In my analysis of Mike Birbiglia’s Thank God for Jokes, I included this blurb about how, in an off-hand way, Birbiglia mentions that “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” I thought I should break this section out for ease of future reference/hyperlink.
“Comedy equals tragedy plus time.” is a quote attributed by Goodreads and other sources to Mark Twain, who may have said “Humor is tragedy plus time.”
However, Quote Investigator attributes it to a 1957 Cosmopolitan interview with Steve Allen, and his full explanation is worth quoting:
When I explained to a friend recently that the subject matter of most comedy is tragic (drunkenness, overweight, financial problems, accidents, etc.) he said, “Do you mean to tell me that the dreadful events of the day are a fit subject for humorous comment? The answer is “No, but they will be pretty soon.”
Man jokes about the things that depress him, but he usually waits till a certain amount of time has passed. It must have been a tragedy when Judge Crater disappeared, but everybody jokes about it now. I guess you can make a mathematical formula out of it. Tragedy plus time equals comedy.
Mark A. Rayner, attributes a similar quote to Lenny Bruce, who supposedly said,
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
Good stuff, but at it’s base, it seems like a rehash of Hobbes’ 1640 statement that laughter is “a sudden glory, arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly” (Chapter ix, § 13; Morreall, Humor). With distance from our own weakness, we can look back and laugh. That’s the tragedy plus time in a nutshell. It is this recognition of people’s ability to change and therefore laugh at our former ignorance or infirmity that really gives a boost to the applicability of Superiority theory.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Additions?
References:
Hobbes, Thomas. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic: Part I, Human Nature, Part II, De Corpore Politico; with Three lives. Ed. J.C.A. Gaskin. New York: Oxford University, 1994.
Morreal, John. “Verbal Humor Without Switching Scripts and Without Non-Bona Fide Communication.” International Journal of Humor Research 17 (2004): 393-400.
