The Benefits of Active Humor

Today's authors artfully correlate what is comic to what is painful to show that the two worlds of emotion overlap with purpose and impact. Gurba explains her use of humor to cope with the trauma of her sexual assault. I truly appreciate her explanation of humor as a vehicle that captures the atrocity of sexual assault that normal language cannot quite represent, as it gives humor a voice and character of its own. At one point, Gurba writes: "Humor is a form of action. It requires spontaneity, and that’s what’s missing from the pious scripts about sexual assault that bother me. They don’t allow for survivors to really be alive.” This thought really struck me; I had never categorized humor as something active, but now thinking about it, it makes so much sense. Humor is fluid, quick paced, timely, and motivating. For example, punchline is only powerful if it's placed at the right time. And punchlines change with the time - what is satirical now is certainly not the same 15 or 50 years ago. Moreover, humor is motivating in the sense that it leads you to a greater line of thought beyond the satire or irony. Medea, for example, is not just funny because it's Tyler Perry playing a woman. Medea is humorous because we begin to question who has the authority to speak on certain topics, the reality of mental health, the truth of race relations in the United States, and more. The idea of humor as active provides another layer to the function of humor as something that reminds us of our common humanity. 

Ellison mirrors both Perry and Gurba when he explains how humor allows us to deal with first, "the unexpected," and second, "diversity" in American history (Ellison 148). This two step process appears to be universal - Gurba uses humor to grasp the reality of her unexpected sexual assault, and then relaying this to those who have foreign, or differently diverse, experiences. Ellison explains at length how humor and horror go hand in hand, as humor is the only thing capable of capturing such emotion. Ellison's point about American humor as political is particularly poignant, especially considering the social movements we have experienced in the last few years: "The projections of humorous stereotypes helped to define hierarchical roles for Americans" (Ellison 151). This idea stood out to me in light of our conversations on humor as an inclusive or exclusive function. I think Ellison captures the idea of how Tyler Perry, for example, is powerful because he plays into these archaic stereotypes with the same humor that created them. I definitely resonated with this idea of humor and horror sharing impact, as some of my funniest friends are those who have undergone the toughest experiences. My best friend particularly only reflects on her time in rehab through jokes - I don't think I have heard one fact about her experience in a serious conversation. While I may not be able to understand this particular experience of rehab, I can see how humor is an easier mode for her to deal with a very painful and traumatic past, thus serving as a vehicle and a healer.