The Power Of Humor

Humor can be just as multifaceted as other parts of human life--there is no single use or type of humor.  It is thus fitting that humor is a means by which the only concepts that deserve humanity's utmost attention can be given a spotlight, for comedy is a useful tool for communicating ideas of grave importance to audiences that might even be intellectually dull.  The laughs of an audience can convey far more to and about those doing the laughing than mere lighthearted amusement.

As they laugh, they might realize that they either never understood the topic at the heart of the joke or that their own worldview needs to change.  This is one benefit of ideological satire: those who refused to reason out certain philosophical truths on their own can have the truth about certain ideas held up in jest.  Indeed, humor can make the presentation of an idea all the more accessible for some who might otherwise lack the drive to autonomously think about important matters.

It is in this way that the object of laughter is no small thing.  The perceived silliness often ascribed to laughter can be a Trojan horse containing true or false ideas with the power to reshape society itself, if only the individuals that comprise society give their allegiance.  For this reason, it is folly to regard humor as having nothing to do with expressions of worldviews, for comedy is just as capable of being utilized for sound or unsound philosophy as any other tool at the disposal of humans.

Humor has a power to not only satisfy our capacity for laughter, but also to expose the problematic ideas of an individual or collective society.  Laughter can heal and provoke needed philosophical introspection all at the same time.  Philosophically sound humor might be relatively rare, but its potential for revealing the true rational or irrational nature of miscellaneous beliefs is a valuable resource for communicating with a world that is largely marked by apathy, hypocrisy, and blindness to logical truths.