a violent
cold. The printer made an error, and the phrase was
changed to: His Majesty was confined to his house
with a "violent scold."

The general behaved like a hero was changed to be-
haved like a hare.

In one paper an announcement read that a surgeon
caught in the river was sold at ten cents a pound.

A clergyman's work was complimented as immortal
in which the printer omitted the "t" to the great con-
sternation of both the editor and the divine.

An orator told an impatient audience: "Wait, gentle-
men, I have a few more pearls."

Every one who has been in the Civil War is a colonel.
Is it because they had shells ?

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

This is not much of a joke, as it turns on pro-
nunciation Colonel as kernel. Still people laughed when
they heard it. The amusement lies in the indirect as-
sociation of the dignified heroes with nuts.

Let us take the Biblical text with a printer's mis-
take as a climax.

And he rebuked the winds and the sea, and lo, there
was a Clam!

The unintentional slip made by the Bible itself in the
fable told by Jotham to the men of Shechem is quite
amusing on account of the startling assertion as to the
divine power of the juice of the vine :

Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign
over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my
wine, which cheer eth God and man ? . . .

In the following examples we find the factors of dis-
sociation, sudden unexpected turn, surprise of contrast —
two or more contradictory thoughts or mutually ex-
clusive trains of ideas run together with consequent in-
congruity and nonsense in the climax.

A lady one day heard a knock at the door, and after-
wards asked the servant who had called.

"It was a gintleman, ma'am, looking for the wrong
house," replied Mary.

In stating his grievance to his employer, Dan D ,

famed for his sagacity and his persuasive powers, said,
"If you please, sir, I've been sent as a delegate by the
workers to ask a favor of you regarding the payment of
our wages."

"Yes, and what do they desire ?" queried the master.

"Well, sir, it is the desire of myself, and it is also the

244

THE GROUNDWORK OF THE COMIC

desire of every man in the establishment, that we receive
our fortnight's pay every week."

"Courting," said an Irishman, "is like dying; sure a
man must do it for himself."

"It is a great pleasure entirely to be alone, especially
whin your sweetheart is wid ye," observed one reflective
swain.

A man obtained permission from his employer to attend
a wedding. He turned up next day with his arm in a sling
and a black eye.

"Hello, what is the matter?" asked his employer.

"Well, you see," said the wedding guest, "we were very
merry yesterday, and I saw a fellow strutting about with
a swallow-tailed coat and a white waistcoat. 'And who
might you be?* sez I. Tm the best man/ sez he, and
begorra he was, too."

A daughter of Erin was soliciting custom for milk from
passengers on board a liner which had just arrived at
Queenstown from Canada.

"And what sort of milk might it be?" asked a passenger
familiarly.

"Skim milk, to be sure," said the girl.

"Skim milk ! Why, we give that to the pigs in my
country."

"Indade!" replied the milkmaid simply, "but we sell
it to them here."

An Irishman was visiting the Falls of Niagara. "There,"
cried Jonathan to Paddy, as he waved his hand in the
direction of the Horseshoe Fall, "there now, is not that
wonderful ?"

"Wondeiful?" replied Paddy. "What's wonderful?"

245

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"Why, to see all that water come thundering over them
rocks ?'

"Faix, then, to tell ye the honest truth," was the re-
sponse, "I can't see anything very wonderful in that. Why,
what the divil is to hinther it from coming over? If it
stopped on the top that'd be something wonderful."

"Why were you late in barracks last night, Private
Atkins?" demanded an officer.

"Train from London was very late, sir," was the reply.

"Very good," said the officer. "Next toime the train's
late take care you come on an earlier one."

An Irishman named Linahan, after short residence,
made application to be naturalized. One of the
questions which is asked of applicants for citizen-
ship is, "Have you read the constitution of the
United States?" When this question was asked of
Linahan, he replied, "No, your Honor, I have not, but
me friend, Dennis M'Carthy, read it to me, and it's mighty
well pleased I was with it." He got his papers.

The play of the joke turns on "reading." It is not
mere reading, it is understanding that is of importance.
The allusion to foolishness lies far in the background.

"So yez t'ink Friday is an unlucky day ?" asked Doolan.

"Oi know it," replied Hooligan. "Oi lost me purse
wid tin shillins in it on a Friday. Don't yez call thot bad
luck?"

"Yis; bad luck fer you, but foine luck for the fellow
that found it."

A show proprietor said to Pat, who was looking at a
cinematograph, "How do you like the fight?"
"Oi've only one objection, sor," said Pat.

246

THE GROUNDWORK OF THE COMIC

"What is it," asked the proprietor.

"Just that Oi can't get in it," was the answer.

"An' how did ye injoy St. Patrick's day?" queried
Muldoon of his friend.

"Foine," was the answer. "We cracked Casey's skull
in the marnin', an' attinded his wake in the avenin'."

"I intend to pray that you may forgive Casey for having
thrown that brick at you," said a parson when he called
to see a man who had been worsted in a melee.

"Mabbe yer riv'rence 'ud be savin' toime if ye'd just
wait till Oi git well, an' pray for Casey," replied the patient.

The last few examples well illustrate the pugnacious
character of the Irishman.

Incongruity and absurdity disclosing silliness, stu-
pidity, and general mental inferiority are important fac-
tors in the comic, bringing out the comic, the ludicrous.
A few examples will illustrate this point:

Papa to Johnny: You had a fight again. Your fore-
head is bleeding.

Johnny: I bit myself in the forehead.

Papa: How could you do that? You could not reach
your forehead.

Johnny: I climbed up on a chair.

We laugh here at the absurdity which lies in the
association of incongruity of cause and effect. We
laugh at the false analogy of reaching a high object such
as the forehead by climbing on a chair or on a ladder.

The same may be exemplified by the Irish railroad
porter.

"The ten o'clock train '11 go at eleven o'clock to-night,
and there'll be no last train."

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Another example is that of the man who said:
"I receive an immense number of anonymous letters
which are quite insulting. I despise them too much to
pay any attention to them. When I write anonymous letters,
I always sign them."

The joke lies in the incongruity of signing anony-
mous letters as well as in the acknowledgment indirectly
made that he writes insulting letters.

Again we may take the story of the captain who
instructed his corporals :

I want all the corporals to give the word of command
together. "Shoulder arms!" he shouted. He then angrily
exclaimed : "I hear several corporals saying nothing at all."

This may be matched by the Irishman who, at a
meeting, called out:

"All ye who are present say: yea! All those who are
absent say: nay!"

The ludicrous side of the joke lies in the incongruity
and absurdity of hearing what is not said, or of expect-
ing absent people to indicate their absence by answering
"nay" to your question. At the same time the ridicule
is directed against the person who naively makes such
remarks — it suggests his stupidity.

A foolish young esquire, hearing his steward say he had
killed a bullock for Christmas, exclaimed: "What do you
mean by such extravagance and expense? Have but one
half killed at a time !"

Thus a person's physiognomy has been jestingly de-
scribed as: "a few pensive lines about the nose showed
that snuff and sorrow had been busy there." Contrast
of associations, incongruity of images, clash of incon-

248

THE GROUNDWORK OF THE COMIC

sistent ideas, contradictory statements, interplay of dis-
cordant actions, and sentiments which reveal their inner
incompatibility, as well as views that cannot be recon-
ciled, because of their being illogical and absurd, all
arouse laughter. In short, any association which ex-
presses moral and mental turpitude compared with the
normal and ideal standard of the given society and age
gives rise to smiles, ridicule, and laughter. In all the
cases of the comic and the ludicrous we find the com-
bination of logical and illogical, moral and immoral,
the brilliant and the commonplace, the ideal and the mat-
ter of fact, the superior and the inferior, the intelligent
and the stupid, all conjoined and combined into an ex-
plosive that at the least concussion gives rise to an out-
burst of laughter.

The following anecdote may be taken as an example :
A descendant of the noble Harmodius was taunting
Iphicrates with his low birth.

"The difference between us is this," Iphicrates replied,
"my family begins with me, and your's ends with you."

The contrasting relations of high and low, of good
and evil, of great and small are here clearly brought
out. The exalted are humbled and the humble are ex-
alted. We laugh, we are amused, when we realize real
merit clashing with deceit. The sham discerned under
the garb of nobility and superiority is invariably an
object of ridicule. The contrast of the two discordant
and incongruous concepts, the noble and the ignoble, the
superior and the inferior, their association, dissociation,
and final resolution with the surprise element in which
the ignoble is shown to be clothed in the garb of the
noble, like the donkey in the lion's skin, arouses the
sense of the ludicrous.

249

CHAPTER XXIV

MIMICRY

Why is mimicking a person or an animal ludicrous?
Because the imitation is of something which is regarded
as inferior. We do not laugh at the perfect imitation
of a beautiful song, nor do we ridicule the perfect imi-
tation of a human figure whether sculptured or painted,
but we laugh at defects, at the representation of awk-
wardness, of clumsiness, and silliness. In mimicry it
is not simply the imitation of any kind of gestures, or
of action, or of mannerisms, or of speech, that is re-
garded as ludicrous, but it is only certain definite mani-
festations, only certain motor activities or postures that
excite laughter. The imitation in mimicry excites our
laughter because the gestures, postures, speech, and
phrases imitated are considered as silly, senseless, stupid.
The mimicry or imitation of what is regarded as good,
true, and beautiful excites in us the highest admiration.
When we mimic persons and their modes of behavior it
is to bring out in the language of gestures the moral and
mental inferiority, the inner senselessness of the person.

