Catharsis in Comedy
Title/Subject:Meditation 7
"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
If there is anything we can learn from Oedipus, Agave, and the others it is that life is a fucking bitch. Suffering, humiliation, Bright Eyes’ songs, persecution, and desperation are only a few absolutely dreadful aspects included in the whole human experience package. And as tragedy so beautifully demonstrates, there is little or nothing we can do about it. I am inclined to believe that maintaining a sense of humor is one of only a handful of coping strategies we possess as a species to deal with this inconvenient truth.
As discussed in class catharsis in the Aristotelian sense is a purging of excess emotions. It is an intellectual experience that provides release from troublesome feelings of pity and fear allowing for true moderation in all things. However, there is also something very visceral about catharsis. It defies explanation and can often only be described in terms like squirmy gut and chills down the back. Catharsis is realizing that something beyond us has been evoked. It is this unexplainable beyond that can imbue us with a new passion to endure our sufferings as humans.
Comedy also possesses a cathartic quality. It is distinct from tragedy in that the emotional and physical responses are usually born from indulgence in the bizarre as opposed to strictly pity and fear for the doomed hero. The abandonment of social conventions also provides a sense of release. Tragic catharsis is a long, drawn out process while comedic catharsis is more like an explosion. Something that is funny strikes you immediately. Laughter is truly the best medicine.
posted by Averie @ 9:50 AM
5 Comments:
I like a lot of what you have to say in this meditation - I was pretty familiar with the word catharisis as it is used today, but not as much with what it would have meant in terms of the plays we were reading. Thank you for clearing that up. I also agree with a lot of the explaintions and contrasts you gave, particularlly - "Tragic catharsis is a long, drawn out process while comedic catharsis is more like an explosion."
My god is comedy the best medicine. I like that you also said "the abandonment of social conventions also provides a sense of release". I sometime wonder if we create all these social conventions just so we can have something to laugh at. I mean if we didn't have any at all, would we laugh out of discomfort? Is it possible to laugh without some sort of release; and if we were released from all social pressures, what would we laugh at?
Oh by the way, that was so bad ass that you quoted Kurt Vonnegut. I paraphrased him too! Can you believe that?!
I absouletly agree that Laughter is Cathartic.One time I was reading a book on the brain (I can't remember the name) and it talked about an explosion of laughter at a girls school in Tanzania it lasted for six monthes till finally they were forced to shut the school down at first that sounded really fun.But then I looked up more information on it the epedemic was right after a civil war likely a result of stress the body trying to relax but actually laughing that long is
horribly painful as one who has laughed for even 20 minutes or so probablly can remember.But in this case there were hives etc.Also when I think back to the times I've laughed most in my life it was during a fun moment but also contained in stress a really long rehershal was one epedimic for instance.My points are a couple I am not sure laughter is always a brief experince coming from the bizzare rather then pity and fear.Also even when the laughter seems apprupt there is often a history behind it which built the joke.Thats what a bit is and that history is also part of why epedmics happen you build a bond with those you laugh with and the closer you are to someone the more likely you'll laugh with them.
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