READERSVOICE.COM aims to give a few samples from interesting out of print books. Humor in Memoriam by George Mikes is a 116-page hardback, published in London in 1970.

George Mikes (1912-1987) was a Hungarian-British journalist and humorist.  Humor in Memorium is full of theories about different aspects of humour. Plus there are a lot of good jokes to illustrate points.

Here are a couple of points he made: The author said that there were no situations that were either comic or tragic. It all depended on the characters and how they reacted to an event. 

He writes: I do not say that it is legitimate to joke about any subject under the sun at any place and at any time, but I do say that only the time and place are the decisive factors here, not the subject.

He quotes James Thurber: The things we laugh at are awful, while they are going on, but get funny when we look back… Humour is a kind of emotional chaos told about calmly and quietly in retrospect.

And Mr Mikes writes about political jokes. He said: Under political tyranny, (under Nazi, or Communist, oppression) political jokes assume an added significance… The jokes help to undermine the tyrant’s authority and cut him down to human level – or to sub-human level where he often belongs – and reassure both the purveyor and the audience of the joke.

But he also said: a sense of humour always contains an element of self-denigration, acceptance of one’s own weakness. To see your own foibles, silliness, weakness, vanity, erratic nature and be genuinely amused by them is the true test of a sense of humour. The man who can only laugh at things, events, situations and other people had no sense of humour.

-continued next page

-readersvoice.com