In grotesque postures and figures we find the pres-
ence of abnormalities, of conditions and states of in-
feriority, deformities, and defects of body and mind.

An excellent description of the power of the ludi-
crous possessed by grimace-making and caricature may
be found in "Notre Dame de Paris," by Victor Hugo :

250

MIMICRY

The field was clear for every sort of folly. . . . The
pulling of faces began. The first to appear in the opening —
eyelids turned inside out, the gaping mouth of a ravening
beast, the brow creased and wrinkled — was greeted with
such a roar of inextinguishable laughter — that Homer would
have taken all these ragamuffins for gods.

A second and third distortion followed, to be succeeded
by another and another; and with each one the laughter
redoubled, and the crowd stamped and roared with delight.
Picture to yourself a series of faces representing succes-
sively every geometrical form, from the triangle to the
trapezium, from the cone to the polyhedron; every human
expression, from rage to lewdness ; every stage of life, from
the creases of the newly born to the wrinkles of hoary age ;
every phantasm of mythology and religion, from Faunus to
Beelzebub; every animal head, from the buffalo to the
eagle, from the shark to the bulldog. . . . The great
Hall was one vast furnace of effrontery and unbridled
mirth, in which every mouth was a yell, every countenance
a grimace, every individual a posture. The whole mass
shrieked and bellowed. Every new visage that came grin-
ning and gnashing to the window was fresh fuel to the
furnace. And from this seething multitude, like steam
from a cauldron, there rose a hum — shrill, piercing, sibilant,
as from a vast swarm of gnats. . . .

Suddenly there came a thunder of applause mingled
with shouts of acclamation. The Fools had elected their
Pope.

In truth, the grimace that beamed through the broken
window at this moment was nothing short of the miracu-
lous. After all the faces — pentagonal, hexagonal, and he-
teroclite — which had succeeded each other in the stone
frame, without realizing the grotesque ideal set up by the
inflamed popular imagination, nothing inferior to the su-
preme effort now dazzling the spectator would have sufficed
to carry every vote. We can hardly convey to the reader

251

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

a conception of that tetrahedral nose, that horse-shoe mouth,
of that small left eye obscured by a red and bristling brow,
while the right disappeared under a monstrous wart, of
those uneven teeth, with breaches here and there, like the
crenated walls of a fortress, of that horny lip over which
one of the teeth projected like an elephant's tusk, of that
cloven chin, nor, above all, of that expression overlying the
whole, an indefinable mixture of malice, bewilderment, and
sadness.

There was not a single dissentient voice. They rushed
to the chapel and in triumph dragged forth the thrice lucky
Pope of Fools. Then surprise and admiration reached the
culminating point. He had but shown his natural counte-
nance.

Rather let us say his whole person was a grimace. An
enormous head covered with red bristles; between the
shoulders a great hump balanced by one in front; a sys-
tem of thighs and legs so curiously misplaced that they only
touched at the knees, and viewed from the front, appeared
like two sickles joined at the handles; huge splay feet,
monstrous hands, and, with all this deformity, a nameless
impression of formidable strength, agility, and courage.
He looked like a giant broken and badly repaired.

The picture drawn by Victor Hugo of the Pope of
Fools reminds one of the Homeric awkward figure of
the Cyclop Polyphemus or of Shakespeare's monster
Caliban. The image that comes to one's mind is that of
a powerful orang-outang or gorilla, an ape-like man or
a man-like ape. In fact, that is the way the audience
regards the monster:

"Oh, the. hideous ape P exclaimed one.
" 'Tis the devil himself P added another.
"The other night he came and made faces at me through
the window. I thought it not a man P

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MIMICRY

As we have pointed out before, physical deficiencies,
whether natural or mimicked, are in the lower stages of
civilization and culture objects of ridicule. The ridicule,
however, is not so much directed against the physical de-
fect itself as against the spiritual deficiency which the
physical deformity expresses. The body mirrors the
mind. We see a stunted mind in a deformed body.

We laugh at deformities which express defects of
personality, faults of character, inferior aberrations, and
deviations of the mind. The various expressions of a
fool, the silly gestures, postures, mannerisms of action,
and speech of an imbecile or of an idiot give rise to
laughter. We laugh at people whose actions are thought-
less, whose manners are silly, whose speech is senseless,
and whose gestures are inappropriate and meaningless.

In every person's life activity there are foolish
breaks, moments in which intelligence lapses, when the
person may become the object of comic imitation. The
comedian, the joker, the wit, and the wag seize on such
moments and, bringing them to light, expose them to the
ridicule of other people. Vacant, silly expressions of
the features of the face, stupid, meaningless gestures,
irrational actions all go to form the subject matter of
the comic and the ludicrous.

Motor reactions are the mirror of mental life. The
deformities of physical expression are regarded as reflec-
tions of mental deficiencies. Deformities of bodily ex-
pression are regarded as indications of flaws of charac-
ter and defects of mind. We read by the physical ex-
pressions the stupidities that lie behind them. In all
comic imitation the imitated acts suggest mental inferi-
ority of some kind. It is this mental inferiority, sug-
gested by imitation of gestures and expressions, that is

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

regarded as ludicrous. Moral and mental defects
brought out by physical expressions of attitude, deport-
ment, physiognomy are the factors of the ludicrous in
all forms of imitation and mimicry of the comic.

The cartoonist in drawing his cartoons of individuals
or situations is bringing to light mental and moral de-
ficiencies which, by a form of suggestion, he exposes to
the gaze of the public. By a play of the features of the
face, by exaggeration or diminution of organs and traits
of character the ludicrous side is exposed to view. The
nose may be lengthened, the lips may be made thick or
retreating, the teeth be formed like tusks, the ears may
be made large, the forehead may be made retreating and
possibly horns and hoofs added. All sorts of deformities
may be brought into play in order that mental and moral
traits may be exposed to ridicule. Sometimes a very
slight change in the features of the face or in the figure
may do the work, may bring about the ludicrous effect.
The cartoon may be regarded as a joke, a jest, a trav-
esty, a farce, or burlesque done in pictures.

We may look at the cartoon as an ideographic joke.
Quite often the cartoon is supplemented, as we find in
the comic papers, by the ordinary form of joke. The
two often interpret and interpenetrate each other. The
inscription made on the picture explains its meaning,
which is further supplemented and developed by the
usual joke. The picture illustrates the verbal joke, and
the joke in its abstract and verbal form is strengthened
by the cartoon or caricature. Visual and auditory
images are blended to intensify the ludicrous side of the
object or of the situation. As, for instance, the boy
who made a picture of a wagon and under it wrote :
"drawn by a horse."

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MIMICRY

The pictures may be given in a series and may
represent a whole dramatic performance of various in-
dividuals under different conditions and in various sit-
uations, bringing the whole to a climax, all the scenes
having a running verbal commentary. We may say,
then, that in all forms of comic mimicry, of comic imi-
tation there must be present the strong undercurrent of
suggestion of mental inferiority. The very object, the
aim of mimicry, of imitation is the revelation of the
inferiority of the butt of ridicule. The success of mim-
icry or of comic imitation consists in the happy selection
of traits which are regarded as low, mean, and below the
standard of ordinary intelligence and morality, char-
acteristic of the given group, society, or age in which
the joke, the cartoon, or caricature is made.

The cartoon does not ridicule physical being, but
mind, character, spirit. In all forms of the comic it is
not the body, but it is the soul that is the subject of
ridicule. It is not the material, the physical side, the
mechanical, the automatic functions of the body which
are ridiculed, but it is always the virtues of the soul,
when falling below the normal accepted standard, that
form the everlasting butt of ridicule. The material, the
physical is no matter for the joke, for the comic. It is
the mental, the spiritual in all its infirmities, shortcom-
ings, and failures that forms the everlasting material of
the joke and the comic.

The infirmities of the spirit are as much chastened
by laughter as they are purified by pain. It is laughter,
ridicule that arouses the spirit out of its torpor, gives
the slumbering soul a shock, stings the spirit into action
and further development. When man or society falls
into mental turpitude it is the whip of ridicule that lashes

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

it into mental awakening and further work. Aristotle
is right — the ridiculous deals with mental turpitude un-
attended with pain and destruction. Like a flash of
lightning on a dark night, so laughter or ridicule il-
luminates the dark abyss of the human spirit and awak-
ens the soul to the active light of day.

When two people look alike we may smile. We
smile because we regard one as an imitation of the other.
The situation is ludicrous because we are in a state of
perplexity, since we regard each one as an imitation of
the other, we do not know which is the original and
which is the mimicking imitation. I have, however,
inquired of a number of people, and I find that it is not
so much the likeness of the individuals that is laughed
at as the misunderstanding to which the close resemblance
gives rise. Twins are laughed at only when we are apt
to confuse them and have misapprehensions of an absurd
character which are on that account ludicrous. Shakes-
peare, in his "Comedy of Errors," represents a couple of
twins with complicated absurd situations in which one of
the twins is taken for the other, with ludicrous results,
because of the confusion and misunderstanding of their
actions and misinterpretation of what the twins say and
do. After a series of misunderstandings the double set
of twins are confronted before Adriana and the duke,
who exclaim in amazement :

Adr. I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

Duke. One of these men is Genius to the other;

And so of these. Which is the natural man,
And which the spirit? who deciphers them?

