Laughter
Art by Roland WinkhartHow much is still possible! So learn to laugh beyond yourselves! Lift up your hearts, you fine dancers, high! higher! and do not forget to laught well. This laughter's crown, this rose-wreath crown: to you, my brothers, do I throw this crown! I have canonized laughter: you higher men, learn - to laugh!
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
posted by Tapio Kotkavuori at Tuesday, March 07, 2006
10 Comments:
My pleasure is something I coined with Nino (a Friend and a Brother I have had since we were about 8 years old) while trying to define our specific type of sense of humor:
"Absurd black humor".
The basic tone here is not nihilistic, pessimistic, or anything like that. It is very positive, maybe you could say... cathartic. The main point is to expose ridiculousness of sticking dead-seriously to some personal and/or encultured attitudes and habits.
Sometimes this can be relatively funny as in Mark Beyer's wonder cartoon called _Agony_, or in any of the wonderful _Monty Python_ productions, and sometimes it can be relatively black and sinister as in Kalervo Palsa's _Eläkeläinen Muistelee_ :-)
In any case, I have always been interested in how various religious and philosophical groups relate to humor, especially humor about themselves.
I am quite nietzschean here (as I think many on the transcendental branch of the left hand path) - if it's not also fun (no matter that it is also at the same time dead serious), something is wrong.
Nietzsche's Zarathustra was a dancing and laughing being - even in his utter seriousness. That's not too bad role model to any serious traveler of the left hand path.
I laugh at my own jokes. ;)
The best movie comedy for me is Adam Sandler's _Happy Gilmore_. It's just, well, happy no brains entertainment (which suits my brainless nature)!
My take on Tapio's sense of humour is that he tends to laugh at things that show what a cosmic prank life is. He laughs of Joy, too, when the Sacred touches him.
I recall Todd Solondz's _Happiness_ and _South Park_ are among the things that make him laugh. :)
How-dy ho!
Dear Petri, Bro,
howdy-how, indeed! :)
(too bad we didn't make some money the last Christmas in Mr. Hanky-costumes, ah! The next year, right?)
Oh yes, _South Park_ is a Gift from Gods. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are putting forth some great stuff in general, and _Orgazmo_ is a perfect proof of that! Jesus! ("where!?")
And oh yes, _Happiness_ drops well into the more sinister and wicked category of things I laugh for. It is definitely in my top ten movies of all time. I would have given Oscar for Hoffman already for that movie! :-) What a wonderful universal theme here, with such a great treatment! A true masterpiece!
When it comes to Finland, I am never bored to praise Jouko Turkka for his stuff (in addition of Kalervo Palsa, the painter and cartoonist).
I must also confess that in my teens I was a die-hard fan of _Pahkasika_, _Tapiiri_, and _Seppo_.
Now I'll shut up, otherwise I'm in trouble :-)
Petri,
btw, thanks so much for the updated classic model of whoopee-cushion you gave me as a present we saw the last time! I have been using it almost during every phone-call I have had since then! It has made a great impression to everyone on the other side of the line! :-)
HA ha ha ha ha on the whoopee cushion! My son loves the one I gave to him as well...
_Pahkasika_ ruled as a teen. Was there ever anything better than Peräsmies ("butt man" who flew by farting) and anything worse than Miihkali?
I'm still working on installing a cushion on my bosses chair...
Petri,
I was silently hoping that you would not say a word about Peräsmies or Miihkali. It is getting really shameful now... Hell yeah, I loved those cartoons! :-)
Bro, don't be ashamed!
We are all human, which does not mean we have to be all too human in the bad way.
If having fun makes us ashamed there is no way out...
Petri, if I would have been seriously ashamed I would not have written what I did :)
But Bro, your best jokes disappear from here each night! ;)
Petri, those jokes are this blog's bonus material for my most active readers only :-)
Post a Comment
<< Home