* (restored)
1.
It seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unruffled. Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or even with affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter. … To produce the whole of its effect, then, the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart. Its appeal is to intelligence, pure and simple.
Laughter appears to stand in need of an echo, Listen to it carefully: it is not an articulate, clear, well-defined sound; it is something which would fain be prolonged by reverberating from one to another, something beginning with a crash, to continue in successive rumblings, like thunder in a mountain. Still, this reverberation cannot go on for ever. It can travel within as wide a circle as you please: the circle remains, none the less, a closed one. Our laughter is always the laughter of a group. It may, perchance, have happened to you, when seated in a railway carriage or at table d’hote, to hear travellers relating to one another stories which must have been comic to them, for they laughed heartily. Had you been one of their company, you would have laughed like them; but, as you were not, you had no desire whatever to do so. A man who was once asked why he did not weep at a sermon, when everybody else was shedding tears, replied: “I don’t belong to the parish!” What that man thought of tears would be still more true of laughter. However spontaneous it seems, laughter always implies a kind of secret freemasonry, or even complicity, with other laughers, real or imaginary.
Bill Hicks on marketing
Andy Kaufman wrestles a 327 lb. woman
Cartman ‘Kyle’s Mom’s a Big, Fat, Stupid Bitch’
Toy Car Up the Butt
Rip Taylor Tossing Confetti
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What life and society require of each of us is a constantly alert attention that discerns the outlines of the present situation, together with a certain elasticity of mind and body to enable us to adapt ourselves in consequence. TENSION and ELASTICITY are two forces, mutually complementary, which life brings into play. If these two forces are lacking in the body to any considerable extent, we have sickness and infirmity and accidents of every kind. If they are lacking in the mind, we find every degree of mental deficiency, every variety of insanity. Finally, if they are lacking in the character, we have cases of the gravest inadaptability to social life, which are the sources of misery and at times the causes of crime. Once these elements of inferiority that affect the serious side of existence are removed — and they tend to eliminate themselves in what has been called the struggle for life — the person can live, and that in common with other persons. But society asks for something more; it is not satisfied with simply living, it insists on living well. What it now has to dread is that each one of us, content with paying attention to what affects the essentials of life, will, so far as the rest is concerned, give way to the easy automatism of acquired habits.
Laughter, then, does not belong to the province of esthetics alone, since unconsciously (and even immorally in many particular instances) it pursues a utilitarian aim of general improvement. And yet there is something esthetic about it, since the comic comes into being just when society and the individual, freed from the worry of self-preservation, begin to regard themselves as works of art. In a word, if a circle be drawn round those actions and dispositions–implied in individual or social life–to which their natural consequences bring their own penalties, there remains outside this sphere of emotion and struggle–and within a neutral zone in which man simply exposes himself to man’s curiosity–a certain rigidity of body, mind and character, that society would still like to get rid of in order to obtain from its members the greatest possible degree of elasticity and sociability. This rigidity is the comic, and laughter is its corrective.
Jacques Tati ‘Playtime’
Film – Buster Keaton – Beckett -1965
Woody Allen ‘Stardust Memories’ (extract)
Rushmore, Wes Anderson (1998) – Opening scene
Stanley Kubrick/Peter Sellers ‘Dr. Strangelove’
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When we speak of expressive beauty or even expressive ugliness, when we say that a face possesses expression, we mean expression that may be stable, but which we conjecture to be mobile. It maintains, in the midst of its fixity, a certain indecision in which are obscurely portrayed all possible shades of the state of mind it expresses, just as the sunny promise of a warm day manifests itself in the haze of a spring morning. But a comic expression of the face is one that promises nothing more than it gives. It is a unique and permanent grimace. One would say that the person’s whole moral life has crystallised into this particular cast of features. This is the reason why a face is all the more comic, the more nearly it suggests to us the idea of some simple mechanical action in which its personality would for ever be absorbed. Some faces seem to be always engaged in weeping, others in laughing or whistling, others, again, in eternally blowing an imaginary trumpet, and these are the most comic faces of all. Here again is exemplified the law according to which the more natural the explanation of the cause, the more comic is the effect.
This soul imparts a portion of its winged lightness to the body it animates: the immateriality which thus passes into matter is what is called gracefulness. Matter, however, is obstinate and resists. It draws to itself the ever-alert activity of this higher principle, would fain convert it to its own inertia and cause it to revert to mere automatism. It would fain immobilise the intelligently varied movements of the body in stupidly contracted grooves, stereotype in permanent grimaces the fleeting expressions of the face, in short imprint on the whole person such an attitude as to make it appear immersed and absorbed in the materiality of some mechanical occupation instead of ceaselessly renewing its vitality by keeping in touch with a living ideal. Where matter thus succeeds in dulling the outward life of the soul, in petrifying its movements and thwarting its gracefulness, it achieves, at the expense of the body, an effect that is comic. If, then, at this point we wished to define the comic by comparing it with its contrary, we should have to contrast it with gracefulness even more than with beauty. It partakes rather of the unsprightly than of the unsightly, of RIGIDNESS rather than of UGLINESS.