In the comedy of "Twelfth Night" Shakespeare re-
sorts to a similar plot in which Sebastian and his sister

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MIMICRY

Viola are made to look alike. Out of such an ambiguous
situation the poet weaves a net of misunderstandings.
When the plot comes to a solution and the two are con-
fronted Shakespeare makes the lookers-on exclaim:

Duke. One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons,
A natural perspective, that is and is not !

Seb. Antonio, O my dear Antonio!

How have the hours rack'd and tortured me,
Since I have lost thee!

Ant. Sebastian are you?

Mark the fact that when the twins are confronted
there is no laughter at their close resemblance, but there
is present a state of astonishment with nothing of the
ludicrous in it. The ludicrous arises out of the am-
biguity of situations, out of the play of misapprehensions,
false vexations, trivial troubles, various forms of fool-
ings which amuse and delight the audience. We laugh
at the way people are, intentionally or unintentionally,
misled and fooled by imitations.

Imitation, imitativeness, or mimicry is laughed at
because it indicates lack of intelligence, either of the
original or of the copy. In imitativeness, in mimicry we
laugh at lack of brains. The essence of the ludicrous in
mimicry may be summarized by the following fable :

A fox entered the house of an actor and, rummaging
through all his properties, came upon a Mask, an admirable
imitation of a human head. He placed his paws on it, and
said, "What a beautiful head! yet it is of no value, as it
entirely wants brains."

The cunning fox and the brainless Mask are well
contrasted. The human head, however fair, is made
ludicrous through lack of brains.

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CHAPTER XXV
LOGIC AND RIDICULE

Many of the jokes and comic phrases we meet are
logical in character, and as such may be considered as
verbal or material fallacies. Thus the pun, which is
commonly regarded as a joke or a witty remark, falls
under the class known as fallacy of equivocation. The
same word has an homonymous meaning with some-
thing which is quite different and contrasting to what
the speaker intends to say, the inferior being brought
into play under the covered meaning of the superior.

Take, for instance, the example of the theatrical
manager who, on being complimented on the excellent
voice of his prima donna, replied : "Yes, but she has a
long bill." The equivocation turns on the association
of contrasting images as a bill of a bird with a bill for
money.

"Can she paint?"

"Yes, she uses paint daily."

A linguist was asked how many modern tongues he
had mastered.

"All, except that of my wife and of my mother-in-law."

A sailor after having been fished out from the water
was asked by a sentimental lady how he felt in the water.
"Wet," the sailor replied.

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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

An Irishman was listening to two young school teachers.
One said she had thirty children, the other said she had
forty children to attend to.

"Excuse me," asked the Irishman, "do your husbands
come from the old country ?"

"Why can't you be good?" asked a mother of her
small boy.

"I'll be good for a nickel," he said.

"Ah," admonished the mother. "You should copy your
father, and be good for nothing."

In all these examples we have an equivocal meaning
of words with a suggestion of the relation of inferiority.
The speaker by a word or a phrase suggests the reverse
of what he intends to say, or the meaning of the phrase
is differently interpreted by the listener or interlocutor.

Take another example where the joke turns on pure
equivocation of words:

"This is Mike Gun," said the police officer. "The Gun
is loaded."

In the morning the captain turned to the prisoner:
"Gun, you are discharged and the report will be in the
papers to-morrow."

A physician turned dairyman. When asked the reason
for it, the physician replied that he found there was more
money in the "well" than in the sick.

One wondered there were so many pickpockets about
London, seeing there was a watch at every corner.

"Bah!" was the reply, "they would as willingly meet
with a watch as with anything else."

In all these examples we find the play on words of
equivocal meaning, with a distant suggestion of associa-

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

tions of inferiority, such as the drunkard Gun and the
firearms, the physician, dairyman, and the well, the
pickpocket and the watch he picks.

"We have a hen," said a boy boastingly, "that lays an
egg for me every week."

"My grandfather," replied his chum, "is a bishop, and
every week he lays a foundation stone."

The doctor said, "I must throw up everything and take
a sea voyage." — Got the cart before the horse.

An Irishman saw while passing through a graveyard the
following words written on a tombstone: "I still live."
Pat looked a moment, and then said : "Be jabers, if I was
dead, I'd own up to it."

"He was driven to his grave !"

"Sure he was. Did you expect him to walk there?"

In all these various examples of jokes we find that
the word which is played upon is one that has various
meanings and the suggestion is toward the inferior,
while the word is apparently used in the sense of su-
periority, or one of the dramatis persona is made to
look sheepish by a play on a word. The solemn and the
sad are contrasted with the flippant and the gay, the
intelligent with the stupid. The word is taken out of its
setting, dissociated from the set of systems into which
it fits and acquires its meaning, and is associated with
another set with which it is incongruous, thus giving
rise to the ludicrous on account of the lack of meaning
and association of inferiority. The senseless, the mean-
ingless is ridiculous because it expresses stupidity, in-
feriority of thought.

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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

The fallacy known in logic as the fallacy of equivo-
cation is often utilized to express mental inferiority,
moral and intellectual. The pun is much used in the
jocose and the comic:

"How does the noted healer, who cures his patients
by touching them, differ from the regular physician?"
"Why he touches them before he cures them."

Two doctors met in the hall of the hospital.

"Well," said the first, "what is new this morning?"

"I've got a most curious case. Woman cross-eyed; in
fact so cross-eyed that when she cries the tears run down
her back."

"What are you treating her for?"

"Just now," was the reply, "we are treating her for
bacteria."

A young American lady attended a banquet of physicians
in London. She was decidedly good to look at, and the
gentleman on one side, glancing at her, remarked to her
escort: "By George, we have a duck between us."

She retorted: "Why, because I am between two
quacks ?"

In all these jokes or puns the ludicrous depends on
the meaning of the word with the suggestion of a state
of inferiority, disclosing an incongruity of concepts, a
plausible absurdity. Cross-eyedness, tears running down
the back, bacteria. Touching in the sense of healing and
touching in the sense of stealing. Duck a good thing,
duck a bird and, hence, the further suggestion of ganders
and quacks used in the meaning of fakes.

We may take occasion to point out that the joke
attains its end, not only by dissociating the word from
its moorings, so to say, but often accomplishing its pur-

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

pose by dissociating the word itself; such, for instance,
is the case in the joke on back-teria. Other examples
may be adduced proving the same point :

The "Legend of the Cid" was set up by a printer as
"The Leg End of the Kid."

The joke or the comic may again be constructed on
the equivocal meaning of the sentence, such as the invi-
tation to an acquaintance :

"If, sir, you ever come within a mile of my house, I
hope you will stay there."

Reports had come to the president of a well known
Eastern college that one of the students was drinking
more than was good for him. Meeting the student on the
campus one morning, the president stopped him by the
question :

"Young man, do you drink ?"

"Well, why?" the student hesitated, "not so early in
the morning."

A farmer being sick, he and his wife came to a doctor
for examination and advice. The doctor after the examina-
tion turned to the farmer and said: "My dear man, you
must drink asses' milk. If you cannot obtain asses' milk
come to me and I'll help you to some."

When the couple left the office, the wife turned to the
farmer :

"Does the doctor give suck?"

This is known in logic as the fallacy of amphibology,
and often gives rise to comic sayings and ludicrous situa-
tions.

"Why do you keep the pigs in the house?" Pat was
asked.

"Ain't it a good place for pigs ?" was the reply.

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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

A nurse had been called as a witness to prove the
correctness of the bill of a physician.

"Let us get at the facts in the case," said the lawyer
who was doing a cross-examining stunt. "Didn't the doctor
make several visits after the patient was out of danger?"

"No, sir," answered the nurse, "I considered the patient
in danger as long as the doctor continued his visits."

Any combination of opposite, contradictory ideas and
images is apt to give rise to laughter. Thus Mr. Hanna
during his change of personality had to learn things
over again. He saw a chicken and he was told it was
a black chicken. Next time he saw a white chicken he
called it a white-black chicken. At which the people
laughed. Such incongruous remarks are often made by
children.

A young lady said of a book that it was so dry that she
had to wade through it.

A Bostonian lady asked a village grocer if he kept
Browning.

"No," he answered, "I only keep blacking."

A business man given to bankrupting asked his newly
married daughter if she was happy.

"You know, father, marriage is a failure."

"Then," replied the father, "your marriage is a success."

An Irish cavalryman was found by his officer dismounted
from the horse.

"Did you have orders from headquarters?"
"No, from hindquarters."

Sometimes the accent or intonation, emphasis, of
the word in the sentence are apt to give rise to equivocal
meaning with a disadvantage and derogation of one of

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

the speakers, and the result is ludicrous. Such, for in-
stance, is the verse in the Bible :

And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass.
And they saddled him.

Maggie, I do not want that big policeman in the kitchen.
All right, mum, I shall have the little one.

There are the fallacies of arguing from a general
rule to a special case, or conversely from a special case
to a general rule, what is known a dicto secundum quid
ad dictum simpliciter; or again arguing from a special
case to another special case. The fallacy of irrelevant
conclusion, or what is known in logic as Ignoratio
Elenci, is a common source of the comic and the ludi-
crous.

"I have a convincing argument for woman suffrage,"
exclaimed a gentleman. "Are not all human beings equal?
Then women should vote."

The captain of a merchant vessel gave an Irish seaman
his spy glass, of which he was very proud, and told him to
clean it carefully. Pat met with an accident during the
cleaning, and went to the captain, asking:

"Captain, will yez tell me if a thing can be said to be
lost whin one knows where it is ?"

