Humor: An endangered species
By Hobie Morris
(Brookfield) Politicians and diapers both need to be changed often and for the same reason.
Taxation with representation isn’t so hot, either.
The shortest distance between two people is laughter. – Victor Borge
The 2016 presidential candidates have at least one thing in common—the apparent lack of any discernable humor. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if they occasionally poked fun at themselves? (Others are laughing at them so why shouldn’t the candidates join the crowd?)Would it help them with the voters? The great American lawyer Clarence Darrow once quipped “if you lose the power to laugh you lose the power to think.” The level of civic knowledge about our democratic governmental structure is by all surveys abysmal. Thinking and knowledge, along with humor, are seriously endangered. George Orwell wrote in his book 1984 “Don’t you see that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought…”
My beautiful wife, who is an astute political observer, has mirthfully suggested that the staggering amount of presidential hot air is contributing significantly to global warming. Politicians at all levels need to follow the great political observers and satirists of the past. Such delightful writers as Mark Twain and Will Rogers, to name two of my special favorites, suggest that politicians need to return to the 11th commandment, which says “don’t take thyself too d—–d seriously.”
This simple country man searches in vain for the honesty and simplicity of the “silent Cal Coolidges” of the past. (One time a reporter asked Coolidge what he thought of sin. Coolidge replied “I’m against it.”) Coolidge, like the immortal Yankee baseball player Yogi Berra, said simple nuggets of humor and good sense without knowing it. They make our current assortment of politicians rather bland, stale and humorless in comparison.
Lawyer Clarence Darrow once observed “when I was a boy I was told anybody could become president. I’m beginning to believe it (As Yogi said “ it’s like deja vu all over again.”)
Jay Leno said in the spirit of poking fun “if God wanted us to vote, He would have given us candidates.” This reminded me of a true story of a woman elected to a political office. The only problem—she had died a month before the election. Did the voters decide in their collective wisdom they would rather have a dead woman in office than a living man?
Political jokes often get elected. It reminds this cave dweller of a 1912 New York City newspaper headline “Lunatics to Run Railroad–Louisiana will operate Short Line with insane patients.”
This simple country man wonders at times who’s running America’s Short Line. It was Plato who observed “those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
As Yogi warned “you’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going because you might not get there.”
Sage advice for all of us, especially for the circus array of 2016 political blowhards.