Humour does not exist. Unlike material things we sense through stimulus, humour is more of a concept — an interpretation of a situation that we observe or are participating in that is absurd. It manifests as an involuntary response of short, sharp bursts of respiration, often accompanied by a non-linguistic sound produced by exhaled CO2 escaping through the larynx, which is “laughter”. Curiously, the exact same description could apply to “crying”. “Involuntary” is the operative word as our response to humour is reflexive, not premeditated. If it is premeditated, it isn’t humorous, nor is it meant to be. This ability to respond to humorous situations seems almost unique, yet universal to human beings. As to its purpose? I believe laughter is one of two coping mechanisms triggered by an emotional response to absurdity, the other being crying. And yes, both are essential for maintaining our sanity living in this crazy world we made for ourselves.
Human beings are prone to absurdity in a way that our fellow living beings on this planet are not. For our animal compadres, they don’t make plans, they don’t have expectations. For them, things are or they are not. It’s a simple binary perception. We’ve seen YouTube videos of human magicians performing tricks for an audience of animals, dogs and primates usually. When their humans “disappear” behind a dropped blanket, or a chew toy “disappears” when the human pretends to toss it in one direction but hides it before the toss, the responses are confusion as the result of the action does not follow the simple logic of cause and effect. They don’t respond with any suggestion of laughter. Instead, it’s mostly confusion, sometimes fear, and sometimes an accusatory “U R doing me a betray” look. Of course, human beings live more complex, more psychologically-driven lives which need a higher level of sustenance beyond food, water, and Sprinkles, the stuffed donut.
Absurdity goes beyond simple cause and effect. People are able to project into the future and work backwards, visualizing the steps necessary to bring about the desired outcome. The problem is, people can neither account for nor control every factor and the probability that something unforeseen arises to thwart the desired outcome is ever present. The result when that happens is disappointment in all the wasted effort, and the frustration from failure to achieve the goal. This story is perpetually played out in the Coyote vs Roadrunner cartoons. Absurd. Sad to say, this scenario is not unfamiliar to us IRL either. Human beings plan everything, but failure dogs our heels every single time. “For want of a nail…” begins the poem describing a cascading disaster in which one small miscalculation results in the end of an empire. In a way, this story is one everyone can relate to. It’s enough to drive one bonkers.
As mentioned, one coping mechanism is crying. It’s a natural, involuntary response to disappointment and frustration. Its purpose is to make me admit that I was not good enough, not careful enough, not strong enough – or otherwise make me accept my vulnerabilities. Crying also helps me seek out comfort and encouragement from others as a way to first cope and then return to the drawing board for yet another, hopefully better attempt.
But if all we did was cry, at some point the frustration and disappointment will get the better of us. No matter how much people keep patting our backs and pushing us back into the fight, eventually we will succumb to our injuries and die. It is the humour that we see in the situation that keeps us going, like the Coyote, no matter how many times we do our best and still fail. Being able to laugh at ourselves and our situation helps us appreciate the absurdity of what we’ve got ourselves into and not take ourselves and our failures too seriously. Another failure means crying for a while, but I have yet another funny story to tell while I’m working on my next foray. While others push us on from the outside, humour drives our motivation from the inside. As long as we don’t give up, we’ll eventually reach what we’re aiming for.
However, humour can also be weaponized, wielded not to heal, but harm. People can be cruel and direct humour at us, making a joke of the person and not the situation. People sometimes do this as a way to enforce what they perceive as “normal” as they are suspicious or scornful of those who represent “different”, whether in appearance, language, belief, or whatever. Used this way, humour is a weapon of conformity and draws lines between “us” and the unwelcome “them”. Racist humour, for example, is used maliciously to draw attention to specific idiosyncrasies of the target, showing them to be irreconcilable with the “norm”. This is one way in which humour is premeditated, and as such is not funny at all. Nevertheless, this type of humour usage is damaging to the target’s psychological well-being, and if pushed too far could even be life-threatening. Too many cases of suicides caused by such bullying come to mind.
But we’re discussing genuine, not forced or agenda-driven “humour” – the kind of humour that comes from a spontaneous, involuntary response to absurdity. So, if we were one of the other animals on Earth, we’d follow our primal instincts programmed into us through generations of our ancestors. We’d live as they lived, do what they did, die as they died. Other than having to adapt to what the stupid humans are doing to the world, they have no need for humour. Human beings, however, follow our own path and make our own destinies. And we fail. A lot. If not for our capacity to recognize humour in the absurdity we are constantly creating around ourselves, it would be very difficult to maintain our mental strength and fortitude – and overall well-being – long enough to press on and continue failing until we succeed. Y’know, for a thing that doesn’t exist, it’s surprising how much we need humour in our lives.
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Inspired by Singapore-Cambridge GCE ‘A’ Level H1 General Paper (Paper 1) 2024 Question #7