"Lost when one knows where it is?" said the captain.
"Why of course not. How foolish you are, Pat."

"Well sor," said Pat, "thin yer spyglass is safe, for it's
at the bottom of the sea."

An attorney for the defendant in a lawsuit is said to
have handed to the barrister his brief marked: "No case,
abuse the plaintiff's attorney."

A slip of memory from the general to the special, or

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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

from the special to the general may often give rise to
laughter. A Miss Pigeon is misnamed Miss Bird, a
Miss Creek, by association of ideas with the creak of a
door, is addressed as Miss Hinge.

The fallacy known as Petitio Principii, or begging
the question, or circulus in probando, is often a source
of the ludicrous, as in the case of the Irish announce-
ment, "vehicles must carry light in the darkness. Dark-
ness begins when the lights are lit."

In the same way the rest of the logical fallacies are
found in the comic, such as the fallacy of non sequitur,
that of false cause, the fallacy known as non causa pro
causa, and the well-known fallacy described by the
phrase post hoc ergo propter hoc, the fallacy of many
questions as well as the fallacy of dubious and many
different meanings, are all employed in the comic and
the ludicrous.

All the different forms of fallacies may be employed
in the comic. The characters may directly and naively
show their mental and moral deficiency; or the mental
turpitude may be revealed by one of the characters
making some remarks to turn the saying or the action
to the disadvantage of the person ridiculed. The joke
may take the form of a fallacy or absurdity or some
distant, vague, partly obscure, and still evident enough
suggestion of mental and moral inferiority.

A judge said to an advocate: "Do you see anything
ridiculous in the wig?"
"Nothing but the head."

A lawyer was once addressing a jury, when the judge,
who was thought to be antagonistic to his client, intimated
his dissent from the arguments advanced by shaking his
head.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"I see, gentlemen," said the lawyer, "the motion of his
Honor's head. Persons unacquainted with him would be
apt to think that this implied a difference of opinion; but
be assured, gentlemen, this is not the case. When you know
his Honor as well as I do, it will be unnecessary to tell you
that when he shakes his head there is really nothing in it."

A rich contractor was discussing the instability of the
world. "Can you account for it?" he asked.

"Well, not very clearly," was the response, "unless we
suppose it was built by contract."

In the first two examples the fallacy was pointed
out that the ridiculous was not in the wig, not in the
shaking of the head, but in the head of the judge, in
his stupidity. In the second the fallacy of the insta-
bility of the world was referred to the bad work done
by contract.

"Why are you humming that air?"

"Because it haunts me."

"No wonder," was the rejoinder, "you are murdering

The gentleman intimated he was musical and that is
why he was haunted by airs. The rejoinder pointed out
the false cause, the real cause was the murdering of the
music — that the gentleman was really devoid of all
musical abilities.

There is again the joke or the comic made by the
process of converse reasoning. The statement is re-
futed by a converse statement in which the folly of the
first statement stands out clear and distinct.

The Chancellor D'Aguesseau, with all his intellect and
learning, was very irresolute; his son, who was very rapid

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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

in his decisions, said to him one day : "Father, you know
everything, and never decide upon anything."

"My son," retorted the Chancellor, "you know nothing
and decide always upon everything."

A Scotchman put an Irishman in kilts and told
Pat:

"Do not be afraid, you will not be cold with the kilts."
"Yes, but I may be kilt with the cold."

It was reported to Sheridan that the critic, Cumberland,
had said of a performance of "The School for Scandal" that
he was surprised that the audience laughed at it so im-
moderately, as it did not make him smile.

"Cumberland is truly ungrateful," said Sheridan, "for
not smiling at my comedy; for I saw a tragedy of his a
fortnight before at the Covent Garden, and laughed from
the beginning to the end."

In the examples adduced we have a converse process
of reasoning with a slight modification and emphasis on
a central concept which throws the train of thought in
a different line, in the opposite direction. The assaulted
party turns the table on assailants and puts them to flight.
In other words, the relation of inferiority is thrown back
and reversed. The stream of thought runs in one direc-
tion and then suddenly, by a sleight of hand, so to say,
by a swift turn, is made to flow in the opposite direc-
tion.

As an example of petitio principii, or of begging the
question, we may take the anecdote:

"Where do you live, Pat?"
"With Mike."
"Where does Mike live?"
"With me."

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"But where do you and Mike live?"
"Together."

As an example of non sequitur may be taken the
problem :

The ship is 150 feet long, 25 feet deep and 20 feet wide,
how old is the captain's wife?

This may be matched by the statement of the Irish
beggar :

"Give me something to eat; I am so thirsty that I do
not know where I am going to sleep to-night."

Another statement is of the same type and no less
ludicrous :

The American Indians have such sharp eyesight that
they can hear the tramp of a horse at a great distance.

As an example of non causa pro causa may be taken
the following from Lucian:

A fool was bitten by many fleas. He put out the light
and said, "Now you no longer see me."

The fallacy of many questions may be illustrated by
the following example :

A juvenile judge asked a delinquent boy: "Was your
father in a state of intoxication when your mother hit him
with a rolling pin?"

Two different questions are here rolled into one.
The answer "Yes," as well as the answer "No," would
still imply the affirmation of at least one of the state-
ments.

As another example in which the inappropriate cause,
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LOGIC AND RIDICULE

inferiority, and stupidity of the actors stand out clearly
may be taken the following anecdote :

A lady was bragging that she had overthrown her
enemy in a lawsuit. One of her servants, standing by, said
he took a wrong sow by the ear, when he meddled with
her ladyship.

CHAPTER XXVI
NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

Ordinary nonsense verses or sayings such as IrisH
bulls are apt to afford us the pleasure of laughter, like
any absurdity which we can readily discover and regard
as a relation of inferiority in respect to our intellectual
activity. We are amused at the nonsense verses of
"Alice in Wonderland," or even at the still more non-
sensical verses of "Mother Goose." This is not due to
the fact, as some imagine, of removal of inhibitions and
ease of thought, but it is solely due to the relation of
superiority and inferiority as well as to the satisfaction
with ourselves and our mental resources which those
absurdities and nonsense statements set into action. In
short, the laughter in such cases is not due to diminution
of activity and saving of mental energy, but, on the con-
trary, to the sense of increase and free expenditure of
mental activity.

The feeling of presence of sources of reserve
energy, the sense of buoyancy, of mental activity, the
upheaval of inner, latent energies raised from the con-
scious and the subconscious regions by associations of the
relation of inferiority — all these conditions constitute
the essence of the funny, the ludicrous, and the comic.
It is not the saving, not the economizing of energy ; but,
quite the contrary, it is the reckless expenditure, the

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NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

expansion of inner forces, the revelation of untold
wealth, which can be carelessly thrown away at our
pleasure, disclosed to our superior view by things and
relations of an inferior character, it is that alone that
gives rise to the mirth and merriment of the laughter, of
the comic and the ludicrous. The laughter of the comic
and the ludicrous is like the joy of viewing lowlands,
valleys, ravines, and lower peaks from the height of some
overtowering mountain top. The enjoyment does not
consist so much in the fact that we ourselves feel bigger,
as that we have the sensation of standing on higher
ground. It is not we, it is the mountain and its scenery
that are grand. Such sensations of grandeur, added to
the feeling of our inner powers, are given to us subcon-
sciously in laughter. In nonsense we experience the
strength of our sense.

Nonsense is often employed to bring out the inner
absurdity of some saying or of some real relation in life
or of some of the institutions which are regarded as
holy and inviolable. The moral poems which children
are made to memorize by rote in school are well ridiculed
by the nonsense verses which Alice is made to repeat
before the Caterpillar:

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,

"And your hair has become very white ;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head —

Do you think at your age it is right?"
"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,

"I feared it might injure my brain ;
But now I am perfectly sure I have none,

Why, I do it again and again."

At the same time in his frolicsome merriment and
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

under the cloak of nonsense the writer manages to throw
out a hint as to marital relations and tamily happi-
ness:

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak

For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose with the bones and the beak;

Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law

And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,

Has lasted the rest of my life."

Take again the nonsense verses repeated as school
lessons before the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle:

'Tis the voice of the lobster; I heard him declare,
You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.

"That is different from what I used to say when I was a
child," said the Gryphon.

"Well I never heard it before," said the Mock Turtle;
"but it sounds uncommon nonsense."

Take the parody on the silly verses, "Mary had a
Little Lamb" :

Mary had a little lamb,

Likewise a lobster stew,
And ere the sunlit morning dawned

She had a nightmare, too.

We may take another version:

Mary had a little lamp,

Filled with benzoline;
Tried to light it at the fire,

Has not since benzine.
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NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

To quote from "Mother Goose" :

Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger,
My song had been longer.

The nonsense of "Alice Through the Looking Glass"
is specially instructive:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe ;

All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"When you say 'hill/ " the Queen interrupted, "I could
show you hills, in comparison with which you'd call that
a valley."

"No, I shouldn't," said Alice, surprised into contradicting
her at last; "a hill can't be a valley, you know. That
would be nonsense."

"It's only the Red King snoring," said Tweedledee.

"Come and look at him!" the brothers cried, and they
each took one of Alice's hands, and led her up to where
the king was sleeping.

"Isn't he a lovely sight?" said Tweedledum.

Alice couldn't say honestly that he was. He had a tall
red night-cap on, with a tassel, and he was lying crumpled
up into a sort of untidy heap, and snoring loud, "fit to snore
his head off!" as Tweedledum remarked.

