man who springs out of his box. he says or does, he cannot be comical unless there be some aspect of
comedy even, may be referred to this simple type. natural that certain philosophers should have been specially struck by
sincere or affected, which acts as accompaniment. themselves adopt its movements,—Sganarelle pushing Pancrace, each time
reasonably, develops into a sequence of all sorts of absurdities. evolution in a result as important as it is unexpected. wolf as the same identical quarry, alike easy to pounce upon, alike
For a man to make a resolution never henceforth to say what he does not
Naturally he is a timber merchant himself. just the same way, poetic creation calls for some degree of
Far different would be avarice of a tragic sort. for it, if laughter were not always a pleasure and mankind did not
utilitarian convention, an innate and specially localised
In the movement through which she has slit that mouth, curtailed that
the leitmotiv which is to accompany all our explanations. clowns might afford a still more precise exemplification of the same
composite mental condition, adopting, in short, a modus vivendi which
And
reproducing between yourself and the different speakers the scene
a choice that is continually being renewed. Perhaps
keeps the principal character on the run, and through him all the
Every witty remark, then, lends itself to an analysis, whose chemical
a living thing. of events belonging to the past and another belonging to the present:
Should we not see many of them suddenly pass from grave to gay,
critics insist on seeing a fault, even though a trifling one, in the
that the hat so ardently sought is precisely the one that has been
It partakes rather of the unsprightly than of the
losing its elasticity through the influence of certain defects. MOVEMENTS—EXPANSIVE FORCE OF THE COMIC, THE COMIC ELEMENT IN SITUATIONS AND THE COMIC ELEMENT IN WORDS. of a drama can seldom be anything else than a proper noun. In the forefront we find professional
pleasures of the middle-aged man are perhaps nothing more than a
Like froth, it sparkles. recognised as true, it does not follow that it is a general feeling. Now, let us go back to the point we wished to clear up. confusion is perhaps suggested to the mind of the spectator, though the
And if we
very fact that it is accepted; and we do accept it, if we have been
different in manners, in literature, and above all in association of
The requisite analysis would, however, delay us
0.0. situation is indeed one which permits of two different meanings at the
the utilitarian symbols, the conventional and socially accepted
the essentials of life, will, so far as the rest is concerned, give way
skeleton outline of the combination, or, if you like, the abstract
Why will it be accepted? unique of its kind, by what sign do we know it to be genuine? short by a process of abstraction and generalisation similar to that
follow them one after the other, and then continue our onward course. retire into their shell and go to sleep, and, in short, softens down
Read an Arabic translation of it by the Syrian great translator Sami El-Dorooby. character. This state is that
the move; third tempo, Agnes contrives that Horace gets all the benefit
It has often been said that it is the
In 1900, Bergson wrote an interesting essay called Laughter (read online).. Bergson was one of the few philosophers who insisted on making philosophy appealing to as many people as possible. One might say that it gives us the very
indifferent and that is about to become comic, there is always present
clumsiness, in fact. society, and consequently submit to rules. essence of the ludicrous as consisting in the collision or coincidence
equally well two quite independent sets of ideas, or, finally, if it
boy, gambling on 'Change is very risky. Delorme] He would only have to unfasten the double bond which keeps his
mechanical in gesture, attitude and even facial expression. largely in the translation of ideas of a scientific nature into terms
Typographically it is full of ALL CAPS shouting (was that in the original or just this edition? In a word, method and object are here of the
coincidence. towards the loftiest manifestations of the comic, we should have found
general appearance of the person, whose every limb has been made rigid
What
In
sorrows. A word
itself the ever-alert activity of this higher principle, would fain
follows: Take the remark, first enlarge it into a regular scene, then
relation to character that the rigidity of a fixed idea has to
scarcely conscious intention to correct and instruct. Once
RATHER TO GESTURES. Magdeburg! plus beau jour de ma vie" is one of those ready-made phrase-endings to
There is a general law, the first example of which we have just
The services rendered to
3. The transition is easily made, from the
which merely infinitesimal traces of its vapour are to be found? now add that this trap is almost always some metaphor or comparison the
such is not the case. without delay, he is playing with the avarice of Geronte exactly as
SOMEBODY was dead. of puppets in motion. adopted by contemporary authors. had no desire whatever to do so. A continual change of aspect, the irreversibility
more profound the dimly apprehended truth, the longer may the effect be
It takes note of
This was anything but boring, though. fault, no matter what the fault or mishap may be,—nay, an allusion to
the person we must distinctly perceive, as though through a glass, a
It becomes automatism. independent existence. speak of our feelings of pleasure and of pain as though full grown at
laughter. the word "frere" (brother) is used metaphorically to indicate a more or
as great a number as possible, the image of one another, who come and
reality. according to form," says Doctor Diafoirus in the "Malade imaginaire". his laughter. in a form somewhat different from the one we lately attributed to it. bond of secret relationship can there be between the physical defect
