The Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson - Free Essay

From time to time, trials have been made to account for the comic film's baffling challenge. The current work on the topic of the comical is Bergson’s volume Upon Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. His work proposes that laughter is something mechanical enveloped in the living. Bergson’s universal philosophy postulates this justification. According to Bergson (2013), life is a constant transformation of aspect; and the comic commences where the spirit is unable to brighten things. All forms of the comic are due to the exchange of the monotony and stiffness of a machine for the malleability and changeability of an organism. The gestures, altitudes, and body movements of the human being are laughable in exact fractions as that body echoes a simple machine. With incredible deftness, Bergson hints at every variety of laughter to discover inflexibility in life’s uneasiness and seizes the place in human doings of the fine adjustment that society needs. According to his perception, regardless of whether laughter is intentionally or unintentionally used, it is corrective in purpose; in laughter, one usually finds intentions to humiliate, hence correcting one's behavior. In other words, comedy is a corrective tool in society.

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The first principle claims that the comic does not happen outside the pale of what is purely human. Laughter cannot originate from sceneries, no matter how appealing or ugly they are. The principle implies that one may laugh at an animal because it has demonstrates some human traits or expressions. Bergson asserts that humans have been defined as animals that laugh and add that they might similarly be considered animals laughed at. In the film the king of Comedy, De Niro Rupert, obsessed with the desire to come to a comedian, turns to the point of laughter. He does extremes to make sure he achieves his desire to be a comedian. For instance, when he kidnapped Jerry, his denial to be guest to Langford show. De Niro mimics criminals by kidnapping Jerry asking for in exchange for Jerry's Safety (Sikov, 1983). A viewer of his comedy finds funny when Rupert gains empty fame after his release from prison. What raises laughter at this scene is the mimicking of one of human behaviors common in society.

Another point worth noting is the absence of feelings that always accompanies laughter. Situations in comics where their atmosphere of fear, pity, or sympathy it is impossible to laugh. This does not propose that audience cannot laugh at an individual who inspires them with compassion or even affection. Still, in such an occurrence, the audience needs to place their emotion out of court and enforce silence upon the feeling. According to Bergson (2013), there would be likely no tears in a community full of intelligence; perhaps there could be still laughter (Mathewson, 1920). Whereas, in a vast society will never understand or experience laughter. According to this principle, a viewer has to be a 'disinterested spectator to understand laughter in a moody atmosphere. For instance, the King of Comedy Martins is a film with mixed emotion in the entire movie. There are so many moving parts in the film. One example was one when De Niro was rephrasing his idol's role by using role reversal method, which is comprised of stalking Pupkin's autograph-hunter and asking them many questions when he met one of the autographed.

The person wanted to take him to dinner, sat his house. But he convinced him to stay at Manhattan, De-Niro question him, 'Why are you stalking me? What do you want?' He replied, 'To have dinner with you, have a drink, chat. My mom asked me to say hi’ (Sikov, 1983). This incidence raises mixed feelings but also provokes laughter. The film is a comedy but with hardly any jokes. It needs viewers to laugh at the distress to find comedy in it. This seconds the notion that if one accepts to feel all emotion conveyed in a comedy, especially the sad feelings, the person will never experience laughter. In the comic, Rupert Pupkin altered these words, “It’s better to be king for a day than schmuck for a lifetime” (Sikov, 1983). This stimulates a feeling of remorse, but from a comedy perspective, the statement is hilarious and can result in laughter. To comprehend this laughter, one must isolate themselves from the feeling arousing from the speech. From the analysis of these examples, it is clear that to generate the total effect, then the comic needs something like temporary anesthesia of the heart. It calls for intelligence, simple, and pure.

Nonetheless, intelligence always needs to remain in contact with others. This is the final principle in Bergson’s theory of comedy. Laughter seems to require mirroring. In other words, it means that laughter is something that can be elongated by echoing from members of the audience. It takes more than a solo to find pleasure in a joke. According to- give an example of such a scenario. He claims that a man who was in a church session and failed to shed tears while the rest of the congregation was asked why he responded that he is not a member of the parish. Hence, the man's utterance of tears would be linked to laughter.

Bergson (2013) asserts that the main idea behind Bergson’s examination is the social importance of laughter. Laughter has a useful social role in society. Every approach to life, in its exact nature, is ever-going, never recapping. Whenever a mechanical thing is discovered in human behaviors, it is identified as a non-adaptive and relevant topic of the mockery. Therefore, language is ludicrous because it a human invention designed in the form of the human brain. Mathewson (1920) point out that if a language were totally alarmed, it would entirely avoid the comic. Nevertheless, there is no language separated from life so that it comprises nothing firm, and it is the function of laughter to identify the automatism and adjust it.

Above all, laughter is a corrective tool. It corrects the target individual(s) by degrading them. It must make a painful impression on the targeted person. Society punishes itself for freedom by using laughter. It will fail to realize its objective if it shows kindness to acts that are supposed to be condemned. Bergson offers an illustration of the heartless professor who lives a life of rigidity through his inelastic posture, vanity, and business practice. Lack of flexibility may result in an individual with separatist inclinations far from the common good of society. It is a role of laughter to maintain the purity of the community. The purpose of art is to provide individual pictures of life, while comedy focuses on types and portrays characters seen before and can be recognized. For instance, the King of Comedy film is about idolization and seeking fame using inappropriate means (Sikov, 1983). This film, the primary purpose was to rebuke such behave in society through comedy. Comedy is a unique form of art that aims at seeking moral improvement.

In conclusion, through the analysis of the theory of comedy by Bergson, it is clear that comedy is a creative art that uses laughter is its mode of attaining its purpose. The critical goal of comedy is to correct immoral acts in society. Comedy can achieve its social role due to the nature of having its logic. This logic of comic makes Bergson handle laughter and comic as living things.

References

Bergson, H. (2013). Comedy: an essay on comedy. Doubleday. https://www.amazon.com/Comedy-Essay-Henri-Bergson-ebook/dp/B00CVS0X9W

Mathewson, L. (1920). Bergson's Theory of the Comic in the Light of English Comedy. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=englishunsllc

Sikov, E. (1983). The King of Comedy by Martin Scorsese, Arnon Milchan. https://watermark.silverchair.com/3697091.pdf