"I'm afraid he'll catch cold with lying on the damp
grass," said Alice, who was a very thoughtful little girl.

"He's dreaming now," said Tweedledee; "and what do
you think he's dreaming about?"

Alice said, "Nobody can guess that."

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

"Why, about you !" Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his
hands triumphantly. "And if he left off dreaming about
you, where do you suppose you'd be?"

"Where I am now, of course," said Alice.

"Not you!" Tweedledee retorted contemptuously.
"You'd be nowhere. Why you're only a sort of thing in
his dream!"

"If that there King was to wake," added Tweedledum,
"you'd go out — bang! — just like a candle!"

"What sort of things do you remember best?" Alice
ventured to ask.

"Oh, things that happened the week after next," the
Queen replied in a careless tone.

"For instance, now," she went on, sticking a large piece
of plaster on her finger as she spoke, "there's the King's
Messenger. He's in prison now being punished; and the
trial doesn't even begin till next Wednesday ; and of course
the crime comes last of all."

"Suppose he never commits the crime?" said Alice.

"That would be all the better, wouldn't it?" the Queen
said.

Humpty Dumpty sings :

I sent a message to the fish;

I told them "This is what I wish."

The little fishes of the sea
They sent an answer back to me.

The little fishes' answer was,

"We cannot do it, Sir, because "

In the nonsense of "Alice Through The Looking
Glass" we find that the ludicrous side lies in the uncom-
mon, unusual, absurd combination of words and ideas.

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NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

The unusual, surprising aspect of it is pleasant, while
the illogical, absurd, and nonsensical side with the ten-
dency of revealing the inferior makes of it that specific
kind of laughter which is characteristic of the comic and
the ludicrous. The unusual aspect stimulates our activi-
ties, which are apt to run into a rut by the ordinary
stimuli of life, and thus brings out our subconscious en-
ergies held in reserve by the environment which has no
demand for them. Just as we crave for new sensations
so do we crave for new aspects of life. Even the non-
sensical is a source of enjoyment.

A form of verse adapted to a ludicrous subject and
clothed in a clumsy, awkward, ludicrous expression with
long and short feet may be found in the limerick. This
form of versification well brings out our view of the
ludicrous. The form consists of ill matched feet, while
the subject and the climax, or rather the anti-climax,
are trivial, low, and inferior. We find in the limerick
the factor of suggest iveness present in the climax of the
little poem with its sharp, unexpected, sudden turn, sug-
gestive of the low, mean, ignoble, base, and disreputable.

A few examples will best answer our purpose :

There was a young man from the city,
Who saw what he thought was a kitty,

To make sure of that

He gave it a pat.
They buried his clothes — what a pity!

We have here the sudden turn of the subject in the
climax from the purring pussy with the strong sugges-
tion of the mean, fetid skunk.

Of a sudden the great prima-donna
Cried : ' 'Heavens, my voice is a gonner !"

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

But a cat in the wings
Cried, "I know how she sings."
And finished the solo with honor.

The ridicule here is in the juxtaposition of the prima-
donna and the cat ; with the suggestive climax that even
at her best the prima-donna's voice is nothing but a
discordant caterwauling so hideous to people.

There was a young man of Ostend
Who vowed he'd hold out to the end,

But when half way over

From Calais to Dover
He done what he didn't intend.

The vulgarity, the slang, and the suggestion in the
climax of seasickness with its consequences of the in-
ferior, referring to the uncontrollable side of man's lower
organization and functions — all go to constitute the ludi-
crous in these limericks.

The inventor, he chortled with glee,

As they fished his airship from the sea,

"I shall build," and he laughed,

"A submarine craft,
And perhaps it will fly," remarked he.

Said the aeronaut in his balloon :
"I shall see all the stars very soon."
Soon he flopped and he dropped,
And he saw when he stopped,
Four millions of stars and a moon.

An inventor who once did aspire
. To invent a remarkable flier,

When asked, "Does it go?"
Replied, "I don't know,

I wait for some d n fool to try'er."

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I NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

All these limericks are directed against the inferior-
ity of aeronautics.

The following limerick and its doggerel Latin ver-
sion, though almost brutally vulgar, may be regarded as
ludicrous on account of the implied suggestion of rela-
tion of inferiority:

There was a young lady of Riga
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Puella Rigensis ridebat
Quam tigris in tergo vehebat;

Externa profecta,

Interna revecta,
Sed risus cum tigre manebat.

Solomon and David led very merry lives,

And had a most delightful time among their many wives,

But when at last their blood grew thin, they suffered many

qualms,
Then Sol, he wrote the Proverbs, and Dave, he wrote the

Psalms.

Here the sublime and the profane, the holy and the
scurrilous are brought into association and awaken the
sense of the ludicrous. Whenever and wherever we meet
with veiled suggestions of relations of inferiority,
whether physical, intellectual, or moral, there we find the
sense of the ludicrous aroused to activity. The slipping
of a person on the street accompanied with profane lan-
guage may be a source of the ludicrous :

There was a young girl named O'Dell
Who while walking down Chestnut street fell,
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

She got up with a bound,
And looked all around,
And said in a deep voice, "Oh, H — 1 !"

The dignity of the girl, the fall, the unguarded pro-
fanity after looking all around, strongly suggest rela-
tions of inferiority.

There are again limericks which in a jolly way point
out the contrast between the assumed moral ideal of
social life and actual practice :

There was a young lady from Kent,
Who always said just what she meant;

People said, "She's a dear;

So unique — so sincere,"
But they shunned her by common consent.

We may take another example which indicates rela-
tions of inferiority suggested to the reader:

There was a young fellow named S — m,
A foe to all pretense and Sh — m

His language was 1 — se

And he swore like the d — ce
When angry he always said d — m.

The limerick sometimes avails itself of alliteration to
bring out the comic effect. Alliteration is an inferior
form of versification, and this is utilized to bring out an
inferior form of activity :

A tutor who tooted the flute

Tried to teach two young tooters to toot ;

Said the two to the tutor;

"Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?"
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NONSENSE AND RIDICULE

In "Much Ado About Nothing" Shakespeare makes
the reader laugh at Dogberry's stupidity, nonsense, ab-
surdity, and asininity.

Dog. Come hither, neighbor Seacole. God hath blessed
you with a good name : to be a well-favored man is the
gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

Conrade. Away! You are an ass, you are an ass.

Dog. . . . O that he were here to write me down an
ass ! But, masters, remember that I am an ass ; though
it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.

Dogberry makes his report to Don Pedro:

D. Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done?

Dog. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; more-
over, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are
slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady;
thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to con-
clude, they are lying knaves.

In "The Merry Wives of Windsor" Sir Hugh Evans,
the parson, sings his nonsense verses which make of him
a melodramatic fool :

To shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals;
There will make me our peds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies.

To shallow —

Mercy on me! I have a great disposition to cry. (Sings.)
Melodious birds sing madrigals —
When as I sat in Pabylon —
And a thousand vagram posies.

To shallow, &c.

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Many different trains of thought, forming a tangle
of associations thus ending in absurdity, folly and non-
sense, disclosing relations of inferiority and states of
stupidity, invariably awaken the sense of the ludicrous.

CHAPTER XXVII
HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

Any form of inferiority excites Daughter. In the lower
states of intellect, in the lower conditions of social life,
or in barbaric communities we find that all forms of in-
feriority arouse derision and laughter. We find that
some of the more ferocious types positively enjoy pains
inflicted on their enemies. Enemies taken captives are
tortured, while their cries arouse a feeling of glee in
the bystanders. The same we find in the tortures in-
flicted on the heretics in the Middle Ages. The crowd
enjoyed the spectacle of having a heretic burned alive,
the day of an auto-da-fe was regarded as a festival. The
writhing pains of the heretic were met with hilarious,
uproarious laughter. Boys of the rougher type in tor-
turing insects and defenceless animals laugh immoder-
ately— the agonies of the animal are a matter of intense
enjoyment to the youthful tormentors. Similarly the
gladiatorial games of the ancient Romans and the bull
fights of the modern Spaniards, the prize fights, boxing
matches, and other games of the Anglo-Saxon races are
all arranged with the view of appealing to the lower
brutal instincts of man.

In the vulgar shows of our own times we find the
lower instincts taking the upper hand. A man knocked
down on the stage several times in succession, one pok-
ing his fingers into another man's eyes, one stepping on

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTEP

another man's corns, all such actions having the appear-
ance of causing pain, of not a dangerous character and
still seemingly serious to the one who is subjected to
them, are greeted by some audiences with peals of laugh-
ter. The pain is regarded by the audience as slight and
insignificant, although the abused person may regard
the matter in a very different light. In fact, the more
important the insignificant matter is considered by the
person the more ridiculous the whole performance ap-
pears. In many societies pain is regarded as ludicrous,
even if it is a matter of death, as in the case of the
gladiatorial games of the ancient Romans. This was due
not only to the brutality of the people used to such spec-
tacles, but also to the fact that the lives of the gladiators
were considered as worthless.

