Kierkegaard *insert comical finish here*

"Wherever there is life, there is contradiction, and wherever there is contradiction, the comical is present" (83).

To Kierkegaard, life is a big joke! Or at least it can be...there are two parts to life, the tragic, and the comical. And it seems to be, that Kierkegaard is saying that if you see a way out of a situation, any situation can be funny. And in my experience, that is the case...or at least the situation is not as bad as it once was. (I also feel that when looking back on a situation, even if it was bad, it's funny now)

The perfect example of this would be my Parent's Honeymoon. They decided that rather than flying somewhere exotic, they would drive from Milwaukee to somewhere in North Dakota (or maybe South Dakota, I haven't heard this story in a while, but I remember enough of it to get the point across). While driving, their car broke down in the middle of the high way. Since they were on their honeymoon, rather than one staying behind, they decide to both get out, and walk towards the next exit (which had a hotel and a couple gas stations). They decide to walk with their luggage not knowing if they could get back to their car that night. While walking, it starts to rain, not raid, so much as it was pouring down incredibly hard. So heavy that the road started to flood in parts.

Just like that...well...maybe less severe

So they get to the hotel, soaking wet, and they ended spending the rest of their honeymoon there (by choice, their car got fixed). Looking back on it, and everytime they tell the story, they can barely finish it they're laughing so hard. Then of course we all start laughing (perhaps due to superiority theory?) But they said that they would never change it if they could.

Cue footnote...an incredibly long footnote.

Think of it like this...only about 100 times bigger...

In the footnote, he gives a couple of examples of humor (which is stretching the word...greatly):

"If one were to say: 'I would stake my life that there is fully four shillings worth of gold in the binding of this book,' it would be comical. The contradiction is that between the highest pathos (to risk one's life) and the object; it is teasingly sharpened by the word fully, which keeps open the prospect of perhaps four and one-half shillings worth, as if that were less contradictory" (85).

That's funny? I would say that's just weird...and maybe a little stupid. But humor clearly changes over time.

If Kierkegaard got one thing right about laughter (and it appears to be timeless), it's that we enjoy laughing at the intoxicated...at least occasionally.