I do like MASH humour. Yep, still watch it on the odd occasions. A nice balanced look at life when things aren't perfect. The human spirit shines through.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
I have found that most very funny people have had very hard or rough lives. I think sometimes a trauma can somewhat relieve the mind of going over what things can happen, and focus more on enjoying what is happening. Kind of like more assured about where they stand, because they know they have survived worse.
I recall a friend with a PhD in Economic History told me a joke based on economic theory. I burst out laughing. He said "I knew you would understand". But I hadn't. I experienced the joke as very funny but I did not understand it.
So how could I experience a joke as funny without understanding it? What part of me understood that esoteric joke? It was certainly not my conscious mind.
I recall as a child my father would take the family to see Charlie Chaplin movies shown at the local museum. There would be a fairly large audience and much laughing. These days however Chaplin is not seen as nearly as funny. Similarly for most of the comedians of the 1930s and 1940s. It seems that Westerners have moved on in consciousness.
I recall reading Freud on jokes. He was clear that there should be something real in order that a joke be made. The example I remember from his writing is: A wife is like an umbrella, sooner or later one needs a taxi.
These days such a joke does not seem at all funny and the male attitude seems unfeeling. The human race has moved on.
So, how many senses of humour might there be in one person?
And where in the human do the senses of humour arise?
