Podcast
Philosophize This!
Bergson's essay "Laughter" is examined, discussing the comic, and the relationship between people and the funny, and how this relates to the internal experience of human beings. Bergson famously states that we laugh at things because we are witnessing what he calls "the mechanical encrusted upon the living."
the mechanical encrusted upon the living
— Episode: Episode #145 ... Bergson on Laughter pt....
Episode: Episode #145 ... Bergson on Laughter pt. 1 - Histo...
Bergson's essay "Laughter" is examined, discussing the comic, and the relationship between people and the funny, and how this relates to the internal experience of human beings. Bergson famously states that we laugh at things because we are witnessing what he calls "the mechanical encrusted upon the living."
the mechanical encrusted upon the living
Now some people might laugh at that. But why, if we're accepting the premises from before? There wasn't any nervous energy being built up to set up a thwarting of someone's expectations. He was only saying something positive before the punchline.
In everything that is to excite a lively laugh, there must be something absurd, in which the understanding, therefore, can find no satisfaction. Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.