Laughter is the best medicine, albeit usually at somebody else’s expense.
There is nothing more satisfying than a spectacular fail as long as it is not mine. Humour cushions us against those kind of life challenges that plague us all. A skilled comedian watches those blindspots and allows us to laugh at ourselves because we know that those observations are true. Laughter is a shared recognition that is somehow safe to indulge.
I have a curious relationship with laughter and the kinds of burlesque humour that send me reeling into uncontrollable fits. The same kind of psychology as a tickle really, the sense of vulnerability and safety all in the same act. I laugh accepting my potential vulnerability and open up, however briefly, to my crass stupidity.
Facebook makes me giggle as well but it has a very dark side. Sometimes the face in the book has dark humour, and clearly some of it seriously short of safe. Yet as long as I retain the fragile innocence of a child I can dupe myself ...
Because where else can you, find people who have time to film cats, indulge your favorite conspiracy, recycle some wise words having no intention of applying them to your own life and raucously laugh at your bigoted self for having picked an argument with a complete f@#king stranger.