perhaps we laugh because we know certain things are absurd. And we do not want to challenge them on the surface, so they have remained underlying all this time. Perhaps it is intuitive, or just learned as language is somehow picked up, assuming it were not innate in us to learn language, and we laugh because we know something's really hitting the truth now. Or not.
If we didn't know about a certain absurdity, would we laugh? If I considered Socrates to be the wisest person of some sort, or perhaps I treat him as a symbol, and he is mocked, made fun of in ways that I find just absolutely unfitting for someone I place in that category of dignity and respect, would I laugh? Would I be troubled? Or would I be unaffected? Perhaps blind to being affected?

Maybe laughter isn't the problem. But if I feel troubled, why would I? Perhaps there is some...inconsistencies that I find annoying. It disrupts my view on a certain someone or something. It makes me doubt. And if I don't doubt, does that necessarily mean I am stubborn or have I known enough to know that it is not worth doubting. Is there such a thing? Can one know everything? If not, then he cannot be absolutely sure about the topic or the item in question, and is it right to doubt at opportunity in order, perhaps rationalized, to learn more about it, though with a certain, maybe blind, faith that ultimately my doubt will be resolved? Will I worry that my doubt will consume me and destroy every thing I had known until then? Will I be afraid of the truth? And if I choose not to doubt, is that fear? Is that faith?

What if the unsettling image makes logical sense to me. What if a wretched image, or perhaps a hero going down in agony and flames, to be revealed as ultimately nothing, is logical and although something I prefer not to think about, is as close to the truth as everything could be but isn't always in that state? Why are they called wretched by me? Because it's unsettling. To what? To a certain image I have in mind. An image of what? Order? Security? Good over Evil? Do we laugh? Perhaps if I care about the subject, I would not laugh as the insult is more imposing on me. Or I am simply more troubled than willing to embrace the ridicule of my notions until then. But if I didn't care, if this was some kind of order I knew existed, and now it is ridiculed, maybe then I laugh? But why laugh? Why not just ignore? Maybe I laugh for other reasons. Maybe I just wanted to laugh. Maybe, sometimes laughing keeps further thoughts.

There is a phrase, "don't take yourself too seriously."
But why? If something is serious, and you are serious about it, then it must be taken seriously. If it is mocked, can I laugh at it under the notion that "i shouldn't take things so seriously"? Is that implying something...wrong...with my...image of the subject? Well, let's say the satire isn't personal, and I could ignore it...then perhaps I would. Would I laugh? What for? But what if the mockery shakes certain foundations of mine....perhaps foundations that I am reluctant to give up because I like them, or am afraid or how things are like without them...or something else? Then, maybe as above I will be unsettled. Or maybe I will laugh. Maybe I will be the one who cracks jokes about it all the time? Maybe it's because I need to laugh at it to fulfill my inner thoughts that the subject is ridiculous. And maybe by laughing I can set my mind as ease. After all, we forget. I may be able to forget about it's ridiculousness. Maybe, I will tell myself "don't take the joke so seriously" and get back to work. "Don't take yourself too seriously".

Wait. What am I taking seriously?

I don't know why we laugh at mockeries. I don't remember why I thought we did, although I remember the scene from "Andrei Rublev". But they were bored anyway...didn't have anything to do with the upper class, and were maybe even drunk. Or maybe the jester's actions were ust funny....somehow funny...inducing laughter, for who knows why but not so much related to the fact that it is a mockery of a system.




So laughter is a concession? We smile, and laugh, when we concede something. Or we don't want to take a stand on something. I read that primates like monkeys smile to avoid challenges. Yeah we do smile to people to appear friendly. Look like we're not challenging anyone. So is that why we laugh? We concede something. We say, oh yeah that's right. Ha ha ha.