Laughing Till It Hurts

The is no doubt that sarcasm and satire are effective political tools.  Using veiled humor has been around in social and political commentary for centuries.  In fact, Jonathan Swift's brilliant A Modest Proposal is still taught in high schools around the world - except in the English-speaking world where white writers are banned.

There is one feature of humor that must be avoided if the joke is to be effective.  It is called, "beating a dead horse."  Other than having to explain a joke, the worst thing that can happen is to tell it too many times.

The Street Meat Media, formerly known as mainstream, have waded neck deep into this forbidden territory.  What started as humorous has become tedious, boring and even regressive.

It is a given that virtually all humor involves someone else's pain.  By removing the pain from a context where one empathizes with the victim, we are encouraged - nay, can hardly stop ourselves - from laughing at the misfortunes of others.  This is why the very best comedians do not attack others, rather they hold themselves up for ridicule.  Those who attack will eventually step over the line and cause revulsion.

This is exactly what has happened with the media's attacks on Donald Trump.  At first, they drew thunderous applause and raucous laughter.  Later, it became self-conscious groans and embarrassed snickers.  Now, it has evolved into vicious attacks and the audience is growing less tolerant of it.

At first, the attacks were humorous.  Alec Baldwin's buffoonery on Saturday Night Live as Trump are so good that one imagines him watching hours of video to get the speech and mannerisms just right.  However, the jokes have gone on so long and at such a feverish pitch that the audience is starting to empathize with the target and are feeling sorry, if not downright angry.

Unused to acknowledging boundaries, much less respecting them, the media has begun driving people to support Trump, rather than holding him up for ridicule.  In effect, the media have blunted their own knives in the pursuit of blood.  Once the malintent behind the attacks is exposed, they can no longer get away with such tactics.

Basically, the media's unhalting lashes have caused folks to take a second look.  In so doing, they have seen that the tools of the attacks - Russia, immigration, etc. - may have some validity and are not as silly as they were made out to be.

In addition, Trump's easily mocked mannerisms and characteristic speech patterns are becoming more familiar to the audience, and once internalized, can only be attacked in a gentle and teasing way, not in the callous and heartless manner typical of the satire up to this point.

What's more, the media have crossed the lines of propriety.  In their desperation to mock Trump into submission, the media have literally and provably fabricated information, or at the very least have parrotted unverified statements as fact.  In so doing, the media have completely undermined their own credibility, while simultaneously building up Trump's.

Trump, on the other hand, has obviously read Sun Tsu's The Art of War.  He has patiently waited for the media to play out too far, and has now cut off their supply lines.  Whether you like Trump or not, objectively one must appreciate the masterful game he has played on his tormentors.  In fact, he has carefully left bread crumbs, which the media obediently followed, right into his trap.

It is clear that from this point on, the media - and indeed the entire left wing - must change tactics, or lose the audience.  Should they chose to continue along the path they have chosen, they will alienate the audience and ironically drive them directly into the Trump Supporter category.  Americans love underdogs, and there is no better recent example than Trump.

From the looks of things, the media don't get it.  They are so myopic and laser-focused on beating the dead horse that they haven't noticed the audience is getting restless and even hostile.  As Trump turns the tables, the audience is even beginning to cheer the once-ridiculed buffoon.

Humor, by necessity, involves someone else's pain, but it also involves exaggeration - and not a little playfulness.  Not only would the Street Meat Media benefit from a little remedial study in the art of satire, but they would greatly benefit from backing off a little.

As Sir Edmond Kean famously pronounced on his death bed, "Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard."

Comedy And Catharsis

Now that the hangover from two weeks of political orgy in the States is starting to wear off, it seems a good time to ruminate on the topic of comedy.  Certainly, there was comedy aplenty at the conventions and the two candidates emerging from them provide endless grist for the mill.

Our purpose here, though, having said all we want to say about politics for now, is to explore comedy itself.  What is comedy and why is something so profoundly human such a mystery?

The word "comedy" comes from ancient Greek (komos) and originally referred to a festival in which young naked men went hog wild, dancing and leaping around a giant phallus.  I don't know about you, but if most of us saw something like this today, we'd call the local insane asylum to offer remedial treatment.  Nevertheless, we'd most likely be laughing our fool heads off as we made the call.  Thus, the origin of comedy.

Aristotle spent a large part of his book Poetics pondering the nature of comedy.  According to him, comedy - and tragedy - were a means to achieve κάθαρση, or emotional release.  Releasing the emotions balanced the humors, such as blood, yellow and black bile, and phlegm.  Not enough of something?  You need tragedy.  Too much of another?  You need comedy.  An overabundance of all?  You need satyr (satire was not a form of comedy back then).  The physician Hippocrates even prescribed the theater for certain ailments.

