On the Highway to Humour

“I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.”
    ―
    Maya Angelou





Hi, Carolyn,

Well, off the top, sorry to hear about those steroidal arachnids in your container garden. I'd prefer not to think that they are just letting us co-exist with them in their world - but, hmmm, hard to completely ignore the upfront evidence, isn't it.  We're having the same vibrantly colorful change to autumn on The Bruce Peninsula.. In fact at this particular time its pretty spectacular out the windows around here.







Especially sorry, also, to hear about the almost bully-pulpit tactics apparently being employed  by public servants entrusted to guide educational policy where you are. Totally agree with you about why those in the generations succeeding us can't come up with nearly as much trust as suspicion and disdain for we aging and waning boomers. No, we should not give the next generation carte blanche. But we should not  paternalistically dismiss or ignore their concerns. The whole scene unfolding in Hong Kong is certainly a much more visceral, and potentially violent, playing out of the same fundamental, and timeless struggle.


 So, with that less than good karma that we opened up with behind us, let's switch gears. 





 
 
 

Last May 9th in my post I  lamented the passing of William Gaines, who "invented" Mad Magazine . That passing plus the passing of Robin Williams and Joan Rivers recently and the seemingly endless sea of ominous news items - Ebola, ISIS, Climate Change, et. al. - about how we humans are treating each other and the planet,  have helped put me up to taking a look at the whole concept of  " a sense of humour".  It may be the one thing that most significantly separates us from our fellow mammals.  As we contemplate the future, near and far, it's also a therapeutic prerequisite. 


 So Whadya say we take a bit of a serious look at humour.




 It's  a dangerous mission , though.  As the Wikipedia folks pointed out -  Author E.B. White once said, "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." 


He got that one right.
 

Humour is my first, and sometimes my last, line of defense when the going gets tough. It was the best arrow in my quiver when I was a teacher. I tried to use it as a way to put my students at ease.  From the student's side of the desk, especially in those formative years,  things can be pretty intimidating.  Simply being asked a question in class by  "the teacher " puts you in both the peer pressure and authority pressure cookers simultaneously. I tried to frame my questions humorously just to call out a smile. Think I got spooked a bit by  " The Wall " lyrics, when Pink Floyd put it out.

" No dark sarcasm in the classroom,

Teacher, leave them kids alone

 

There are simply so many ways to approach the whole subject of humour that I think I'll just start by looking at those individuals who have made me laugh the most. Long ago, in a blog posting far far away I mentioned who'd populate my head table at a dinner of my favorite Sci-fi writers. Let's use that template again.  The middle chair at the head table would be, unquestionably, and not humbly, be filled by this Jedi Master of mirth.







Nobody, in my humble opinion, has left more, or longer skid marks on the highway to humour than Mel Brooks.  His movies often arouse strong feelings, even decades later.

Terms like  "tasteless scatological sallies ",  "puerile" and " offensive " typify critical responses.


In his introduction to The Films of Mel Brooks , film critic Neil Sinyard notes " ... there is a seriousness beneath the surface and the farce should not be confused with frivolity. The so called tastelessness is designed to disturb and to provoke. In any case it was Picasso who said " Good taste is the enemy of all art."



If I had to pick one motion picture only, that I could take with me to that proverbial desert island  it would - without question or hesitation - be this one .

 

 

 

I don't totally understand why I can watch this movie again and again and again and again and again .............  and I could wax on about it for almost as long - but I won't. I will get back to it though.

 



 

This blog adventure could be the equivalent of the Kubrick trilogy a few months back, simply because the works of this filmmaker affected me in a similarly indelible manner.



So, next time I wanna roll further down the highway to humour - or maybe we should call it, at the moment, the highway to Mel .


Catch ya later,


Don










All images sourced from Google Images







Fig. 1 - blogappysmap.com
Fig. 2 - www.boiseweekly.com
Fig. 3 - madcoversite.com
Fig. 4 - www.sitepoint.com
Fig. 5 - gettyimages.com
Fig. 6 - unaffiliatedcritic.com
Fig. 7 - twitter.com