Charlie Chaplin – On Getting Laughs

Charlie Chaplin discussed these insights on what makes the world laugh in a magazine article published in 1920:

ON WHAT THE WORLD WILL ALWAYS LAUGH AT:

There are three things at which the world will always laugh. A man or woman slipping on a banana peel is a tragic spectacle but it never fails to arouse a smile on the face of the spectators – and then a quick feeling of sympathy.

A custard pie thrown into your face will arouse the loudest guffaws of the world-at-large. It amuses everybody – but YOU.

And the historic kick in the seat of the pants – when administered by a subordinate to his superior. When reversed, it arouses immediate indignation because of our tendency always to help the underdog in a moment of trouble.

ON LAUGHING AT YOURSELF:

The greatest height to which a man can rise is to learn to laugh at himself. When he can do this, he has won the battle of human existence. Joy and sorrow – laughter and tears – are the two poles. When we explore them we find they are one and the same thing. Whether we laugh or cry, it is the same emotion in the two extremes, like heat and cold. And in the annihilation of space and time within ourselves, we can laugh and cry in the same instant. It is all one emotion.

ON THE EFFECTS OF COLLAPSED DIGNITY:

One of the sure fire methods of obtaining a comic situation is to let dignity collapse. If you kick a king in the pants, he loses his royal dignity. It is the loss of his attitude, this pretense that makes us laugh. The incongruity of the situation. But there is another reason, too. Deep down in our hearts every human being would like to kick a king in the seat of his pants if he dared. Just as an exhibition of your own freedom. Could there be a greater thrill in life ?

ON THE IRONIES OF LIFE:

The world loves to react from its sordidness, from its struggle for mere existence. It has learned to feel the ironies of life. It loves to be satirized. It likes the grotesque, the ridiculous. Yes, civilization likes to get back to its elemental state – to scratch beneath the veneer – to throw off its sham and pretense and stand out bold in its simple nakedness – just for a moment. You know, regardless of what civilization has done to us, we are all essentially primitive. Our sense of humor has its roots in the primitive thing that was in us before we built skyscrapers or learned the meaning of the word “culture.”

ON PEOPLE WHO CAN’T LAUGH:

Don’t trust a man who can’t or won’t laugh. There is something wrong with him. He has an abnormal complex somewhere. He is repressing something that is dangerous to him and society. He had better open his heart and let it out. He’ll feel better – and we’ll feel much safer. Old grouches who can’t laugh are the most pitiable creatures on the face of the earth. If they could only get out and kick the king in the seat of the pants, it would transform their whole lives – once more the sun would shine – the milk of human kindness would moisten their eyes – their souls would be illuminated with a new light and the world would be a place worth living in.