Aristotle's Second Book of Poetics is lost to history, at least for now, but there are quotes that suggest he recommended laughing at people with deformities.  This was echoed by Francis Bacon, though we don't know if the reasoning is the same:

"Deformed persons’ take revenge on Nature for their impairments, by being void of ‘Natural Affection."

This view was known as physiognomy, the assertion that one's physical appearance is an expression of one's inner character.  Thus, by laughing at deformed people (who were obviously at war with Nature), we could ridicule and defame them, and thus take away their power.  In fact, ridicule and laughter have always been seen as a means to ward off evil spirits, though not everyone agrees.

In the film The Name of the Rose, there is a curious exchange between William, the protagonist, and Jorge, the antagonist:

Jorge Burgos: Laughter is a devilish wind which deforms, uh, the lineaments of the face and makes men look like monkeys.

William of Baskerville: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to men.

Jorge de Burgos: As is sin. Christ never laughed.

William of Baskerville: Can we be so sure?

Jorge de Burgos: There is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did.

William of Baskerville: And there's nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not. Why, even the saints have been known to employ comedy, to ridicule the enemies of the Faith. For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurice into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in... scalded himself.

William is clearly a believer in physiognomy, while Jorge is a Stoic, and they represent probably the most fundamental forces at war in Western culture.

In modern times, Robert Heinlein, in his book Stranger in a Strange Land, speculated that comedy is pain + distance, while in his movie Crimes and Misdemeanors, Woody Allen figures it as pain + time.  In both cases, they represent the modern proclivity of reducing everything to a mathematical formula, but the point is taken: comedy is pain.

At some level, everything that makes us laugh involves someone else suffering.  Ultimately, everything you and I have laughed at involves a buffoon (mental), a cripple (physical), or a humiliation (emotional).  You can name anything you choose as an example, and at the root of it is one of these three pains.

The only difference between comedy and tragedy is distance, physical, temporal or emotional.  We are in some way separated from the object of comedy by space, time or empathy.  If someone falls down and we are next to them, we tend to share the pain, but if we see it from a distance, it can be quite funny.  By the same token, we may be in sympathetic pain at the moment, but years later we laugh as we reminisce on the event. Finally, we may laugh at the event because we don't like that person and seeing them humiliated gives us a sense of pleasure.  Space, time or empathy.

We all speak of the healing power of laughter.  We know that the rush of endorphins leaves us feeling exhausted, but satisfied.  We love to laugh, which is why comedies and comedians are so popular. We rarely, though, step back enough to think about why we laugh and what we are laughing at.  And when we do, it is as puzzling as anything in the human psyche.

In a way, Political Correctness is the triumph of the Jorges/Stoics of the world.  Any object of comedy has become off-limits to the PC crowd. There is no denying that idiocy or retardation or deformities are very ancient objects of comedy, but like Jorge, we are forbidden to screw the lineaments of our faces in order to receive catharsis from them - to balance our humors, as Hippocrates might say.

For many years, I had a cat that loved to sleep on top of the VCR on the bookshelf.  One day, while I sat on the couch reading, she rolled over and fell to the floor flat on her back.  I started laughing uncontrollably, and that cat ran across the room and leaped at my chest with claws bared, then ran off into the other room to sulk.

No one likes to be laughed at, that is a given, unless you are getting paid for it.  And many of the PC crowd think they are doing the idiots, cripples and clowns of the world a favor by forbidding the rest of us from laughing at them.  But laughter is a defense mechanism.  It is our minds reacting to the saying, "There but for the grace of God go I."  It is as automatic as raising your hand to block someone throwing a punch at your face.  It is as uncontrollable as blinking or breathing.  Laughter is a release of tension.  Without it, we would all be far worse off.

Imagine a world without laughter.  It seems rather dull and unlivable to me.  Yes, the objects of laughter feel hurt, but the fact of the matter is that everyone laughs at some point, and the object of laughter now will be laughing later, and the cause will be one of the three we all laugh at.

Comedians are people who professionally hurt themselves for our laughter.  The best comedians turn the pain on themselves so we can achieve catharsis through laughter.  It is a uniquely human occupation, and a strange one.  But it is absolutely necessary.  Without balancing our humors, we will sooner or later have quite real pain ourselves.  We need that release and without it we die.

As the great British Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean famously said on his deathbed, "Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard."

Top 10 Comedies Of All Time (stage)

The theater is our first love.  We began our career there at the tender age of 12, and though we have ranged far and wide in other media, it has always been and will always be our home.