To laugh at the misfortunes of other people with
whom we have no sympathy, or for whom we have no
use and whom we treat with contempt and possibly with
hatred, may be considered as one of the early roots of
the comic and ludicrous. One laughs at the misfortunes
of his enemies, the laughter is malicious, diabolical, and
really belongs to the inimical sneer which is the direct
descendant of the snarl of the brute. We may include
under it the obscene and scurrilous joke which regards
the object of ridicule with a sneer. The obscene joke has
the tendency to awaken sexual energy and pamper the
sexual instinct. This root of malice, however, becomes
gradually atrophied and dwindles away in the higher
spheres of comic art. At first the malicious side is hid-
den and then is completely omitted in the real produc-
tions of art. The malicious comic may be still utilized
for the amusement of the mob, but it is not art. Detec-
tive stories and dime novels are not regarded as literary

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HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

productions, although they may keep on amusing the
crowd. Play on malice, credulity, and low instincts is
kept out of art.

If we come to analyze the comic we find that its
object is the awakening of the subconscious surplus
energy of man, bringing to the foreground the play of
free, unimpeded activity, giving rise to pure joy, result-
ing in laughter. Malice and cruelty belong to the primi-
tive means of arousing man's reserve energy, just as
war was useful in bringing men into communication, as
cruel despotism was requisite to cement tribes, and as
slavery had its place in the training of man. Such
means, however, fall into disuse with the further ad-
vance of mankind.

The comic, which is a manifestation of the play in-
stinct, follows a similar course. The factor of cruelty
is no longer the one that arouses mirth among civilized
people, or, at least, among the best classes of civilized
races. In fact, we find that the element of malice must
be hidden, and the element of inflicted pain must be of a
character that should be slight, insignificant, and only
apparently serious. Furthermore, the demand is that
the ridicule should be directed against something which
is really inferior and demands suppression in the mild
way caused by laughter.

In the still higher forms of ridicule the malicious is
not only eliminated, but sympathy is present with the
inferior object or relations ridiculed. This is the form
known as humor. Dickens ridicules a number of char-
acters, but we see through his ridicule his humaneness
and love for human life; we love and sympathize with
the people whom we regard as ludicrous.

The same we find in the genial humor of Bret Harte

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

and of Mark Twain, writers who otherwise lack
the artistic sense. Thus, for instance, in "Huckle-
berry Finn," the negro Jim is put in a ridiculous light
with all the beliefs and superstitions which he entertains
and which he tries to impress on his companion. Finn.
At the same time we feel the common humanity we
share with the poor negro. We cannot help loving and
sympathizing with poor Jim in spite of all his failings
and shortcomings. We laugh at Jim, but there is hu-
man feeling in the laughter as we feel intensely our
community with him.

The laughter in such ridicule acts in that way of
catharsis as described by Aristotle in the case of trag-
edies— it purifies us and establishes our common hu-
manity, full of defects and imperfections, revealing that
divine spark which burns in every human being in spite
of the ashes which cover the flames, hide the fire, and
seemingly smother it. We forgive and we sympathize,
for we see a living soul, the beauty of the spirit behind
the ugly, dirty tatters, and the black skin. The characters
may be laughed at, but we cannot help loving them.

Dickens' characters may be commonplace people,
but we feel the good heart that beats under their unat-
tractive exterior, and we come to love them. Such, for
instance, are the characters Barkis and Pegotty, in "Da-
vid Copperfield." We laugh away our indignation, nar-
rowness, and prejudices. As in all art, the bonds of in-
dividuality are burst asunder and the artist, by means of
his humor, brings people together. Souls are stripped
of their conventionalities by ridicule and come into close
contact.

Our life runs on worn-out paths laid in the ruts of
social tradition ; our experiences are run into ready-made

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HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

moulds of pale abstract concepts ; our feelings, emotions,
cravings and longings are controlled by tradition and
custom, handed down by former generations, as well as
by habits developed in the course of the routine educa-
tion of the individual. We are apt to fall into a routine
and cease to appreciate the main, central, essential as-
pects of life. We attend to our individual experiences,
as they come along, without the realization of their gen-
eral meaning and significance. In the routine of our life,
and in the tangle of our experiences, we are apt to go
by the practical rule of thumb, and cease to appreciate
the really important; we cease to discriminate the essen-
tial from the inessential. The power of selection and
the sense of appreciation of the important and unimpor-
tant, of the significant and insignificant, being feeble,
undeveloped or rudimentary in the average specimen of
humanity, man wanders about like a lost sheep in the
wild confusion of his chaotic experiences. The best
that man can do is to seize on each bit of individual ex-
perience, as it forces itself on him, but he cannot grasp
the many experiences as a whole, see them in perspec-
tive, and view them in their various aspects.

The function of art is the selection by the artist of
the important, essential, significant traits of life and the
weaving of them into creations of universal types. The
types are ideal and still they are real, inasmuch as they
give meaning and significance to the confused and cha-
otic individual experiences of our daily life. The artist,
by his creative genius, gives us the perspective of things :
he makes us appreciate the various aspects of life, which
he reveals to our gaze by rinding their ideal meaning,
their real significance in the ceaseless flux of our life ; he
gives us the interpretation of the various aspects of life,

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

as seen by the eagle eye of his artistic genius. This the
artist accomplishes by presenting the typical, the ideal,
the universal in concrete, individualized forms of sensu-
ous experience.

Out of the chaos and confusion of experience the
artist selects the essential ; out of the fleeting and transi-
tory he selects the permanent, the abiding, the charac-
teristic features, creating them into living types, into
immortal characters. The artist universalizes the in-
dividual and individualizes the universal; he embodies
the ideal into a living type. Phidias creates his Zeus
Raphael his Madonna, Homer creates his Achilles, Hec-
tor and Ulysses, ^schylus breathes life into his Prome-
theus, Sophocles creates his Antigone, Euripides his
Alcestis, Cervantes his Don Quixote, Shakespeare his
Hamlet and Goethe his Faust.

Dramatic genius expresses itself in tragedy and com-
edy the function of which is the creation of types and
the revelation of the real, inner, deeper nature of man.
Tragedy reveals the nature of types of man through
inner struggle and suffering, while comedy gives a
glimpse into the depths of types of man's life by con-
trast of defects of the actual with the ideal through
laughter and joy. Both tragedy and comedy, in the
better and higher sense, confront man with his real
self.

In the higher forms of art comedy and tragedy may
merge. It is hard to tell whether or no Euripides' "Al-
cestis," Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," Les-
sing's "Nathan the Wise," Gogol's "Dead Souls" belong
to tragedy or to comedy. Dante's "Inferno" is entitled
"Divine Comedy."

In his "Dead Souls," Gogol complains of the unjust
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HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

judgment which does hot recognize the fact that crea-
tions of "elevated laughter stand on the same plane with
the creations of elevated lyrical emotions." He further
tells us: "I have been condemned by some strange
power to go hand in hand with my heroes (types), to
view life, as it sweeps pompously by, through the seem-
ing world of laughter and tears." Tragedy and comedy,
in fact, all the higher forms of art, free man from the
bonds of his finite individuality, and, through laughter
and tears, reveal to him by immediate intuition the in-
finity, the freedom of his better, deeper, larger self.

Banter and badinage are akin to humor. The person
is humiliated and laughed at, but only in play. In reality
it is the reverse that is meant. Affection and love are
expressed in terms drawn from the inferior and humbler
side of life. What is meant is the opposite, it is based
on association of contrast. In the same way a big man
is called an infant, or white is indicated as black, sweet
as sour, good as bad, and love is playfully regarded as
hatred. This play and playful spirit often come from a
deep source of love. In this respect it is akin to the
kiss, the smacking and the licking which express affec-
tion and which, by the law of association of similars,
are originated in food reactions and afterward trans-
ferred to other sources to express satisfaction, gratifica-
tion, and love.

In some cases the excitement may run so high as to
be manifested by a sham bite and even by an actual
strong bite causing pain. Banter and badinage are in
the intellectual world of laughter what the kiss and the
bite are in the material world. In banter and badinage
there are love, faith, and devotion, but they are all cov-
ered by a thin veil of smiles, laughter, ridicule, and

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

raillery. The superior is expressed in terms of the in-
ferior.

In this respect we may regard it as the reverse of
irony, in which the inferior is played as if it were the
superior. Irony is allied to sarcasm. Both show lack
of trust in the powers of the ridiculed object. Banter
and badinage are more allied to satire, in which, though
pessimistic and attacking faults and defects, still there is
faith in the deeper forms of life and the possibility of
regeneration. The satirist ridicules the faults and short-
comings of persons and life, he expects improvements
and hopes that a new higher type will take the place of
the old degenerated forms.

We may call the reader's attention to a little-known
Christmas story, entitled "Makar's Dream," by Koro-
lenko. The writer draws a vivid picture of Makar's life,
of his family relations, of his beastly drunkenness. The
picture is full of grim humor. Makar, in his besotted
state, the result of heavy drinking in honor of Christmas
holiday, dreams that he has departed this life and has
gone to heaven before the seat of judgment. The journey
presents many ludicrous incidents. Poor, ignorant, su-
perstitious Makar is helpless and bewildered in the heav-
enly court-house. The sins and merits are weighed on
scales ; the sins are too heavy. As usual Makar attempts
to lie and cheat and is caught in the act. The charges
against him are too grave. As the loving glance of
Christ falls on Makar, the fear disappears, confidence
and courage rise in the poor sinner's soul. Righteous
indignation arises in him against the accusations of his
cheerless life. He recalls his whole life — down to the
smallest detail, it was indeed a miserable and brutal life.
As he goes back to his early childhood he sees himself

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HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

with all the possibilities of a good human soul. He wit-
nesses the state of degradation in which he has fallen,
and a cry of intense pain rends his agonized soul.

