Harry Shearer says "Comedy is good, reality is better." I tend to agree.

Laughter, the best medicine...

I finally figured out what the gutteral hiccup called a laugh is, a primal acknowledgment of truth, agreement, a yes that cannot be suppressed by ego or rationalization. Maybe a combination of all three that cannot be expressed by language, which interferes with this small form of enlightenment. Laughter can be infectious. If you don't "get the joke" you aren't aware of the conditions surrounding it.

When Seinfeld says. "What's the deal with those peanuts?" The truth forcefully comes to consciences. People who think have asked themselves the same question. A laugh occurs. This idiocy of accepted reality is exposed. Laughter breaks down barriers to understanding and opens the mind.

Andrew "Dice" Clay was a master. He based a career playing an extremely rude male chauvinist Italian with a New York/Jersey accent. You could recognize this character in people you knew or at one time saw. Clay was making fun of the reality of these peoples existence. Not every got the joke. Woman were furious at the character he portrayed and identified him as "Dice." They were also shocked at the laughter of the audience. Truth shocked them and challenge their level of awareness. The women who "got it" laughed because it reflected somebody they knew. Clay had to remind the offended he was playing a character. I praise him, he acknowledged the insanity of his characters' views. I bet he witnessed this throughout his life and exposed it for what it was, stupidity.

When reality hits to close to home, some people can't bear it, while others laugh.

Zen throws absurdity at the student to enlighten them. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Language, being a limited form of expression cannot answer the question. You have to step back from reality to observe it's absurdities.

I would recommend staying away from people who cannot laugh, they aren't funny. People that take themselves too seriously have killed themselves in a sense. They cling to the desperation of being taken serious, force a mechanical ideology over their very soul and want others to believe in their myth of self-deception. How sad. People that cannot laugh cannot accept truth in it's most sublime state.

Comedians can get away with more than the perceived professional in a field. Professionals can't tolerate ridicule because they want to be perceived as serious. Comedians can be tolerated and forgiven much easier, they're jokers. Imagine a King's court, a joker was there. Royalty needed someone to show them their absurdity. A court member could face the wrath of the King for speaking the truth, a joker could survive. A joker or trickster appears in every cultures' mythology.

Comedy used as a tool of degradation is destructive. It's not truly comedy at all, but it is, in essence the act of elevating yourself above someone. An ego driven tool of destruction working in both directions. Think about it the laugh, usually by the instigator, "Accept? Truth, Yes? They desperately want you to accept a false truth they (and you) are exclusive, elite and superior than the victim. They want to belong.

"There's nothing funny down that road!"

This is madness and the elevation of ego masquerading as comedy . Imagine thugs beating the shit out of an Asian and laughing, they are saying "Accept my truth, my madness" Look at those slanted eyes! The one person in the group who doesn't want to participate is scolded. "Come on man, are you a gook lover!" If he cowers, he does so for acceptance in a false ideology, he has no identity. against his better judgment he says "I am nobody alone, accept me." How sad.

In self-deprecating humor you say "I acknowledge my own faults, laugh at me." How many comedians say they use comedy as self-therapy? Many.

I can't imagine the success of the "Three Stooges." Is it comedy? If you believe it you'll change your mind after a 4 year old pokes you in the eye like Moe.

Comedians who are the most successful can see the paradox we create in life and expose them. The inconsistencies of consensus reality is frighteningly funny. The truth can be shocking, it'll make you laugh or offend your shabbily constructed belief system.

Laughter is the primal sound of true council which we still possess.

"Seek the truth and the truth will set you free."

Laugh often.