Reflections

    

For my last blog post, I’d like to address what I’ve taken away from a class about laughter; a topic which is most certainly not funny. I think the biggest thing I’ve taken away is just that fact, though. I registered for this class expecting to have a fun time giggling my way through a semester while picking up interesting tidbits along the way, but what I found instead was that the world of laughter theory and analysis was a very serious one, with many great thinkers and scientists involved. This discovery has lent my ideal future profession some degree of legitimacy in my mind. If this many people have thought about laughter, and written about it, then it must be a topic of a somewhat high level of importance. Therefore a comedian must also serve a relatively important role in our society.

Beyond my own self affirmation, however, I have seen a need throughout the semester. This desperate desire to understand why we laugh reflects some level of human discomfort with laughter as a practice. It seems to me that the only explanation for such extensive effort put into the definition and reasoning behind laughter is that man has some fear of frivolity. I myself have written multiple essays this semester addressing this issue of frivolity. I think that the most important thing I could say I have learned this semester is that frivolity is nothing to be feared. Rather, it is something to be embraced, because the world is serious enough. So to whoever happens to stumble upon this blog I say this: go do something silly and meaningless. You’ll be glad you did.