Laughing together

"By laughing together we oil the wheels of society. To agree in our laughter is to agree in our judgments, and a shared joke is a much more effective way of filling a brief encounter than a shared remark about the weather, since it involves not just a belief but a evaluation. When you and I laugh together, we reveal to each other that we see the world in the same light, that we understand its shortcomings and finf them bearable. We are jointly "making light of" our burdens by vicariously sharing them." Comic stories and caricatures are central to traditional cultures precisely because they prompt this response, and a civilization which cannot laugh at itself - like Islamic civlization today - is dangerous, since it lacks the principal way in which people come to terms with their own imperfection".

Scruton, Roger. Culture Counts