Whatever the current generation is called (X? Y? Z? Z+?), they have to be the largest group of navel-gazing misanthropes ever spawned. This is a serious problem because without innocent laughter, life becomes unbearable, which is pretty much the case for large segments of our society now. Today, we see the lack of both innocence and mirth in almost everyone over the age of twelve. We are sunk in a swamp of self-seriousness that would make a Russian novel look like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. When was the last time you saw teenagers laughing innocently? Chesterton’s Satan, fell by force of gravity. The late ’60s were also an age of Great Seriousness. That generation (of which I am a member) was the most spoiled generation in history (up to that time) and really thought they knew. They knew-as no generation had ever known before-about sex, peace, religion, poverty, race relations you name it. With the Sexual Revolution, both the romance and the laughter died, and the signature of that death was the change in the word “gay” from being an adjective meaning “light hearted” or “cheerful” to a euphemism for sexual perversion. As a priest friend quipped, “When chastity becomes a joke, the music stops.” There have been no great romantic musicals since. With the Sexual Revolution, both the romance and the laughter died, and the signature of that death was the change in meaning of the word “gay” from being an adjective meaning “light hearted” or “cheerful” to a euphemism for sexual perversion. It mocks the man who sings it as much as the woman it is sung about yet singing it today would get you expelled from most colleges. These, too, had humor and were centered around romance and the delightful tension between the sexes. Take the song “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?” from My Fair Lady. It was also the twilight of the great American musical Hello Dolly, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, The King and I. This was laughter devoid of rancor, cheap shots, and sarcasm, but often full of wisdom. These differences were celebrated and were the basis for laughter, not acrimony. This only makes sense because true laughter is found in contrast the court jester wiser than the king, the hobo more content than the rich man. It was a comedy where there were two sexes: men and women. That was the twilight of traditional American comedy the comedy of Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, and others comedies built around marriages and families that stayed together even when they were at loggerheads comedies we could laugh with because we, too, were going through what they were going through-trying to pay bills, get along with our spouses, keep our jobs, and raise our kids. It is the “inside joke” of how enlightened or sophisticated “we” are as opposed to how uncouth or stupid “they” are.īecause innocence and mirth are connected, it is no surprise that the demise of both innocence and mirth coincided with the rise of deviancy and ridicule. The target of this humor is usually the outsider, which today means almost exclusively persons or ideas of traditional morality. Humor today (I’m thinking of films, television, college campuses, etc.) consists mainly of sarcasm and ridicule caustic comments and derisive remarks at the expense of others. It relies much on “shock value,” mainly because the actual humor is thin, if there at all. A child of four will laugh at a clown being hit in the face with a pie because he, too, having no dignity to stand upon, would like to get hit in the face with a pie. It is only as we grow older and assume our dignity that we want to hit the other person in the face with a pie. Innocent laughter, or mirth, is also related to innocence. As Josef Pieper said, “Only the pure of heart can laugh freely and liberatingly.” We see this in children, and this may be one meaning of our Lord’s warning that unless we become as children we cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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