What is Funny?

I wrote this in response to Professor Rachel Barney but I kind of like it, so I thought I’d put it up here:

The funny is a bit like the rational part of us in the process of wrestling with the irrational part of us, but feeling good about it as opposed to bad (which would the horrific or the tragic). If we win it’s not funny and if we lose it’s not funny. But in the midst of it, it can be funny. But we don’t know ahead of time how it will be play out — if it’ll be funny or not — because if we knew ahead of time, we would not be wrestling with anything — we would have already won.

Think by comparison with being hexed.

You might be hexed.

You might not be hexed.

But if you’re afraid you’re hexed and you’re not sure if you’re hexed you can feel pretty hexed.

If you know for a fact you’re not hexed, you might not be hexed.

If you’re the one being hexed, that’s pretty different than if you are the one casting the hex.

If you get rid of the hex you know that you WERE hexed but you’re not currently hexed.