I. The Modern Period
Once upon a time there was a universe. In this universe there was a planet.
On this planet there was virtually no laughter. Nothing like ``humor'' was
really known. People never laughed, nor jested, nor kidded, nor joked, nor
anything like that. The inhabitants were extremely serious, conscientious,
sincere, hard-working, studious, well wishing, and moral. But of humor they
knew nothing. All except for a small minority who had some feeling for what
humor was. These people occasionally laughed and joked. Their behavior was
extremely alarming to everyone else and was regarded as an obviously
pathological phenomenon. These few people were called ``laughers,'' and they
were promptly hospitalized. What was so alarming about their behavior was
not only the strange noises they made and the peculiar facial expressions
they bore while ``laughing,'' but the utterly pathological things they said!
They seemed to lose all sense of reality. They said things which were
totally irrational, indeed sometimes logically self-contradictory. In short,
they behaved exactly like anyone else who was deluded or hallucinated,
hence they were put into hospitals.
Medical opinions differed as to the cause of this ``humor'' disease. Some
doctors believed it was organic, others that it was a functional disorder;
some thought it was due to a chemical imbalance, others claimed that it was
purely psychogenic and often caused by a faulty environment. Indeed, to
support the claims of the latter, it was definitely verified that this ``
laughter'' was somewhat contagious and that certain individuals became
laughers for the first time in their life only after repeated contact with
other laughers. Indeed, this was another thing which made the laughers so
very dangerous; they were not only hallucinated themselves, but tended to
cause these hallucinations to others! Hence they had to be hospitalized not
only for their own sakes, but also for the sake of society.
At any rate, the well-known phenomenon of ``contact laughter'' added much
support to the theory that laughter was of psychogenic origin. But
unfortunately, no psychiatrist who held the functional theory and who
applied it in the treatment of laughter patients had any therapeutic results
. Not a single laugher was ever cured by purely analytic means. On the other
hand, those psychiatrists who used chemical therapy had spectacular results
! One drug, called ``laughazone,'' was particularly miraculous. It was best
administered intravenously, though it could also be used orally. The effects
of only one dose usually lasted six or seven months. Almost immediately
upon administration, the patient would stop laughing as well as stop this
verbal activity called ``joking,'' and instead would start screaming. The
screams would mount to a violent and agonizing pitch within about twenty
minutes and would continue at this pitch for virtually the whole of the six-
or seven-month duration. The patient would just lie there screaming hour
after hour, day after day, week after week, and month after month. And the
most amazing thing of all is that not once during this screaming period did
the patient ever laugh or crack a joke or even smile. Yes, this drug was
really phenomenal!
Yet not all the doctors were wholly satisfied. Some took the position that
the side effects of this drug---namely the screaming---might be even more
damaging to the patient than the original laughing. They pointed out that
the patient appeared ``happier'' as a laugher than as a screamer. The
opposition granted that the patient was happier in the original state of
laughter than as a screamer, but on the other hand, the patient in the
screaming state was less deluded or hallucinated than in the laughing state.
They said, ``What use is it to be merely happy, when the happiness is based
purely on psychotic delusions? Is it not better to be rid of these
delusions, even if the process is painful? After all, who wants to live in a
fool's paradise?'' This was a difficult argument to answer! Yet some of the
doctors preferred to see their patients in their happier, more natural
states of humorous psychotic delusion than in the more reality-oriented
screaming states which appeared to be so unbearably painful.
Just how this drug laughazone worked was a problem which was never
satisfactorily answered. All that was known for sure is that it did work. Of
course there were many conflicting theories, but none of them was ever
fully substantiated. One theory claimed that the laugher before treatment
was living largely in a fantasy world---indeed his whole trouble was that he
often confused fantasy with reality. But curiously enough, the pathology of
the laugher made this confusion seem pleasant rather than painful. In other
words, the laugher actually enjoyed this confusion of fantasy with reality.
Now, what the drug did was to dispel completely all the patient's fantasies
. Then for the first time the patient was ``deconfused''---he no longer
lived in a fantasy world, but saw reality as reality really is. But the real
world seen realistically was so much less pleasant and beautiful than the
former world of fantasy, that the contrast was unbearable, hence produced
the shock which led to the screaming.
This was one theory. Another theory claimed that the drug really didn't
produce a cure at all---indeed, that to label it a ``cure'' was a sham and a
delusion. All the drug did (according to this school) was to cause
unbearable physical and nervous suffering to the taker, and all the patient
was screaming from was the horrible pain induced by the drug. This group
claimed that the only reason the patient stopped laughing and joking was
that he was in extreme pain. To substantiate this theory, it was pointed out
that laughers who were not institutionalized, laughers outside the hospital
who got into automobile accidents or incurred other physical injuries, were
often known to stop laughing for a while. Indeed, laughers when sick or in
any kind of physical pain would never laugh and seldom joke. Also laughers
who had just lost a husband or wife or brother or sister or child or very
close friend were known to stop laughing for many months. All this evidence
seemed to point out that pain, whether physical or mental, somehow seemed
antithetical to laughter, and hence by analogy it seemed reasonable to
conclude that the pain induced by the drug only temporarily ``killed'' but
did not really ``cure'' the laughter. The proponents of this theory also
proposed the hypothesis that even if a perfectly normal person---i.e., a
nonlaugher---took this drug he would experience terrible pain and became a
screamer, and hence that the screaming of the patients had absolutely
nothing to do with being ``disillusioned'' or ``suddenly reality oriented''
or anything like that; the screaming was due only to the perfectly normal
chemical reaction to the drug. However, this hypothesis was never verified
nor refuted, since the screams of the patients were so alarming that no
normal person would ever volunteer to try the drug himself. Thus the true
action of laughazone remains a mystery to this day.
