Still, you have to laugh, don't you, even if it is only at the misfortunes of others. At least that way we get to feel some sort of distance from those very misfortunes. Almost as if the laughter is some charm or ritual that will prevent those same, or similar, things happening to us instead.
Laughter is an odd thing though.
Laughing at the world, and all its slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, shows a greater understanding of the world and its capricious fates and accidents than most – if not all – the philosophers and sages have managed. The world will never make sense and it will trick us, trip us and trap us in hundreds and thousands of ways as we stumble through our lives walking into walls and stepping on discarded garden rakes, as we fall down holes and get hit full in the face by the custard pies of slapstick happenstance.
By way of example, it is obvious that the hassles and tribulations of human sexuality really can only make sense through the use of bawdy humour, the peculiarities of desire and the weirdness of wants are often too absurd for anything but humour.
The dirty joke is what makes us human and makes us aware of the essential silliness and arbitrary absurdity of our existence.
The universe did start with a big bang, but it soon turned into one big joke.
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