For that reason, we thought we'd devote one of our Top 10 lists to the Grande Dame of the arts, the Theatre.  In searching all the other Top 10 lists out there, we saw film and TV picked to the bone, but a search of Top 10 lists for the stage were virtually non-existant.  We have found ample explorations of books.  Even a few have bothered to look beyond the 20th century (as if everything of consequence has only recently been invented).

Ever on the cutting edge, we here on the Far Side are going everyone else one better.  Our list will explore comedy from ancient times until today, and offer up our most favorite picks for a great laugh in a live performance.  Cuz ain't no one what don't need no kul-cher.

Some conditions on our choices: no musicals (so A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is right out), it has to be written as comedies - not just funny because they are so dated, and they have to be funny to modern audiences, meaning the humor doesn't rely on contemporary pop culture.  Also, no Neil Simon.  Finally, the play should be revived enough so that someone has a good chance of seeing it on stage, whether it's a high school drama department or a West End theater troupe.  We will list them in chronological order, since it's nearly impossible to rank shows that have been classics for centuries.

So, without further ado, the Far Side List of Top 10 Comedies of All Time (stage)!
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1) Lysistrata (411 BC) - Aristophanes was somewhat of a revolutionary in ancient Greek theater.  He modified traditional staging conventions that still have a profound effect on how shows are done today.  Even more, he challenged the social mores of Athens and ridiculed his society for issues that still resonate.  In this classic, the title character is determined to put an end to the Peloponnesian War.  She hatches a plan and convinces the women of Greece to withhold sex from the men until the war ends.  Naturally, the plan goes awry and ends up starting a Battle of the Sexes.  Even though the play is 2,400 years old, modern audiences will laugh not only at the action of the play, but also at their own society.  The subjects of gender roles and male dominance are still very much part of the culture, and are still used in satire and comedy.  Watch university drama departments for the occasional revival of this fine show.

2) Bacchides (~200 BC) - Mistaken identity, prostitutes, scheming servants, bribery and extortion: must be a British comedy.  But NO!  This is the work of the famous Roman playwright Plautus, who basically Latinized older Greek plays, but we won't hold that against him, since Woody Allen Americanized many great comedies from Greek and Roman sources.  This selection is one of the best examples of themes and plots that were very popular in ancient Rome.  Two young Romans fall in love with two prostitute sisters who both have the same name, Bacchis.  Naturally, they engage in subterfuge and extortion to get the money to buy the girls' freedom, but the name confusion creates all kinds of chaos.  Hard to find this one produced today, but A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the forum should give you an idea of what this masterpiece of comedy is like.

3) Much Ado About Nothing (1598) - Those who love Shakespeare all have their favorites, and this happens to be ours.  Even the title is a pun on "noting" (gossip) and "nothing," which sound similar if you have a midlands British accent.  Like a game of Telephone gone mad, rumors swirl out of control, with people falling in love or rejecting each other based on misunderstandings.  A huge effort is undertaken by the characters to set things right, with the obvious comedic situations creating mayhem along the way.  This show has it all: slapstick, manners, situations, and even a dash of blackness.  There are some decent film renditions of this king of Shakespearean comedies, but if you happen to get a chance to see the Royal Shakespeare production, drop everything and get tickets.

4) Tartuffe (1664) - The Restoration Period and the end of Puritanism was obviously a fertile time for comedy.  This is considered by many to be Jean Baptiste Moliére's best comedy, as well as being an inspiration for our next selection.  Moliére was one of the most influential playwrights of the time and actors still scratch and claw to get a role in his shows.  In what is nearly a comedic foreshadowing of Gregoryi Rasputin 300 years later in Russia, the title character is a grifter and a fraud posing as a holy man.  He gets a husband and wife so far under his spell that the husband decides to marry off his daughter to Tartuffe.  No one else is fooled, though, and set up a series of complex traps to expose Tartuffe for the immoral scum that he is.  Naturally, this creates a number of comedic situations, and when done well, leaves audiences in tears of laughter.  Most of the really good laughs come from watching Tartuffe squirm his way out of various uncomfortable predicaments.  Like most enduring plays of this period, the comedy only thinly veils more profound social commentary with a healthy dose of satire.  This play enjoys regular revivals and may be easier to catch than some of the other titles on this list.

5) The Country Wife (1675) - The French theater was the guide for restoring the art form in London, and ridiculing Puritanism was a major theme. William Wycherley's bawdy play is both satirical and a fine situation comedy.  Written as a reaction to the long years without entertainment of any kind, this play lets it all hang out in a way that can still shock modern audiences.  The lead character Horner, wanting to play the field in London's upper crust, spreads a rumor that he was injured in the war, leaving him impotent.  Naturally, the husbands relax their guard and allow the wives to be around him without supervision.  In the meantime, an innocent young wife (the title character) moves to London and soon finds the atmosphere 'stimulating,' while attracting intense interest from Horner.  The play is fast-paced and stuffed full of double entendre (the "china" bit is hysterical).  It is also written in natural language, rather than the somewhat stuffy and stilted style of the contemporary French theater.  This show never fails to get an audience howling with laughter, and is well worth keeping an eye open for a local production.

