James Thurber

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Student Question

Why do you think humor and sorrow go hand-in-hand, as suggested by Mark Twain?

Quick answer:

Mark Twain suggests humor and sorrow go hand-in-hand because humor often serves as a relief from sorrow. Humor, particularly satire, highlights life's absurdities and inconsistencies, helping us cope with unpleasant or saddening situations. Twain's quote, "There is no humor in Heaven," implies that humor is unnecessary in a perfect place devoid of sorrow.

Expert Answers

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There is no "correct" answer to this question, and it certainly depends upon the disposition of whoever is answering. However, it could be said that humor and sorrow go hand in hand because we tend to seek out humor as a relief from sorrow. In fact, humor tends to be largely satirical. We, as human beings and members of society, create satire to point out the absurdity of the things in life that are not the way we want them to be.

Indeed, humor is largely a tool used to face the things in life that we find unpleasant. We often laugh in situations, not out of joy, but out of seeing something comically inconsistent in something we find unattractive or saddening. The lesser known end of this quote by Mark Twain is "There is no humor in Heaven." He is not using this to say that Heaven is unpleasant, but that it has no need of humor to relieve anything.

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