Unlike the clown, the humourist refuses to see the darker side of life but suspects – or knows — that his picture is far removed from reality…

Mr Mikes writes: The humorist, on the other hand, is not a father-figure but a child himself – and a rather spoilt child at that. He knows of the miseries of the world but refuses to accept the facts that stare him in the face. He, as I have already said, is Peter Pan who resolutely refuses to grow up… Mother used to protect him and those were the happy times… He is determined to see the world as a comfortable, rosy place, although at the bottom of his heart, he knows only too well that this conception is not quite accurate. Misery, danger, humiliation, failure do not exist for him; the world is a pleasant place and however dark something may look at the moment, all will turn out well. The humorist is a kind and jovial man, his world is a happy one; but he is far removed from reality and he knows that his picture is a distorted one…

–see Humour in Memoriam by George Mikes, 116 pages, published by Routledge and Kegan Paul, in association with Andre Deutsch, 1970.

-readersvoice.com