Comedy

The comic move is to guide us to a benevolent conception of people, and hence, parts of ourselves. Comedy also does a great job at reducing power imbalances. It's hugely reassuring to see the powerful laughing at themselves. Finding oneself comical is a token of maturity; it means being able to see one's faults without being too defensive about it. Humor often provides a mechanism where by the powerless, or at least, the less powerful, can give constructive but pointed feedback to the powerful. Monty Python was particularly focused on this task. "The Philosophers' Football Match" mocks the great figures of intellectual history. It's funny because we've been intimidated so deeply in the past by intellectual bullies, we made us feel small with our reading of Wittgenstein or Schopenhauer. And now they're shown as being completely rubbish at football, and yet seriously involved in the game. Comedy isn't just a bit of fun. The comic perspective is a central need of a society. It enables us to cope much better with our own follies and disappointments, our troubles around work and love, and our difficulties in enduring ourselves. Comedy is waiting to be re-framed as a central tool in a better society.