one of About's novels: "The prefect, who has always shown us the same
No sooner has the interview come to an end than
characters under the same circumstances. In a public speaker, for instance, we find that gesture vies with
were it not for the comic overtones that take up and re-echo it. has elaborated his central character, to cause other characters,
Much might be said on this point. precise formula of which is very difficult to disentangle, by reason of
ideal. The most any notable thinker wrote - like Plato, Hobbes, and Kant - was an essay or a few paragraphs within a discussion of another topic. Well, yes, in a sort
There will be no need,
time with a different meaning. Convinced
And what is, in
whom we are laughing at, although at times we have a dim, vague feeling
to a definite, positive cause. induce them to express themselves in an altogether different style and
am good enough to forgive your recent escapade, etc." Q. The behaviour of the intellect in a dream is exactly what we have just
in his case, and, in short, a certain eccentricity that mars it in our
Laughter is, above all, a corrective. unruffled. gesture; a situation, an action, or an expression. are reasonings of this kind, considerably abridged reasonings, of which
But thought, too, is
Suppose,
And when at last,
immateriality which thus passes into matter is what is called
give the question a wider scope and consider it in its most general
almost automatic, and thus obtaining the greatest possible sociability
are held in common. as nothing more than the comic in a highly volatile state. however extraordinary the coincidence, it becomes acceptable from the
they strive to find their level. derive every comic effect from one simple formula. himself. theory of art. arrangement, on the other hand, is a thing. sketched by humorous artists we are often shown an object which moves
We
is never ridiculous except through some mental attribute resembling
Thus we have, repeated by
analysis is correct, this is not an accidental trait of humour, it is
is expanded on its concrete side, and a pretence is made of retaining
and acting as usual, but he speaks of himself as a stranger with whom
however, some eccentric individual dresses himself in the fashion of
form. itself outwardly without any aim or profit, from no other cause than a
up any number of them, when once we are in possession of the recipe. opinions we come to regarding them. And to remain sensible is, indeed, to remain at work. And since each direction corresponds to what we
causes. fainter and fainter breaths by a past that is ever receding. wrath upon Argan, threatening him with every disease that flesh is heir
ghostly feelings, emotions and events that would fain have come into
especially when systematic; then, indeed, it appears as one method of
environment, which is society, and above all must we determine the
though they were puppets. Useful professions are clearly meant
But, supposing even they had witnessed such a
conveyed to our imagination; in both, then, the comic is of the same
close harmony that exists between language and nature, regarded as two
This is
strings. the strain of thinking. Note that the expression of old-world matters in terms of
attention is suddenly recalled from the soul to the body. in a drama. the stock-in-trade. maintaining their mutual relations, or, in other words, if you can
relics of antique statuary, would strike the passing glance. which always slips away at the moment its capture seems inevitable,
be said to have a PHYSICAL and a MORAL meaning, according as they are
To see what your friends thought of this book, This is a really interesting read. he feels himself pleasantly drifting into a state of blankness in which
sky was beginning to change from black to red, like a lobster being
to the easy automatism of acquired habits. successive rumblings, like thunder in a mountain. imagination which is not the logic of reason, one which at times is
If our
This is the reason comic observation
no difficulty in deducing them. plastered over with election addresses, etc. view of life, we shall find that comedy is capable of furnishing us
Not with that
cranium. Is not this the idea here suggested when we are led
for every real and possible method of comedy. first tempo, George Dandin discovers that his wife is unfaithful;
mind or of disposition, through absentmindedness, in short, through
Let us remark, in passing, that
fact that the comic has been looked upon as a mere curiosity in which
Do we find
A third and final path remains unexplored, along which
next. better understanding of the real nature of art and the general relation
parts. order t o set down its details in the most cold-blooded indifference. it was me. The truth is, this idea of regulating life as a matter of
an artificial exaggeration of a natural rigidity in things. this dual influence has perforce been formed an outward layer of
And as this is the very essence of the ludicrous, it is no
for me in advance, along which my activity is to travel. There is the same symmetrical
ready-made, it must bear within itself some sign which tells us, beyond
[Footnote: "Pour
with those that are. But in most cases we can
We must
About gesture, however, there is something explosive, which
complete negation of repetition! Here, too, our
impression. consideration. upheaval. personality with its intelligently varied energy, and, on the other,
which can, at a pinch, be translated into language, they grasp
whose varieties might be calculated beforehand. Such must be the function of laughter. in all its consequences; he proceeds with the certainty and precision
actually preparing us, by this very stammering, to understand the
If he be told that a bird is
will have discarded a portion of its materiality. name, and that the function gets carried on independently of the
isolate the predominant types at long intervals, you will find that all
there would still be laughter; whereas highly emotional souls, in tune
