Humor is a powerful thing. It lowers stress, makes us feel better about ourselves, and helps us to live longer. It's a generally non-threatening way to share ideas, a low-key way to connect and share with people, and an unintimidating way to find out what people are like.
Humor is in the unexpected, the abnormal, and in the known falsity. It's the punch line of the joke we didn't see coming; it's the association of two words we would not usually associate; it's in Wiley Coyote who does not fall until after he looks down. It's in the slap-stick of unexpected injury or "failure;" it's directed at someone who is accidentally outside a social norm (falling in public, having one's hat blown off, etc); and found in the sarcasm and satire of speaking the opposite of the truth. For the sake of this discussion, I am not including vulgar, crude, or "bathroom" humor, which produce laughter by bold discussion of inappropriate topics (and often only nervous laughter).
It may be observed that positive humor is only one small step from all things most negative. Humor is in the unexpected, and so humor is closely related to fear. The unexpected can bring laughter or terror and sometimes both in sequence. The abnormal can be funny, piteous, or appalling. The falsity --the thing not true-- can be uproariously hilarious, or it can start a belief that sends millions to miserable deaths.
An unexpected abnormality that seems too strange to be true is one of the greatest terrors in life. And though it's only one nanometer from hilarious laughter, it is horrible terror.
Death is often unexpected, but it is rarely funny. Disease, bodies missing limbs, and atypical government activity are all abnormal, but they hardly ever cause us to laugh. Cults have fed people untruths, and then committed mass suicide. People have believed lies that have led them to their deaths. Whole nations have been deceived, and created the atrocities of Nazi Holocaust and Communist repression. People have taken falsity as truth, and it's not funny at all.
Applying ...
I have been thinking about two approaches to an idea. One person sees the idea itself, and may think it funny, but harmless. Another sees what the idea says, or may say, and may be terrified. Often, the latter is labeled "overreacting," "closed minded," or "conspiracy theorist." But it's possible this person sees more than the first person is able to see. Who can see the results of something that should be humorous?
When someone says "this idea has the potential to cause great disaster," do not write them off. They are simply stating what the world has been experiencing for centuries.
It is our duty as humans to find the truth and live according to it. Untruth is funny, but untruth that is believed is terror-ible.
Truth is found in the Bible; the Word of God. "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8:34
It is our duty to find and know the truth.
On a practical note, perhaps if something is presented as untrue, then no one believes it (even impressionable young people). The danger is greatest when something is presented in the most believable way possible, because it is "so unbelievable." Perhaps some have done too great of a job making their story believable.
I thought of this last comment because some things don't seem to have created danger.
Roadrunner is funny. I suppose it could be disastrous if someone believed it. But it's one of those old cartoons that is great, and hilarious. And I don't know anyone who has believed it.
Humor is in the unexpected, the abnormal, and in the known falsity. It's the punch line of the joke we didn't see coming; it's the association of two words we would not usually associate; it's in Wiley Coyote who does not fall until after he looks down. It's in the slap-stick of unexpected injury or "failure;" it's directed at someone who is accidentally outside a social norm (falling in public, having one's hat blown off, etc); and found in the sarcasm and satire of speaking the opposite of the truth. For the sake of this discussion, I am not including vulgar, crude, or "bathroom" humor, which produce laughter by bold discussion of inappropriate topics (and often only nervous laughter).
It may be observed that positive humor is only one small step from all things most negative. Humor is in the unexpected, and so humor is closely related to fear. The unexpected can bring laughter or terror and sometimes both in sequence. The abnormal can be funny, piteous, or appalling. The falsity --the thing not true-- can be uproariously hilarious, or it can start a belief that sends millions to miserable deaths.
An unexpected abnormality that seems too strange to be true is one of the greatest terrors in life. And though it's only one nanometer from hilarious laughter, it is horrible terror.
Death is often unexpected, but it is rarely funny. Disease, bodies missing limbs, and atypical government activity are all abnormal, but they hardly ever cause us to laugh. Cults have fed people untruths, and then committed mass suicide. People have believed lies that have led them to their deaths. Whole nations have been deceived, and created the atrocities of Nazi Holocaust and Communist repression. People have taken falsity as truth, and it's not funny at all.
Applying ...
I have been thinking about two approaches to an idea. One person sees the idea itself, and may think it funny, but harmless. Another sees what the idea says, or may say, and may be terrified. Often, the latter is labeled "overreacting," "closed minded," or "conspiracy theorist." But it's possible this person sees more than the first person is able to see. Who can see the results of something that should be humorous?
- I was first introduced to this idea when watching an old show that had some rather shady, not-quite-suggestive, and only almost compromising scenes. I was informed later that back when the show first aired, it would have been absolutely hilarious, because all of those things were seen as "known falsities." No one would have even thought about doing them, so they were funny on screen. They are not funny now, because now they are true.
- Tarzan may have been intended to just be funny (though I will agree that it's just as possible it may have had a specific agenda). But if and when people start believing it, it's not so funny anymore.
- The Da Vinci code should have been an enjoyable humorous novel -- except that it was believed.
- When The War of the Worlds was first aired on radio --a harmless story with a funny satire-- it created mass panic, because many thought it was true. By the way, we consider it a "harmless story" because we believe it is a "known falsity," but if such aliens ever did come to earth, we would find no humor in War of the Worlds anymore.
- Veggie Tales' Dave and the Giant Pickle is hilarious. But it wasn't funny to the Sunday School teacher whose young students were insisting that in the Bible, David's sheep fell over.
- Darwin's Origin of the Species should have been one of the greatest comedies of all time. But is has turned to terror, because it was believed.
When someone says "this idea has the potential to cause great disaster," do not write them off. They are simply stating what the world has been experiencing for centuries.
It is our duty as humans to find the truth and live according to it. Untruth is funny, but untruth that is believed is terror-ible.
Truth is found in the Bible; the Word of God. "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8:34
It is our duty to find and know the truth.
On a practical note, perhaps if something is presented as untrue, then no one believes it (even impressionable young people). The danger is greatest when something is presented in the most believable way possible, because it is "so unbelievable." Perhaps some have done too great of a job making their story believable.
I thought of this last comment because some things don't seem to have created danger.
Roadrunner is funny. I suppose it could be disastrous if someone believed it. But it's one of those old cartoons that is great, and hilarious. And I don't know anyone who has believed it.
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