Christina Tran Ksiasek E319 01 January 2011 Who Are You Kidding?

More than just to produce a few laughs, comedy proves useful, even essential, to society in a variety of ways. Humor eases the tension; when a heated debate turns sour or fervent, a joke can be the crucial solution to a once-precarious situation. Alain de Botton says that humorists are vital to society for their ability to act as the messengers of otherwise unspeakable meanings and truths. By satirically highlighting the raw truths about politics, human nature, and societys flaws disguised as jokes, humorists expose their audiences to ideas outside their customary realm of thinking; in consistence with de Bottons analysis, their humor helps to keep society more tolerant and enlightened. For the sake of sparing our lives and others from any additional suffering, several audacious fellows rise up to the task of replacing our ignorance with true understanding, using satire as their weapon. In Candide by Voltaire (an Enlightenment philosopher), one finds the archetypal example of satire intended to comment on common perceptions and errors. The Enlightenment movement of the 18th century was catalyzed by skeptical humorist thinkers like Voltaire who favored reason above wavering emotion. In mocking the mainstream philosophers who maintained that because God must be perfect (they took it as fact that God existed), the world he created must be perfect also, these sharp-witted satirists opened the doors for other rational thinkers to improve society. Voltaire sets up his optimistic main characters, Pangloss and Candide, to suffer and witness a wide variety of horrors floggings, rapes, robberies, unjust

executions, diseases, an earthquake, betrayals, and overwhelming ennui. Contrary to popular opinion within the novel, these horrors do not serve any apparent greater good, but point only to the cruelty and folly of humanity and the indifference of the natural world. Characters struggle to find justification for the terrible things in the world, but their absurd arguments simply bring chuckles from readers, while clearly showing the impracticalities of dreamy thinking without directly insulting any dreamy readers. Voltaires words resound to his audience as a warning for pragmatism when needed. Voltaires message was also taken seriously by the thinkers who laughed at his jokes and took it to heart, bringing upon the world a chain of new inventions, philosophies, theories, and scientific discoveries intended to enhance their surrounding environment. So important is Candides wit and social commentary even to this day that teachers, literary and history buffs alike, insist on the book as a staple of high-school canon. With humor, messages are masked by the exaggerated fables and wit of satire, but they are still delivered and help to extinguish our own blindness to our human ills. As traditional satire has found itself less in tune with modern society, stand-up comedians and nighttime shows have become pillars of humor with todays generation. While controversial topics are often discussed, comedians and comical skits offer unique insight with their novel approaches to thinking about these untouchable subjects. Despite how lewd or insensitive the method is, humor pokes fun at otherwise-deemed no-mans land instead of tackling it with too much seriousness, where a political and ethical mindset is often involved. Humorists offer a new light because they are opinions from all walks of life and backgrounds. Among gender, political views, and sexual orientation, ethnicity is one of many aspects that is quite diverse within the realm of comedians: George Lopez inserts Spanish vernacular into his dialogue, Craig Ferguson taunts the Americans with his smug face and Edinburgh accent, Chris Rock comments on racism

and stereotypes against African-Americans, and Russell Peters mocks his own Indian peoples behavior, an example of one being physical discipline towards children. Credibility arises from their knowing aspects of society that we have made judgments on without looking at the converse side. For example, the subject of immigration has been one of heated debate for the past few decades. The majority of Americans do not know the experience of immigrants as especially well as some of the comedians do (as sons and daughters of them). Controversy finds itself less a factor when viewers discover a new perspective as said comedians unravel their real-life tales, being born into the often-misunderstood situation of an immigrant household. By placing social issues like immigration on a pathos-filled platform other than the bemoaned political agenda, crowds laugh and welcome the humorists who challenge the popular opinion. Jokes are the nonviolent outlet in which humorists place the minority opinions up as a balancing contender against the majority, allowing for truly unique beliefs and opinions to shine through. Humorists not only revitalize societys spirits with their jokes, wit, and satirical voices; they are vital to the world because they help us understand societal flaws. As society constantly changes and people of all backgrounds need to creatively brainstorm methods to bring out essential social change, humor proves ever-important in paves the necessary way for thinking outside the box or usual frame of mind.