Sixth Aphorism: On Humour

There is no laughter
That is unaccompanied
By honest silence.

I

All language is a performance.

II

Humour, especially, is a highly conscious performance, artifically made natural.

III

A performance of humour (as in a frivilous verbal exercise, for example) is never insincere; the moment of performance demands the performer his greatest theatrical skills to convince his audience that he is not performing.

IV

It is wrong to think that human beings wear masks when they are interacting with others, since "true faces" do not exist. "True faces" are a grand myth for those who are trying to reduce individuals to stereotypes.

V

Humour is both the play on language and the playing of language.

VI

All jokes are truths falsified.

VII

No jokes are not said for the sake of being said; all jokes are a form of criticism.

VIII

Humour hurts and heals at the same time.

IX

Humour is both the measure and the measurer of a culture's values.

X

Humour is a performance that fills the empty space of a theater of strangers who would otherwise be deafened by their own silence; but what is after the echoes of laughter? More performances? But do not presume: tragedy, too, is a performance.

XI

What is left for the humourous guy after he made others laugh? Who makes him laugh? Does he laugh at himself?