On Humor

June 4th, 2004 · No Comments
by Booksquare

There is something about funny that we find funny. And that is the way people laugh in the absence of humor. Example: an author known for humor (we’ll call him/her Author X) reads from a novel. The passage is poignant, perhaps even downright depressing. Yet the audience is roaring as if they were watching a (good) Saturday Night Live skit. Jessica Jernigan, in an interview for Borders, asks David Sedaris about this — we can’t tell if he’s relieved or saddened by the auto-laughter than accompanies his public appearances. At least he’s found a trustworthy gauge of his humor…Sedaris is all over the news these days — almost makes one think he has a new book to promote. But there’s the cynic in us escaping solitary confinement.

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