laughter how important is it?

What Shakespeare can teach us about humor

To change the world, people need to accept difficult truths. Comedy is a powerful mechanism for helping this process along—it gives people permission to accept the ways in which they are being challenged by laughing at them. This is why comedians are often hailed as visionaries. George Carlin believed his role was to help people cross that line: "I try to come in through the side door, the side window, to come in from a direction they're not expecting, to see something in a different way. That's the job that I give myself. So, how can I talk about something eminently familiar to them, on my terms, in a new way, that engages their imagination?"

If we hop back to medieval Europe, we can see that the court jester's role wasn't simply to entertain the most powerful person in the country but also to challenge him. The jester used humor to question authority and shape leaders' decisions.

Consider Shakespeare's depiction of the fool in King Lear:

I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are.

They'll have me whipp'd for speaking true;

thou'lt have me whipp'd for lying; and

sometimes I am whipp'd for holding my peace.

I had rather be any kind o' thing than a fool!

Educators are in the business of changing the world, challenging ideas, and empowering people to think differently, which makes humor a natural fit for our institutional environments. The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper is the modern-day embodiment of the medieval jester, and I'd bet it's no coincidence that he's an academic.