One important characteristic of the humorist is that he can see weird inconsistencies between what people say and what they do, and he chooses to laugh over them rather than to curse or cry. If he writes or talks about it, he does so in the hope that others will share his way of looking at things, and find things to laugh about too. He sees, for instance, that the more ‘educated’ people become, the more they cannot spell or write whole sentences grammatically (the number of my pupils who write catched and teached and seeked and ‘I didn’t knew’ after ten years in school is rising rapidly). And that people put on amulets with ‘powerful charms’ so that they can get into engineering college. That the fewer friends we have, the more desperate we become to add to our list of friends on Facebook. And the lazier people get, the more they complain (or exult!) about being busy. Or that wants multiply much faster than incomes, so the richer people get, the more unhappy they become.
The fact that humorists are in such short supply augurs ill for mankind. We are taking ourselves too seriously, and our skins are getting ever thinner, so maybe we dislike those who make fun of us. Besides, unlike our ancestors, maybe we are all so sure that we are perfect that we cannot bear to have anybody point out our faults to us (humorists have usually been keen on reform). So maybe closet comedians are lying low, since they don’t enjoy the prospect of being pilloried or burnt at the stake?
Why hasn’t another book like Three Men in a Boat been written in more than a hundred years?
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