“Humor is the denial of metaphysical importance to that which you laugh at. The classic example: you see a very snooty, very well dressed dowager walking down the street, and then she slips on a banana peel . . . . What’s funny about it? It’s the contrast of the woman’s pretensions to reality. She acted very grand, but reality undercut it with a plain banana peel. That’s the denial of the metaphysical validity or importance of the pretensions of that woman. Therefore, humor is a destructive element—which is quite all right, but its value and its morality depend on what it is that you are laughing at. If what you are laughing at is the evil in the world (provided that you take it seriously, but occasionally you permit yourself to laugh at it), that’s fine. [To] laugh at that which is good, at heroes, at values, and above all at yourself [is] monstrous . . . . The worst evil that you can do, psychologically, is to laugh at yourself. That means spitting in your own face. “ – Ayn Rand

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By Mark Pearson

Mark Pifer, a comedian, once told me that “humor is great for hiding fear but useless for finding peace.” He said: “Adam, I was around comedy for 20+ years. I’ve known some of the most funny men and women in the country. And they’re all miserable. Comedy doesn’t work. It’s a great release in the moment, and a great place to hide fear, but it’s ultimately useless for finding peace. I get that not everyone wants to achieve that, and that’s fine with me. I will always love comedy, and in the hands of the greats I am even still in awe of the techniques and abilities, but it’s an empty endeavor. ”

The words “humor is great for hiding fear but useless for finding peace” stuck with me, largely because my own experience was exactly the opposite of what these words suggested.  I’ve often found that laughter carried peace in its wings. Some situations, when taken seriously, seem overwhelming and insurmountable. But when we learn to laugh at them before tackling them seriously, a new perspective can sometimes open up. They seem to loom less largely over us. They seem more manageable. We feel we can handle them. We think “if I can laugh at this, then I can handle it.” This realization brings peace and eases tension. This is a very physical experience; in fact, there was a neurological study that showed that laughter and stress cannot coexist in the body at the same time. Laughter banishes stress. It quite literally makes the body more peaceful, even if only for a time.

Moreover, the reverse can also be true; not only can humor be helpful for finding peace, but peace can help us for find humor. The more peaceful we are, the more we can laugh, the more we can relax into humor. When we’re relaxed, we can make jokes more easily; they just come to us. In contrast, when we’re really tense and trying to make jokes, taking pains to joke around, our attempts feel awkward. Others have the sense that we’re trying to hard.  This is the diametric opposite of what happens when we are feeling peaceful and joking around easily; in such situations, the laughs flow as easily as the jokes.  So, peace can enhance humor just as humor can enhance peace.  This is probably what makes hippies so amusing… they’re so peaceful, they can’t even stand up and so funny they make Chris Rock look like Chris Hansen.

Now, this doesn’t mean that all comedians are peaceful, balanced people. Many struggle with various mental and emotional conditions. Some comedians are about as peaceful as an Irish family feud.   The words “can” and not “does,” “sometimes” and not “always” are chosen very carefully here.

Over the years, I suppose I have become less uptight about what I feel can the subject of humor and what cannot. For instance, I used to be terribly serious about spirituality. I would never joke about it. Ever. This is the business of life and death I’m talking about, I thought. How dare I laugh at it! How dare I profane the subject. I was terribly uptight. Looking back now, it seems just as sad as it does laughable.

It was Zen that taught me that laughter can be a form of spirituality.  Zen Masters often have great laughs with one another.   Since then, I’ve also met Christian priests, jovial Jews, smiley Sikhs, devout Muslims, and devoted Hindus  that all know how to laugh about their traditions even while remaining reverent of them.  In fact, I think that, for me, the most convincing Christian missionaries I ever met were those who knew how to laugh at their own religion. The stone-cold ones were easy to dismiss. But those who could laugh at their own faith, now they were worth hearing out!

Only in this last year have I learned how to laugh at my own beliefs, my own teachers, my own scriptures, my own traditions, and, most importantly, at myself.  There are times in life when gravitas is appropriate, but I tend to feel that life in general is best approached lightheartedly, though realistically as well.  Should spirituality, which deals with our most fundamental relationships to our true nature, to each other, to our world, and to the universe as a whole, be any different? I don’t think so.  These things are terribly important and should be taken seriously.  And yet, I feel it is okay to joke about them.  I can picture Ramana Maharshi poking someone in the eye and shouting “what? It wasn’t me! How could it be when my formless being transcends all fingers and eyeballs!” I love and deeply respect Ramana, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think his loincloth is hilarious.

https://philosophadam.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/laughter-spirituality-and-the-power-of-humour/

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