A Talent To Amuse
This wonderful cartoon is from my most treasured book, A Century of Punch. At least a few times a year I will re-read this collection to remind myself of what really funny cartoons look like.
I've been thinking a lot about humour lately. Particularly my humour, and the sense of it, if you will. You see, I can't help myself, really; they way I see things. I've always been this way. Some might think me flippant and childish, but I'm really quite the opposite. It's just how everything gets filtered through me. In fact, I think I'm lucky. I really can't imagine going through this life without a sense of humour. I equate it to going through life without a limb.
I was inspired tonight to think about humour after reading the blog Literaisons. Debbie of Literaisons brought to my attention an amazing quote by of all people Dave Barry about humour:
A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge.
That is me in a nutshell. I feel most like myself when I am making myself, or most especially someone else laugh. And I have always been drawn to artists who have a wonderful sense of humour. Ronald Searle, Woody Allen, Mordecai Richler, Charles Schulz. Very often these artists mix sadness with the humour, wich makes me love them all the more. To be human is to truly understand the expression 'bittersweet'.
When I was seventeen, for some completely unfathonable reason I became obsessed with the music and writing of Noel Coward. I memorized many of his songs, and used to sing them around the house at the top of my lungs. To this day 'London Pride' can still bring tears to my eyes, and I've never even been to England.
My mother could not understand why a teenager in the early 1980's would be listening to a gay show-tune writer of the early 20th century, instead of say, Madonna. Personally, I think she should have counted her blessings. One Noel Coward song in particular really spoke to my heart – 'If Love Were All'. There is one line that when I heard it for the first time, I said to myself, "That is me!" It goes like this: "I believe that since my life began, the most I've had is just a talent to amuse." In fact, there is even a memorial stone in Westminster Abbey which bears these words, paying homage to the talented Mr. Coward himself.
A talent to amuse. I too would love to be remembered for that.
