In Praise of Comedy

<p>First published in 1939 the original blurb reads: We have learned much lately concerning theories of laughter yet laughter is only what we <i>do</i> about comedy. What is comedy itself?</p><p>In this work the history of comic instances is combed in the search for the truth about comedy. Today when laughter is stifled in so many countries an exposition of comedy shows it to have a universal and necessary character. Comedy as its natures reveals is one criterion of the state of human culture; it is highly contemporary and requires freedom – but freedom for adventure not for routine.</p><p>After a chapter devoted to the explanation of a logical theory of comedy the modern comedians are examined and the humour of every one from the Marx Brothers to surrealism from Gertrude Stein to Mickey Mouse from James Joyce to Charlie Chaplin is shown to be a constant inherent in the same set of unchanging conditions.</p>