Keeping Your Sense of Humor

Slate had an article yesterday about the increasing supply of humor. I can't really tell if Peter Hyman is being ironic or if he is honestly disturbed by the pervasiveness of humor. (He says at one point "...up until a few years ago, these situations were relegated to the realm of the interpersonal, which one could limit by sitting at home in the dark and avoiding all human contact. But this luxury no longer exists." People and their humor! Bah, humbug! Also, we must be hanging out with very different people if he thinks that Fletch is the most over-reference movie ever.)

When he asks "What is the upside of being funny?", he doesn't even address the stress relief aspect of humor. Humor makes you smile, makes you laugh. It lifts your mood and makes it easier to deal when things aren't going your way. We laugh about silly things to get our mind off serious things. We laugh about things we otherwise take seriously to keep ourselves from going mad. We need a break from worry from time to time. In this world where there is so much to worry about, we need a break that much more.