6) The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People (1895) - The laughs start with the title pun, and don't end until the final curtain, with piles of farce and satire heaped in between.  This ditty also has some of the best one-liners ever written (Every man should have a hobby!).  Oscar Wilde is the undisputed king of Victorian theater, and his double entendre are subtly layered.  His witticisms stab at the heart of stuffy society, while making us laugh at the wounds.  This play is so memorable that you will take up "Bunburying" as a diversion!  This show enjoys frequent revivals and has some very fine film adaptations if you can't make it to the theater.  This show is also notable for setting off a series of real-life events that led to Wilde being jailed for homosexuality.

7) Pygmalion (1913) - G. Bernard Shaw's (he hated the name George) most famous play, adapted as the musical My Fair Lady, is itself an adaptation of a mid-19th century play, which was an adaptation of a Greek myth about a man (Pygmalion) who seeks to create the perfect woman from a statue and is rewarded by the gods with the statue coming to life.  Here, though, the myth is lightened up into a comedy about a professor (Higgins) who thinks he can take a Cockney flowergirl and turn her into the cream of society, thus showing the upper crust that they are nothing special.  Of course, the woman's Cockney upbringing leaks out at the most inappropriate times creating all sorts of havoc among the gentile classes.  The biggest surprise, though, is Higgins' unexpected love for his creation.  Like all great comedies, this play operates on multiple levels, providing social commentary on classism and women's suffrage, as well as good belly-laughs.  This one is hard to find in the theater, since most productions default to the musical version, but well worth keeping an evening at the theater if you find it.

8) Waiting for Godot (1949) - Samuel Beckett's masterpiece is considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century and won a Pulitzer the year it opened.  If this is all you know when you walk into a production of the play, then you are in trouble.  This absurdist comedy is one of those experiences where you are not sure what you just went through, and equally unsure if you want to go through it again to try to figure it out.  The entire show consists of two men standing at a cross-roads waiting for the title character who never shows up - and they talk a lot.  What you will find is that it causes you to look at yourself and laugh at the absurd things you find important in your life and the energy we expend to attain things that don't exist.  It's not one of those guffaw-type shows; it's very cerebral.  If you get the chance to see a quality production of the play, you should not pass it up.

9) The Birthday Party (1958) - And speaking of absurdist comedy, Harold Pinter's romp is another one of those weird mind-screws that's kind of like watching a building implode and then laughing because part of it collapses the wrong way and causes collateral damage.  In an unknown place at an unknown time, an unknown pianist prepares to celebrate his birthday at an unknown boarding house.  Two mysterious strangers arrive and turn the party into anything but the quiet marking off of another year.  Even the critics don't know how to classify this one (some say farce, others comedy of menace), and in fact Pinter's career nearly ended over it, until he was rescued by a critic.  Mark one up for the critics, because this play has gone on to an illustrious career.

10) Noises Off! (1982) - Michael Frayn's famous farce is not only popular with audiences, it is one of the most fun shows to work on behind the scenes, as well, probably because it is so true.  What makes this show unique is that it is a farce within a farce.  Act I has the audience watching a rather funny comedy with plenty of laughs in its own right.  But, Act II turns the stage around, and now the audience is watching the exact same show, but from behind.  Not only is the show being performed a farce, but the show we are watching is a farce about the farce, showing the farcical nature of the theater in the first place.  It's all barely controlled chaos!  This show never fails to leave the audience gasping for breath.  With lightning timing and rapid fire action, this is probably one of the funniest shows of all time.  It depends heavily on the abilities of the cast and director to pull it off, but the result is an experience where both the audience and the cast feel the joy.

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And so, dear reader, there you have it.  Once again, the Far Side has brought you something no one has bothered to do.  And don't forget, most of these playwrights have other works that easily belong on this list, but then it would be a Top 47 list, and that just doesn't sound right.

In today's theater, where special effects and light shows dazzle, while cotton-candy stories melt in our mouths and leave us with big dentist bills, we forget that there is nearly 3,000 years' worth of great entertainment just begging to be rediscovered.  The next time you reach for the Netflix selector, why not check local theaters for something a little more visceral - live actors on a real stage working in synchronization with highly-trained technicians to entertain and amaze.  Who knows?  You might even catch tomorrow's movie stars in their early career, before they get all full of themselves.