After the six- or seven-month treatment of the patient, he was, for some
unknown reason, terribly run down and in a deep state of depression for
several weeks, sometimes longer. After this he gradually convalesced, and
his original symptoms of laughing and joking would slowly return. The
doctors realized to their sorrow that the cure, though real, was only
temporary, and so they put the patient through it again. They said, ``Yes,
we had best give this treatment again and again until the patient gets cured
permanently.'' Now, usually after about the third treatment---especially
when these chemical treatments were combined with psychoanalytic treatment
administered during the intervening convalescent periods---a miracle
happened, and the patient seemed permanently changed. In the psychoanalytic
portions of the treatment the psychiatrist carefully explained to the
patient how he had been living in a fantasy world, and how when he started
facing reality he would at first find it very painful. And amazingly enough,
after about the third treatment, the patient actually agreed that the
psychiatrist was right! He said: ``I see now that you were absolutely right.
I was indeed living in a state in which I constantly confused fantasy with
reality, and I moreover believed in the existence of an entity called `Humor
.' Yes, I actually believed it to be something real rather than a mere
figment of my imagination. But now I see the light. I realize how in error I
have been! These drug treatments have done wonders in making me realize how
crazy I have been! Indeed, under this drug I have seen things realistically
for the first time; I see now that things are not funny! As you anticipated
, doctor, my facing reality for the first two or three times was most
disturbing. But do you want to know the beautiful thing of it, doctor? I am
no longer afraid of reality! After facing it a couple of times, I find it is
not so frightening after all! I am now adjusted to reality. To tell you the
truth, doctor, I don't even think I need ever take the drug again. That's
right, I no longer need it! In fact, I'm perfectly confident that I could
walk out of this hospital this very day and not even be tempted ever again
to engage in this pathological activity known as `humor.' Yes, doctor, I
really feel like a new man! Moreover, if I were out of this hospital, I as
an ex-laugher could spot other laughers and even potential laughers far
better than one who has never gone through my experiences, and I could
indeed bring them into the hospital for treatment.''
Well, when the doctors heard this kind of talk, many of them were delighted
and promptly arranged to have the patients discharged. But certain follow-up
studies gave the doctors cause for grave concern. For one thing, the ex-
laughers never did bring in laughers or potential laughers for treatment.
Second, there were some pretty reliable rumors that these ex-laughers,
although they indeed never laughed or joked in public, did so in private and
in a highly clandestine fashion. Also, when they met each other, they would
go into huddles which somehow savored of the conspiratorial. And so, many
of the doctors framed the hypothesis that perhaps the ex-laughers were not
really cured after all, but---of all horrors---only pretended to be! In
other words, it was seriously suggested that the patients, after about the
third treatment, were only simulating mental health, and were being, of all
things, insincere! The reason this hypothesis was so shocking is that
insincerity was virtually unknown on this planet. From what little was known
about the subject, insincerity itself was regarded as another form of
psychosis but one which was exceedingly rare.
The question then arose: What made these ex-laughers insincere? A few of the
bolder physicians suggested that it was simply that the patients pretended
to be well in order to avoid any further painful drug treatments. But that
hypothesis was generally rejected. The consensus of medical opinion was that
insincerity was never this rational nor premeditated, but was something
totally irrational and most likely caused by some chemical imbalance. Indeed
, it became suspected that laughazone itself, though temporarily curing the
laughing psychosis, might be the very agent which was causing the
insincerity psychosis. And so the doctors sadly admitted: ``The situation is
most depressing! Not only does laughazone fail to provide any permanent
cure for laughing, but it seems to have this terrible side effect of
producing insincerity!'' Some of the ex-laughers were recalled to the
hospital and their laughazone treatments were resumed; meanwhile another
drug, ``insincerezone,'' was simultaneously administered with the hopes of
counterbalancing the ``insincerity'' effects of the laughazone. But a proper
balance never seemed to be struck. During the convalescent periods between
drug treatments, the patients were either sincere and laughed, or they
ceased to laugh but displayed obvious symptoms of insincerity. In other
words, no chemical means could be found which would make the patient
sincerely stop laughing! Various types of cerebral surgery were also tried,
but again to no avail! Nothing science could do could make these strange
uncanny patients give up humor in a really sincere manner. And so the
doctors threw up their hands.
I shall return later to the fate of the laugh-patients.
II. The Middle Period
The history of this planet can be roughly divided into three periods: the
Ancient Period, the Middle Period, and the Modern Period. The Modern Period
contained no literature at all on laughter, except in textbooks and
periodicals on abnormal psychology. The Middle Period was chock-full of
laugh-literature---indeed this constituted the main writings. This
literature contained absolutely no material which contemporary laughers
called ``funny''; indeed the writings were in a wholly sane, serious,
scholarly, and philosophic mood. The writings consisted mainly of analysis
and commentary on the ancient texts. Now the ancient writings were totally
nonphilosophical; they never spoke about laughter or anything like that. The
ancient writings were simply what the Middle Period called ``funny.'' These
archaic manuscripts contained all sorts of incomprehensible contradictory
material called ``jokes'' or ``funny stories.'' It was the main purpose of
the Middle Period to evaluate the work of the Ancient Period. The
philosophers of the Middle Period---particularly of the Early Middle Period-
