Well, it's official - The Warren (new pics coming soon) is back in full swing. Yesterday was the first day of shooting in months, and man did it feel good getting into it again. We got through three different scenes and for a (astonishing) change we weren't madly rushed for time. Over the course of the day we encountered horror, humour, and sometimes an odd combination of both. Someone once said that there's a very fine line between tragedy and comedy. I would venture to say that there's an even finer line between horror and comedy. It sounds unusual for any of these genres to be mixed, but the truth is that practically it can often work very well. Witness 'Jakob the Liar' and 'Braindead' respectively. On second thoughts don't witness Braindead. But the question I'm asking is - how can/why do we find tragic/horrible events so funny? To be sure, often we don't, but have you ever noticed that 'Funniest Home Videos' shows are dominated by people injuring themselves or having a very bad day? Noticed the enduring (ancient) popularity of slapstick humour? Noticed how if you want to make kids laugh, all you have to do is pretend to hurt yourself? Spotting a trend, anyone?
So then, why? Is whole human race is sadistic? Sounds dramatic, but highly unlikely. Do we enjoy seeing others hurt or sad because it makes us feel good about being more fortunate than them? Possibly, but this couldn't account for such a wideranging phenomenon - for example, do we not have ample examples of people who are suffering as badly (or worse) as their onscreen/stage counterparts, and yet they are enjoying themselves no end. Could the answer be something rather deeper and more fundamental, that few are willing to consider - we realise, in the roots of our psyche, that we were never made to live in a world so crushed by grief and pain. And the incongruency - that we, the children of Heaven who were destined and designed for the Blessed Lands, are bruised torn and battered by malice and chance - makes us laugh.
1 comment:
I think that it's important to note the difference between slapstick and pure sadism. We can laugh at Charlie Chaplin getting knocked over, or Wile E. Coyote falling into a ravine, because we know they'll bounce back up again.
The 'human condition' in and by itself makes few people laugh. It is only when seen through the filters of satire or perhaps parody do we give in and laugh. Those who laugh at themselves throughout their own pain fall into one of two categories.
A: Someone who is forestalling an unavoidable breakdown. Once their capacity for frivolity is finally broken down, they will have nothing left, and have wasted their energy avoiding the inevitable.
B: Someone who realizes that life is hard, and you get nowhere by complaints and depression. These people see what they can work with, and what they must work through.
It's also been said that comedy is tragedy + time. When the pain has been gone for a time, we can tell stories about it, laugh about it, and even be glad we went through it.
We were meant for something far better than what we will experience on this planet. At the root of it all, humans are at fault for much of their pain. In a half-forgotten part of our minds, perhaps our humor is little more than self effacing.
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