A Long One -- Samuel Beckett on Laughter:
"Of all the laughs that strictly speaking are not laughs, but modes of ululation, only three I think need detain us, I mean the bitter, the hollow, and the mirthless....The laugh that now is mirthless once was hollow, the laugh that once was hollow once was bitter. And the laugh that once was bitter? Eyewater, Mr. Watt, eyewater. But do not let us waste our time with that, do not let us waste any more time with that, Mr. Watt. No. Where were we. The bitter, the hollow, and---Haw! Haw!---the mirthless. The bitter laugh laughs at that which is not good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is the intellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh, down the snout---Haw!---so. It is the laugh of laughs, the risus purus, the laugh laughing at the laugh, the beholding, the saluting of the highest joke, in a word the laugh that laughs---silence please---at that which is unhappy. Personally of course I regret all. All, all, all..."
---From Watt
HAHAHAHahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..... |
