21st century, Europe, primary source, quotes, Ukraine
Humour can help people cope and even survive. As the cartoonist Chappatte put it, it helps us digest the horror of the world, and breathe a little (is that why laughing can also have you take in deep breaths?)I was glad to read of signs of humour in Odessa and the...
20th century, primary source, quotes
A succinct and provocative statement by Niels Bohr, flying in the face of the common supposition that the more serious the subject the less appropriate it is to joke about it. It also echoes an equally pithy quotation, from Hemingway’s For Whom the Bells Toll. ...
20th century, Europe, Hebrew / Yiddish, historical figure, Poland, primary source, quotes, stories
Always up-ending our expectations, no surprise to learn that the ever resourceful Rubinstein, de facto jester in the Warsaw Ghetto, nimbly solved the problem of being single by dressing up as his own wife. He could outwit death, so why not celibacy?’One source...
2nd century BCE, China, Chinese, East Asia, Han dynasty, primary source, quotes
Sima Qian (c. 145-86 BC), the Herodotus of China, testifies as to the potential for a joke or a clever turn of phrase to unravel knotty problems. This is from his biographies of jesters, the first and perhaps foremost source of classical Chinese references to jesters...
20th century, Europe, quotes, research
Delighted to encounter these bum revolutionaries, the Jewish jesters who flourished in Eastern Europe, entertaining people at weddings and barmitzvas while stirring things up with their stories.Note the dilemma of the fool – not being taken seriously even when...
20th century, English, primary source, quotes
A fundamental error regarding humour is to assume that jokes aren’t somehow ‘serious’. They can of course be for no purpose than entertainment, but equally can and often are deadly serious in their implications, message or revelation.They can also be...
