Humour, Peace, Clowning and Freedom

When I was studying Peace Studies at La Trobe University, I felt intuitively to link peace to humour. As a clown I saw instantly that laughter offered in a positive way, coming from a space of love, was the embodiment of peace. This paper I felt inspired to write and whilst researching it I saw the liberating aspects of humour from a society that is deeply constricted and conformist. I remembered as I clowned I felt this incredible lightness, like all the weight of conformity, the rules, just lifted off my shoulders as I was able to hug trees, jump on benches, hug people as I pleased. I felt the beauty of freedom and saw each person as a friend. I realised that without fear this is true community. I remember the moment I realised this, I felt such a deep priviledge in being a clown. My character evolved to become a jester, that feels joyful. I feel complete when I am clowning, as I have no thought just acting spontaneous in each moment with the intention of bringing joy to each situation.

This blog highlights excerpts from my paper: How Effective is Laughter and Comedy in Creating an Atmosphere of Positive Peace?

How do you feel when someone says something that sends you into paroxyms of laughter, you have lost control, you must ride out the wave of uncontrollable spasms as the tears roll down your cheeks. It is a wonderful sensation, such a release, and an underlying sense of unity pervades the atmosphere. So how powerful is humour and laughter in creating positive peace? This paper will explore the nature of peace, what is humour and laughter, who are the comic provocateurs. Furthermore, humour will be explored as a channel for dissent, the freedom to break the rules, unmasking and challenging authority. The ability of laughter to transcend opposition and rise above situations will be discussed. Various techniques to resolve disputes and creative approaches of spreading laughter and humour are explored. Lastly, humour as nonviolent activism and comparisons to Gandhi’s Satyagraha are highlighted.

The Nature of Peace

Peace has been narrowly referred to as the absence of war. Metaphorically, we cannot see the woods for the trees. If we are looking specifically at the trees then we are missing the whole experience of the forest. The ‘trees’ represent our focus, such as seeing the world as a hostile, negative place. Where all we see is the scary shadows of wars, violence, anger, manipulation and conflict.

This consciousness is evident today in international politics with increasing militarisation, terrorism and nuclear weapons proliferation threatening mutually assured destruction. However, the whole peace picture is obscured. If one chooses to shift thinking from negative to positive then the various aspects of peace can come into focus. Peace is multifaceted and is based on assumptions and practices. It has been commonly associated with finding peace and quiet at home, peace on the streets, law abiding peace and peace with justice (or freedom) on the global scale. It is also described as an absolute feeling, some experiencing peace through divinity, mystery or god, or picturing it as embodied in the ‘prince of peace’. Peace is the way we understand the deeper nature of life and the meaning of Being.1 Martin Heidegger, considered one of the most influential philosphers of the 20th century, contemplated the notion of Being as ‘a dim, glimmering grasp of the meaning of Being is present and comprehended by each of us in a kind of ‘pre-ontological awareness’. 2

According to Goethe, humour in comedy frees the human spirit from passion providing a channel to envision the world clearly and serenely and to laugh at life’s inconsequentialities rather than weep. This is considered the supreme goal and the authentic happy ending. 3 The happy ending is the here-and-now and the feeling of happiness results from over-ruling restrictions on human liberty.4

Humour and laughter, more than other aspects of the human make-up, act as both liberation and liberty at the core of Being.5 Tragedy and humour are the levees of the human spirit, the latter overcomes struggles.6 Humour enables the rising above of a situation and achieves a psychic distance which transcends bondage.7 In addition, the act of laughter creates a feeling of social unity. Real peace is considered a state of harmony or unity.8

Laughing For a Long Time

For as long as there has been tragedy there has been laughter. The Ancient Greeks had a strong sense of humour. The comedies by Aristophanes, living around 400 BC, at the time of the war between Athens and Sparta. The comedies stimulated jokes which circulated around both communities. The citizens of Rome were able to express their jokes, even the most autocratic of Roman rulers was hesitant to ban public criticism. A thousand years after the fall of Rome the occidental world appears to not have produced any political humour. 9 During the outbreak of the Peasants Revolt in 1381, one of the most famous slogans was given in a sermon ‘when Adam delved and Eve span who was then the gentleman?’.10

