Fun_People Archive
17 Dec
QOTD - 12/17/98, Cleese

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 98 09:56:25 -0800
To: Fun_People
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Subject: QOTD -  12/17/98, Cleese

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649
Forwarded-by: "Jack D. Doyle" <doylej@peak.org>
Forwarded-by: Kevin Johnsrude <kevinj@roguewave.com>
Forwarded-by: qotd-request@ensu.ucalgary.ca

"No subject is ever too serious for humour.  I think many people have a
basic misunderstanding: There's a difference between being serious and being
solemn.

"We could be talking about things that are extremely serious -- our
marriages, the education of our children, politics, even the meaning of life
-- and laughing quite a lot and that wouldn't make what we were talking
about one bit less serious.

"But solemnity, on the other hand; I don't know what it's for. Solemnity
serves pomposity, self-importance, and egotism.  And the pompous and the
self-important always know at some level that their egotism is going to be
punctured by humour.  That's why they always see humour as negative, as a
threat to them personally.  And so they dishonestly criticize it as
frivolous and light-minded."

	- John Cleese

© 1998 Peter Langston