In "The Death of Ivan Hitch," Tolstoy, the greatest
of Russian writers, depicts with spirit and humor
the artificial life of the modern successful man. He ridi-
cules the pettiness, the narrowness, the conventionality,
the hypocrisy, the aimlessness of such a hollow life.
From the artificial social standpoint the life of the suc-
cessful man is good and superior; in reality, it is inferior,
bad and miserable. Guided by the false social stan-
dards, the successful man does not realize whither he
drifts. The whole career is described by Tolstoy with
all the artistic power in his possession. Tolstoy pours
out the vials of his righteous ridicule in his humorous
descriptions of the hypocrisy that permeates the life
of the wealthy classes with their affected standards of
sham goodness and counterfeit happiness. Ivan Hitch
falls sick. The disease becomes painful and aggravated.
Physician after physician is consulted, and new treat-
ments are undertaken. Tolstoy takes the occasion to
describe in a humorous light the character of the phy-
sician, the lawyer, the judge, and of the professional
man in general. He shows the hypocrisy, the vanity, the
conceit of the various professions. The disease gains
ground, develops, becomes fatal. Ivan Hitch becomes
obsessed with the fear of death. With the inimitable
vigor characteristic of Tolstoy, he sketches in bold,
artistic outlines this state of obsession which finds its
victims among the higher classes of society. As the
end draws nigh, Ivan Hitch begins to realize that his
life has not been a success, that it has been a rank
failure; in fact, it was all an immense lie. A cry of

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

agony arises from the inmost depths of his soul. As the
sham of life vanishes the fear and pain suddenly dis-
appear. In freeing himself from the bonds of his arti-
ficial life a great light and joy have entered into his
soul. He has regained his real, true self.

In one of his stories, "Three Deaths," Tolstoy de-
scribes, with the titanic power of his genius, the
life, sickness, and death of a wealthy lady. He
shows the pettiness of that life, the hypocrisy, the
discontent, the irritability, the credulity, the fear of
death with which the wealthy classes are smitten. In
a few lines of genius he depicts the life and end of a
poor driver. There is a grim humor in the picture of
the simple people — the lack of self -consciousness, the
rough, natural kindness, the brutal frankness, the ig-
norance, the superstitions, the absence of morbid fears,
the almost total resignation to the course of their life.
The short scenes are full of the most delicate, the most
artistic touches of humor. With a few strokes of
genius the artist scales the heights of the human
spirit, and throws a beam of light into the inmost depths
of human nature. The story is concluded by a wonder-
ful description of a scene in the forest, a requiem by the
forest over the departure of a tree, a paean by nature tri-
umphing over death, a symphony of joy of newly rising
life.

In the highest forms of humor the gentle smile and
rippling laughter may end with an agonizing cry coming
from the inmost depths of the human soul. The ludi-
crous, the humorous, is the play of mental light and
shade on the foamy, restless waves, rolling and swaying
above the unknown depth of the human spirit.

We may say that the highest form of humor is akin
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HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

to that upbraiding and finding of faults character-
istic of the ancient prophets. The shortcomings are
pointed out bluntly and with intense fervor, but behind
the reproofs, condemnations, and denunciations there is
seen to be flaming an intense love for man, there is
present an almost superhuman faith in the capabilities
of human nature. The allusions and suggestiveness of
humor are absent, but there is present an intense love of
truth and of the ideal as well as a profound love of man.
Listen to the invective against the waywardness of his
generation by the prophet Hosea:

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? . . .

The iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wicked-
ness of Samaria ; for they commit falsehood ; and the thief
cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. . . .
Ephraim is a cake not turned. . . . Ephraim also is
like a silly dove. . . . Woe unto them! for they have
fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have
transgressed against me : though I have redeemed them, yet
they have spoken lies against me.

Israel is an empty vine. . . . O Israel, thou hast
sinned from the days of Gibeah. ... Ye have plowed
wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the
fruit of lies. . . . Therefore shall a tumult arise among
the people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled. . . .

The prophet's love becomes awakened:

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called
my son out of Egypt. ... I taught Ephraim also to
go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that
I healed them. ... I drew them with cords of a
man, with bands of love. . . . How shall I give thee
up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? . . .
Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

together. ... I will not execute the fierceness of mine
anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim : for I am God,
and not man. . . .

In this we find infinite love, sympathy, pity, and
compassion.

There is an element in the higher forms of the ludi-
crous which broadens and deepens it to an extent to
which the lower forms do not aspire. While in the
lower forms the inferior aspect is totally on the side of
the ridiculed object, whether it be person, idea, feeling,
institution, or belief, in the higher forms there is a re-
flection of inferiority on the person who observes the
ludicrous, and there is again a reflection of superiority
from the observer to the ridiculed object. Thus there
is a mutual sympathy established between the contrasted
personal states, as well as a communion between the
opposed relations of inferiority and superiority. The
lower forms tend to bring out the inner latent energies
of the observer, the higher forms tend to show the depth
of human life and the greatness of soul of the very char-
acters represented to us in a ludicrous light. The
glimpse into the infinity of the human soul is given to us
under the very forms of defects and shortcomings. The
lower forms of ridicule lean more to the inferior, the
animal, the brutal, the cruel, and the pessimistic, while
the higher forms have the distinct aspect of human love,
compassion, and pity.

On the one hand, the observer, far from feeling
triumphant, arrogant, and superior in regard to the ridi-
culed object or subject, feels his affinity with the in-
ferior responding with a deep emotion of humility that
one is not better than the most humble and the lowest

292

HUMOR AND THE INFINITE

of human life. On the other hand, there opens before
one an infinite horizon of what is really true and noble
in the human soul. Under the veil of petty, ludicrous
traits and incidents we witness the revelation of the
depth of human life and of the splendor of the soul pres-
ent in what is humble, meek, and low. The great are
humbled and the low are exalted. Both, however, are
surrounded by a glorious halo of what is truly great in
man. All the barriers of artificiality and conventionality
of social relationship are broken and the human soul
shines forth in its full glory.

The highest point reached by laughter is intimately
related with the highest intellectual, (Esthetic, and moral
development.

The highest developr.ient of ridicule, true humor,
brings one in touch with the infinite. True humor in its
highest stages sees the infinite depth of the soul in the
very failures, faults, defects, and imperfections.

For thence — a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks, —
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me. . . .

Now, who shall arbitrate?

Ten men love what I hate,
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;

Ten, who in ears and eyes

Match me: we all surmise,
They, this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe?

Not on the vulgar mass

Called "work," must sentence pass,

293

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LAUGHTER

Things done, that took the eye and had the price;

O'er which, from level stand,

The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice :

But all, the world's coarse thumb

And finger failed to plumb,
So passed in making up the main account ;

All instincts immature,

All purposes unsure,

That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's
amount :

Thoughts hardly to be packed

Into a narrow act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped;

All I could never be,

All, men ignored in me,
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

INDEX

Absent-mindedness, 149.

Absurdity, bubble of, in.

Accent, fallacy of, 264.

Accumulation, principle of,
in.

Activity, artistic, 10; human,
102; law of spontaneous,
286; mental, 204; psycho-
physiological, 206.

^Esthetic development, 293.

Alliteration, 278.

Allusion, 199, 203, 205, 206.

Analects, Confucian, 218.

Analogy, false, 247; of asso-
ciations, 190, 191.

Anglo-Saxon games, 281.

Anti-climax, 275.

Antisthenes, 221.

Antithesis, 214.

Antonyms, 214.

Aristophanes, 20, 28, 34, 35,

36, 37, 43, 49, 58, 59, 60, 82,

112, 140, 154.
Aristotle, 59, 65, 73, 100, 140,

204, 206, 214, 215, 220, 228,

284.

Arnold, Matthew, 156.
Art, 4, 284; character of, 286;

function of, 285, 287, 293;

high form of, 293; low

form of, 282; of comic, 86;

purpose of, 285.

Artist, selection by, 285.

Artistic activity, 10.

Artistic illusion, 229.

Artistic type, 204.

Aryan, 140.

Associations, 203; analogy of,
190, 191 ; of contiguity,
116; of contrast, 242; sub-
conscious, 203; tangle of,
280.

Attention, distraction of, 64;
fixation of, 64.

Australians, 4.

Avarice, 224.

Badinage, 287.

Bain, 64, 65; on the comic,

66.

Banter, 287.
Baseball, 4, n.
Bergson, 149, 227.
Biological aspect of ridicule,

39, 40.

Blending, principle of, 109.
Blindness, mental, 151.
Boccaccio, 203.
Bonds of individuality, 284.
Brevity in wit, 215.
Bunyan, 168, 169, 170, 171.
Burlesque, 254.
Bushmen, 4.

295

INDEX

Caricature, 254.

Cartoon, 254, 255.

Catharsis, 284.

Cervantes, 114, 140, 153, 286.

Changes, 27, 28.

Children, play of, 15.

Christ, 143.

Civilization, law of material,

13-

Climax, 236.

Combinations, contrasting, 102.

Comedy, i, 140, 146; task of,
72.

Comic, the, 2, 15, 26, 65, 74,
75, 79> 98, 99» 101, 104, 118,
138, 146, 147, 160, 204, 206,
207, 231, 242, 253, 271, 283;
art of, 86; Bain on, 66; defi-
nition of, 65; domain of,
82; early roots of, 282;
root of, 207; sources of,
204; subject of, 153; tri-
murti of, 174.