In the 14th century there are signs of rebellion, exhibited by the antics of the knavish fools. Till Eulenspiegel, born in Brunswick, roamed Central Europe and Flanders. A great many people told stories of his comic pranks and these were published in the 16th century.11

Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages dictated what people should think and feel. The technological advance of the printing press spurred the circulation of rebellious pamphlets and broadsheets. The majority of the common people were illiterate and aired their resentment by mouth to mouth jokes about the Catholic establishment. A popular quip in the late 15th century was ‘God is everywhere on earth except Rome – only his deputy is there’. 12

In the early 18th century, two of England’s most famous satirists Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift wrote Robinson Crusoe and Gulliever’s Travels. They saw their main task as attacking reaction, corruption and hypocracy with bitter humour, exerting great influence on public opinion. Defoe published a pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, as a practical way to get rid of non-conformists, as a hoax on the Church.13

In the late 19th century, the social phenomenon of kin based joking relationships was evident. This involved playful behaviour such as joking, teasing, banter, ridicule, insult and horseplay. By the early 20th century attention focussed on joking relationships and the broader social fabric worldwide. By the mid 1950s this behaviour was observed in industrial societies in individuals not related by kin and played out in social settings.14

Humour-Us

From the early 1970s there have been only a few researchers conducting humour studies. Psychologists have considered humour important, humour is evident wherever there is social interaction. The fact that we feel good after we laugh suggests that laughter is important for health and well-being. Humour is an elusive concept, there is no agreement by sociologists on how it should be determined.15 It is accepted that humour involves communication amongst at least two people and is determined by social forces. Sociologists are in agreement that jokes only become jokes because of the social responses to them. Psychoanalysts assert that humour expresses underlying issues that cannot be expressed directly.16

Many sociologists have argued that humour services two social functions: social conflict and social control. The outcome of humour depends on the way it is interpreted. If perceived positively it is a tool for social control or unity. However, if negatively perceived as an affront, then it creates conflict.17 Conflictual humour is conveyed as: irony, satire, sarcasm, burlesque, caricature and parody. This produces a form of indirect aggression aimed at the separation of the group from the object of irritation. Disparaging humour fosters demoralisation and social disintegration inducing hostile attitudes. In totalitarian countries humour can be viewed as subversive in its intent. The social control function of humour and laughter is exemplified by the kidding amongst friends. This type of humour is considered esteeming. Moreover, social regulation occurs through the roles people play, joking relations between them, the rules for public joking and how jokes are constructed and the interaction of groups.18

Humour is by its nature an indication of a discontinuity in the social system. This gives humour its power and indeed, humour. Humour separates its seamless joints making them visible or contrasting two incomparable views or images giving distorted logic.19 Freud depicts the joke as a kind of psychic shorthand which links two entities previously thought to be separate e.g. puns.20

Kant and Schopenahauer explain humour in terms of the incongruity model which expresses the laughable as incongruous. Bergson accepts incongruity and adds evolution, he indicates that it is a social and evolutionary function used as a tool by which society corrects aberrant behaviour. Laughter restrains eccenticity and corrects rigidity of the mind, body or character. 21

The most common alternative models for humour involve the notion of superiority.22 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) theorises that laughter is surprise and superiority and is more cruel than violence. Freud argues that it is aggressive and emphasises superiority over the object. Plato attributes laughter to the malicious gloating over other’s misfortunes. Aristotle interprets it as a subdivision of the ugly, a defect not sufficient to cause pain.23

All of the early theorists have focussed on the negative aspects of humour. The positive idea of playfulness is ommitted by Hobbes, Bergson and Freud and other theorists. The connection between humour, games and play is very close. Play arises out of the sheer joy of living and has no function other than pleasure giving. It is considered a self-rewarding activity. Humour and laughter can emerge from high spirits, laughing in sympathy, laughing with old friends and a playfulness which generates a sense of freedom.24