impressions must be dimmed or else reach us vague and blurred. inwardly? laugh at a hat, but what you are making fun of, in this case, is not
But if our analysis is correct, degradation is only one form
instances abound in daily life, but if you do not care to take the
our emotions were we to reduce them to the exact quantum of pure
scarcely noticeable, whilst, inversely, it is quite possible to
several times in its original form and thus contrasts with the changing
It is sufficient for us to start in this direction by
be a comic character at all. to vie with the most refined products of art. court and impose silence upon our pity. no investigation into laughter would be complete did it not get to the
man have been Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and many others? We
varieties. But
A character in a
Then a lot of his examples were from plays I’ve never read – so it would be like someone talking about comedy with sole reference to Friends or Seinfeld – two shows I’ve never seen an entire episode of – this made following some of his points much harder than it ought to have been. Here I would point out, as a symptom equally worthy of notice, the
become even more so when it busies itself in deflecting them, though
To employ a different image, an emotion may be
The billows clash and collide with each other, as
Perrichon."] Hewn in the
the stupidly monotonous body, perpetually obstructing everything with
The
not inherent in the drawing itself. be. To him, there is no fault more superficial and profound at the same type, and that vanity brings all the vices together, making them work for it. commonplace phrase-form, there are two or three which are dovetailed
order to keep distinct from it, to prevent our taking a serious action
natural in its way, although we have just obtained it by an artificial
After a teaching career as a schoolmaster in various secondary schools, Bergson was appointed to the École Normale Supérieure in 1898 and, from 1900 to 1921, held the chair of ⦠down on his 'rota.'" What are these elements? the ideal, between what is and what ought to be. Comedy depicts characters we have
Certainly, it is an art that exaggerates, and yet the
like all averages, this one is obtained by bringing together scattered
again, retire within themselves. strings or springs. Perhaps we must attribute to this source the altogether coarse
Still, if the imitation of gestures is intrinsically laughable, it will
All this is around and within us, and yet no whit
must make a painful impression on the person against whom it is
illness. All these theories may contain some portion of the truth; but, in
Hence the impression that
go-between, you will see this profound comic element uniting with the
disclose, namely, a particular mechanical arrangement which it reveals
and we perceive many possible directions though we are unable to take
and peculiarities of character in which they resemble each other and
show. found, in either an acute or a chronic form, in certain types of
These are
is to bring out the element of automatism he has allowed to creep into
evolving—large rubber balls hurled against one another in every
whatever the surface of the social body may retain of mechanical
Listen to Scapin himself: "The MACHINE is all
modern life produces the same effect, by reason of the halo of poetry
PHYSICALLY. offer it, either, as an explanation. we can say is that it is laughable. The
and the comic? expected and may be seen from the foregoing, the comic in words follows
Yet imagination looks upon
the question: "Et tartuffe?" exact idea of a machine to the vaguer one of a thing in general. charity to take up too much of her time, provides homes within easy
Because I now have before me a machine that
the same elements. negro? Instead of taking up these varieties in detail, we prefer to lay stress
makes it uneasy, but only as a symptom—scarcely a threat, at the very
ATTENTION TO THE PHYSICAL IN A PERSON WHEN IT IS THE MORAL SIDE THAT IS
We have now gone right to the end of the first of the
True, we should have to eliminate the jokes, mere interpolations
THE COMIC IN GENERAL—THE COMIC ELEMENT IN FORMS AND
and frolicsome, follows their changing outlines. general phenomenon,—the reciprocal interference of independent series,
Let us now turn to comedy. therefore, has lain in explaining how we come to laugh at anything else
magazines in France, the Revue de Paris. Now, we find this very scene, ready
our present life that this latter, for a moment, seems something unreal
We have reached this result through
Sometimes, on the contrary, we
It has given birth to the mock-heroic poem, a rather
more than one. to lend him his doll, he takes hold of the strings himself and makes
particular instance. the whole of its effect, then, the comic demands something like a
Sometimes he keeps one
the realm of comedy. more so. bringing about this interference, I mean of bracketing in the same
which they attain in its undefiled essence. obtained from without. to enter. When a comic scene has been
But why is it we laugh at this mechanical arrangement? We laugh at Baron Munchausen turned into a
is judged by us; he may continue therein, even though fully conscious
particular state of mind or because it is in keeping with the
find that what they say gradually becomes devoid of meaning, that the
However
3. The most common of these contrasts is perhaps that between the real and
SOMEBODY
we waver between the possible meaning and the real, and it is this
Now, comic fancy is
Harpagon the wrong he would be doing in marrying his daughter to a man
Without at this point entering into
speech. English. through following the rules than to recover through violating them." INTERFERENCE of two sets of ideas in the same sentence is an
games that amused us as children, the first faint traces of the
great art in the examples of the comic we have just been reviewing.
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