Conceit, 84, 85.

Condensation, 206.

Confucius, 164.

Consciousness, of superiority,
81 ; of waste energy, 70.

Constraint, relief from, 74.

Contiguity, associations of,
116.

Contrast, 214, 242; associa-
tions of, 242, 287; law of,

78.

Contrast relation, 86.
Contrasting combinations,

102.
Crime, 231.

Cruelty, factor of, 283.
Custom, 24, 28, 29, 231, 232,
233-

Dante, 286.

Darwin, 5.

Daudet, 159.

Defects, unconsciousness of,

100.

Delusions of grandeur, 99.
Democritus, 221.
Descartes, 210, 211.
Deviation, 39, 242; process of,

242.

Dickens, 283, 284.
Difficult, law of the, 12.
Disillusionment, 82.
Dissemblance, 86.
Dissipation of energy, 225.
Dissociation, 211, 223, 233.
Distraction of attention, 64.
Double play, 200.
Double sense, 214.
Drama, function of, 286.
Dramatic genius, 286.

Economy, of energy, 69; of
thought, 206; principle of,
207.

Emerson, 221.

Energy, 10; consciousness of
waste of, 70; dissipation of,
225; economy of, 69; ex-
penditure of, 224; law of
release of, 69; manifesta-
tion of reserve, 72; super-
fluous, 69; surplus, 207;
unimpeded, 210.

296

INDEX

Enthymemes, 204, 215.
Epictetus, 165, 1 66, 167.
Equivocation, 214; fallacy of,

258.

Esquimaux, 4.

Euripides, 286.

Evil, exemption from, 68.

Expectancy, feeling of, 228.

Expenditure of energy, 224.

Fallacy, of accent, 264; of

equivocation, 258.
Fear of social ridicule, 51.
Feeling of expectancy, 228.
Fighting instinct, 72.
Fixation of attention, 64.
Football game, 4, n, 12.
Franklin, Benjamin, 128, 129,

130, I3L 132, 221.
Freud, 81, 205, 206.

Galton, 52.

Game, football, 4, n, 12.
Games, 3, n, 12; Anglo-
Saxon, 281.
Genius, dramatic, 286.
Ghosts, 60, 61.
Goethe, 94.
Gogol, 1 6, 1 8.
Goldsmith, 238, 240.
Goodrich, 133.
Grandeur, delusions of, 99.
Greek, 4.
Groos, 72.

Harmony, preestablished, 48.
Harte, Bret, 136, 137.
Hegel, 20, 21, 22, 23.

Heine, 126, 127, 154, 155, 174.

Heraclitus 57, 76, 221.

Hobbes, 65.

Homer, 15, 121, 122, 123.

Homonyms, 214.

Hugo, Victor, 16, 251, 252.

Human activity, 102.

Humor, 179, 205, 281, 283;

highest form of, 290, 293.
Hypnoid states, 64.
Hypnoidization, 64.
Hypocrisy, 83.

Ignorance, 152.
Illusion, 82, loi.
Imitation, 210, 250, 257.
Inanimate object, 102.
Incongruity, 247.
Indirect suggestion, 206.
Individuality, 146; bonds of,

284.
Inferiority, 206; relations of,

105, 206.
Infinite, 281.

Ingoldsby, Thomas, 61, 62.
Instinct, II, 283; fighting, 72;

low, 281.

Intellectual development, 293.
Interchange, principle of,

in.
Irony, 86, 87, 96, 115; Soc-

ratic, 182.
Irving, Washington, 133.

Jacobs, 104.

Joke, 1 86, 189, 191, 203, 228,

231, 255.
Joy, emotion of, 2.

297

INDEX

Kant, 77.
Korolenko, 288.

Laughter, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 25,
26, 53, 68, 69, 71, 73, 77>
78, 80, 82, 103, 116, 117,
139, 140, 147, 186, 199, 207,
216, 231, 242, 278, 281 ; as
moral purge, 140; ascend-
ing, 23; descending, 23;
love and, 145; of triumph,
14.

Law, of contrast, 78; of ma-
terial civilization, 13; of
normal suggestion, 206; of
release of energy, 69; of re-
lief, 77; of spontaneous ac-
tivity, 3; of suggestibility,
205; of suggestion, 200; of
the difficult, 12; of the in-
tellectual element, 13; of
transference, 103; of Weber-
Fechner, 13.

Leibnitz, 48.

Lessing, 286.

Lichtenberg, 239.

Limericks, 27.

Logic, 258, 264, 265, 266, 267,
268.

Love, 141, 145, 287, 291, 292;
and laughter, 145.

Lucian, 31, 32, 112, 113, 114.

Lucretius, 67.

Ludicrous, .the, 15, 39, 53, 69,
78, 82, 86, 102, 103, 109,
no, 115, 116, 172, 176, 186,
188, 200, 201, 203, 206, 215,
224, 225, 229, 232, 242, 249,

254, 260, 270, 274, 275, 278,
280; essence of, 151; source
of, 225.

Mach, 207.
Make-believe, 82.
Malice, 138, 139, 145, 282, 283.
Mandeville, Bernard de, 49.
Manifestation of reserve en-
ergy, 72.

Marcus Aurelius, 167.
Mechanical, the, 149, 150.
Mediocrity, 151, 155.
Mental activity, 204.
Metaphor, 214.
Mimicry, 253.
Moliere, 18.
Monotony, 75; of stimulation,

77-

Montaigne, 232.
Moral development, 293.
Motor reactions, 253.

Normal suggestibility, 205.
Novelty, 231.

Object, inanimate, 102.
Obscene joke, 282.
Omar Khayyam, 222.
Optimism, 49.

Pain, 282.
Parody, 55, 126.
Pascal, 42, 92, 225, 227.
Pearson, Karl, 206.
Personality, 53, 146.
Personification, 103.
Petitio principii, 265.

298

INDEX

Pharisees, 143.

Philistine, 156.

Pindar, 24.

Plato, 29, 88, 175, 176, 177,

178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184,

185, 186, 217.
Play, 3, 79, 101; of children,

15-

Poe, Edgar, 55.

Principle, of accumulation,
in; of blending, 109; of
deviation, 242; of economy,
207; of interchange, 115; of
lack of energy, 32.

Psychological moment, 190.

Psychological activity, 206.

Pun, 258.

Purification through laughter,
140.

Purpose of art, 285.

Pythagoras, 221.

Readiness of reply, 210.

Relations of inferiority, 105,
206.

Relaxation, 74, 75, 77, 79.

Relief, from constraint, 74;
laws of, 77.

Religion, 4, 29.

Repartee, 210.

Repetition, of joke, 228, 231.

Reserve energy, 67, 215; man-
ifestation of, 72.

Response to stimulus, 68.

Riddle, 228, 229.

Ridicule, 20, 28, 31, 35, 38, 40,
41, 42, 50, 53, 64, 65, 67,
69, 73, 74, 75, 81, 86, 98,

99, 101, 112, 116, 117, 145,
150, 155, 186, 188, 210, 217,
218, 225, 254, 260, 276, 282,
284, 292; biological aspect
of, 39, 40; fear of social,
51; function of, 227; sub-
ject of, 152.

Roman, 4.

Roman gladiatorial games, 12.

Root of the comic, 207.

Sa'di, 239.

Sarcasm, 205.

Satire, 205.

Schopenhauer, 21, 82, 85, 93,

101, 139, 155, 224.
Selection, principle of, 286.
Sexual energy, 81.
Sexual instinct, 81.
Shakespeare, 16, 18, 86, 118,

119, 120, 123, 124, 157, 220,

256, 257, 279.
Shows, vulgar, 281.
Similarity, 214.
Sin, 231.
Sleep, 76.

Social element, 190.
Society, 39, 40, 41, 51, 52, 53.
Socrates, 59, 145.
Sophists, 176.
Source of comic, 204.
Spanish bull-fight, 12.
Spencer, 77.

Spiller on the comic, 138.
Stimulation, monotony of, 77.
Stockton, Frank, 63, in, 115,

116.
Stupidity, 152.

299

INDEX

Subconscious, the, 58, 203.
Subconscious associations, 203.
Subconscious energy, 146.
Subconscious reserve energy,

69

Subject of the comic, 153.
Suggestibility, 190; law of,

205; normal, 295.
Suggestion, 52, 189; indirect,

206; law of, 200; law of

normal, 206.

Superfluous energy, 68, 69.
Superiority, consciousness of,

81.

Surplus energy, 207.
Surprise, 228.
Swift, 96, 125.
Sympathy, 63, 145, 146, 282,

292.
Synonyms, 214.

Thought, economy of, 206.
Thresholds, 77.
Tolstoy, 168, 289, 290.
Toys, 5.
Tragedy, 146.
Transference, law of, 103.

Travesty, 55.

Triumph, laughter of, 14.

Trivial, the, 77, 96.

Twain, Mark, 128, 284.

Type, artistic, 204.

Types, 288; universal, 285.

Unconscious vanity, 100.
Unconsciousness of defects,

151-

Unimpeded energy, 210.
Universal types, 285.
Unreality, 82.

Vanity, 84, 85, 97; uncon-
scious, 100.

Voltaire, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48,
49, 53, 54, 60, 115.

Vulgar shows, 281.

Weber-Fechner, law of, 13.

Wit, 204, 206, 214; character-
istic of, 215; definition of,
216; form of thought, 223;
object of, 216; nature of,
215, 223.

300

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