Laughter may be the only medicine to deal with world’s current absurdities

Some days you have to find ways to laugh. Given much of the “real world” is a joke right now, and not a very funny one at that, a sense of humour is pretty much mandatory as a coping mechanism.

When thinking of old school humour, the first name which comes to mind is Bob Hope. Hope knew how to spin a joke with some zing, but he never devolved into outright cruelty. Hope did observational humour and word play as his two defining elements to gently poke fun at the foibles of public personalities and the condition of everyday life. Here is a typical example of Bob Hope’s humour at play.

“You know you've reached middle age when your weightlifting consists merely of standing up,” Hope once remarked.

If you want a some more wicked innuendo with your observational humour then look no further than Hollywood icon Mae West.

“Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache,” she said.

The master of low brow humour was Rodney Dangerfield.

“When I was a kid I got no respect,” said Dangerfield. “The time I was kidnapped, and the kidnappers sent my parents a note they said: ‘We want $5,000 or you will see your kid again.’"

No master of comic wit was more biting and caustic than Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain. His commentary on societal hypocrisy still hits home 107 years after his death, but in his milder form he could also send out a good ripper from time to time.

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world,” Twain was fond of saying. “I know because I've done it thousands of times.”

Let’s clarify. No one was more biting and caustic than Twain save Ambrose Bierce, the ex-Confederate soldier, well-known cynic and journalist of the late 19th century. Probably Bierce’s most famous comment still cuts to the bone to this day.

“War is God's way of teaching Americans geography,” he said.

One cannot help but think when reading this quote of President Donald Trump’s infamous meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel where she was reduced to showing the incoming president what the Cold War Soviet Union looked like versus modern day Russia on a map when he showed a complete lack of historical perspective on the matter a few months back.

Comedian Joan Rivers passed away suddenly in 2014, but she left a wealth of witty one-liners behind. Here’s one that can make almost anybody smile.

“I am definitely going to watch the Emmys this year! My makeup team is nominated for 'Best Special Effects,'” she said.

Humour cuts both ways. It is our balm in a world rife with absurdities. It can also be the bitter lens which reveals truths we would all rather not acknowledge about the human condition. Either way, laughter helps. It is far better to laugh than to weep, which is sometimes our only other choice.

(Tim Kalinowski is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to www.medicinehatnews.com\opinions or call him at 403-528-5681.)