What is humor and what is offense? Humor highlights the ridiculous side of things and shows us that reality can be seen in multiple ways. Offense, on the other hand, is an expression made with the intention of hurting another individual. It is difficult to determine an insult, because this concept is subject to social and cultural conventions.
Last update: December 15, 2020
In times when humor and offense are questioned, it must be remembered that humor does the job of showing us that there is another perspective; that absolute seriousness sometimes has an alternative and this alternative is positive.
Humorous wit highlights the ridiculous side of events and shows us that reality can be seen in various ways. The offense, on the other hand, is perpetrated with the intention of hurting another individual. It is difficult to determine precisely what constitutes an insult or not, as it is subject to social and cultural conventions.
Humor has always been there and will be there to remind us that people who appear bad or foolish have a gentle and light side at heart, more worthy of compassion and love than its opposite. We could compare a person who has no sense of humor to a car without shock absorbers: all the stones on the road will make it tremble.
Life must be approached with love and humor: with love to understand it and with humor to endure it.
The humor to face adversity
The human being is always in conflict with himself by nature, as at various times in his life he experiences fears, anxiety or dread in the face of circumstances.
Some studies show that both in moments of tranquility and in those of great tension, crisis or suffering, we have the ability to forge our resources, to adapt and emerge as a consequence of the conflict with forces never imagined before. This possibility is what many authors have designated as resilience (RodrĂguez, 2007).
People who use it as a strategy to cope with adversity tend to get sick less. Showing humor is an innate skill that can be reinforced by the surrounding environment. But we must not think that it occurs only in happy situations, on the contrary, it also does so in tragic or adverse situations.
When there is a contradiction between a desired and an unwanted situation, the person comes into conflict. This can be solved, in part, with several creative resources of humor, thus releasing dangerous emotions and presenting hopeful thoughts. Imagination can be more powerful than knowledge.
“The chemical function of humor is this: to change the character of our thoughts”.
-Lin Yutang-
The intolerance of those who cannot laugh at themselves
Humor serves to make reality more bearable. The imagination comforts the human being for what he is not, laughing comforts him for what he is. Its most important role is to let us disconnect from the routine and act as a guide to unknown places.
Lucidity teaches us that anything that is not tragic is ridiculous. The reality of humor can be defined like this: the situation is desperate, but not serious. We all know how to cry from birth, but we must learn to laugh.
Sigmund Freud defined humor as the highest manifestation of the individual's adaptive mechanisms. It is not only a funny question, but also a way to learn about reality. Humor and irony make us discover many things that we would not see without them.
In homage to humor, we want to remember the people who died for it. The attack on Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly, is one of the most recent cases of intolerance linked to a lack of humor. Twelve journalists were murdered for trying to do their jobs.
Situations that transcend all reasoning and logic are more frequent today than ever. More and more comedians are receiving serious threats for doing their job. Faced with these events, we must strengthen the role of humor and don't forget that it is necessary to build a healthy society.
We hope that these unpleasant events will help us understand once and for all that, as Charles Chaplin said, "In the end, everything is a joke."
