Those who do not see the humor think the comedian is mad. But there are different kinds of comedians who are comedians for different reasons. The type I refer to is the comedian who sees everything around him as a joke, not because everything is a joke or something that shouldn’t be taken seriously, but because he can’t make a serious affair out of something that doesn’t recognize itself as the joke that it is. He is surrounded by the joke, cannot fix it, and cannot get away from it. A kind of impasse.
Once and if you understand this you reach a stage where there is nothing you can do to undo this joke, to make matters that should be serious, serious. So you ‘kick what is already falling’, as the moustache put it, not with malice or animosity but with a little harmless schadenfreude. Comedy is, I believe, the highest form of expression for the halcyon spirit in his relation to men, to the joke that most men are.
Ultimately the fundamental joke that is the case is only absurd… not something that is really dangerous or compromising. This is why the comedian laughs rather than destroys; why destroy it? Let it live. Let it be your material. And let those who also have the halcyon spirit rally around this joke with you.
In the end there are only the comedians who laugh together at something they are powerless to make proper or correct. It is analogous to the laughter that erupts when your friend trips on a rock and falls on his face while hiking with you. He didn’t really get hurt, but his clumsiness, his folly, demonstrates just how ridiculous he is in that moment.
Your friend is the symbol for what has become of man. That man has tripped isn’t really a problem, but it does mean you can’t take the hike seriously anymore. It can no longer be important that you get to the top because you won’t get to the top with an idiot like this by your side, anyway.
The comedian is the one among men who keep tripping.
There is nothing left to do but take the matter lightly. Your friend won’t understand this, just as the majority of men that have become a joke don’t understand what they are. They believe they are making time and progress, and since you are stuck with these idiots, you can only make a comedy out of your situation among them.
The type of comedian I refer to is the kind of person who could be great, could be serious, but not so where, and with who, he is. At most, he can throw a nod at another comedian who is in the same situation somewhere else, and laugh with him.
The comedian will also always be misunderstood by those others. To them, they can only interpret the constant play of parody and mockery as a kind of resignation from what they believe, albeit wrongly, is really a serious matter. It could be a serious matter, but only without them, because they simply cannot get it right. They struggle to make work what cannot work for idiots of that kind. And they do this because they cannot know they are idiots. This fact belongs only to the comedian and is very sacred.
All of you are comedians, because at some point, somewhere, you will find yourself in this irresolvable situation with others. But you have to become capable of genuine laughter, godlike laughter. You have to understand the sheer absurdity of your place in that moment, and that there is nothing you can do about it but accept it in good spirit. The greater your exception, the louder your laughter gets. Your laughter is in proportion to the degree with which you could do better the things that have been so mangled by the idiots surrounding you. You cannot get out, so forget about trying. Learn to laugh, and find those few who can laugh with you.