* from Henri Bergson’s ‘Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic’ (read the entirety)
Richard Pryor interview 1980
Chris Morris ‘Paedogeddoni’
Dylan Moran ‘Bernard’s Letter’
Sarah Silverman vs. Paris Hilton
I WAS SCARED STUPID BY A PICTURE!
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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Cool. No, I haven’t read that Melissa Broder, let me know how it is. And enjoy the short nonsocial recharging period. Books’ll do that, yep, even to the most level headed love. Love giving the sad news to skateboarders that a day will come when they won’t be able to just skateboard all day every day anymore, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Unrealness does really help. Happy that the class is starting soon enough. That’ll get the pen back twitching in your paw. ** Misanthrope, As soon as cops here see me, their hands immediately come to rest on their guns. Or they would if French cops had guns. Get those documents in shape in your inimitable style. ** Joe, Hi! Ah, I see. I suppose I’m not surprised that the change hasn’t been radical, and I’m pleased as a fellow pre-book elaborator. Dying for ‘Alehoof.’ Wow. What’s the scoop on its birth? Public birth, I mean. I’m really looking forward to finishing the film so I can start thinking about words in combination again. It’s been a while. All the ultra-best! ** Sarah, Hi. I think ‘TF’ is probably easily streamable and maybe for free, if that helps. Well, that Rimbaud crossword puzzle was pretty primitive, as I recall. YA is one of those genres that can handle the great, it just seems like people who work there don’t try. Anyway, I’d love to read it, of course. A pdf is cool. My email is [email protected], if that helps. It might take me a little bit to read ‘cos I’m in film finishing heavy mode, but we’ll be through that soon. Thanks! ** Steve, Welcome home. Hope the Ethiopian was safe and sound. I’ll try to find that Alejo Moguillansky film. Obviously sounds to be within my wheel house. I saw the world premiere of James Benning’s ‘Breathless’ last night. His build up about it being a Benning-ified remake of the Godard is total mischievous prank. It’s not that at all. It’s something, but people who come to it expecting it to be what he hinted at will be very bewildered. ** Justin, Glad you like his stuff. Me too, duh. Uh, there’s a publisher I’m thinking of where I think the book would be appropriate and who might be interested, so I’m going to query them to see if in fact they are interested to consider it. ** Harper, Hi. ‘Pink Narcissus’, sure, so singular. I went to this program of experimental films made by teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 last year, and this one, I think, 14 year old guy made this insane and really great kind of personal homage to ‘Pink Narcissus’. It’s quite a good fount. I think maybe there’s thought among self-styled ‘serious’ fiction writers that taking influence or copping to taking influence from other mediums would cheapen their work’s ‘seriousness’, but of course that’s just bizarre. I’m more influenced by music and film and visual art in my work than by other fiction writing. But then I’m considered a weirdo by the ‘serious’ fiction writer sets, so there you go. So, we’re of like minds, basically. It’s morning, and I’m about to go finish polishing the sound on our film, and I’m a little pooped but looking forward to the finish line. I hope your day will or has lead you excitingly astray. ** Gramski 🌝, Hi. Welcome home, or, err, maybe not, I guess. Too messed up for therapy sessions … uh, were is the logic in that? Maybe force yourself to do that application? Okay, that’s a lot. My guess is it’s a short aligning of the awful that will pass rather quickly, but I am the terminal optimist. But I would just see it as a dark moment, and moments are called moments for a good reason. So sorry, pal. You’re tough, you’re wild, you’ll be fine, trust me. ** Uday, Hi. I too have become more of a crepes than pancakes guy since moving over here. I do love pancakes, but not the slight nausea of having the weight of one too many decomposing in my stomach. Congrats about the summer at home! When will summer start for you? I’m only kind of okay with Blondie. They don’t really do all that much for me, I guess. You a big fan? ** Okay. I decided to lift today’s curious post out of the mothballs-like distant past in which it had been left behind, and I can’t explain why. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hey D, just emailed you. No rush on response! Joe x
Dennis, The laughing boy: are those stills from a film? I think I laugh like that a lot these days. 😛
Oh, those poor cops. They’re like, we got all these French people and now this Dennis fella…WTF?
I ripped those documents to shreds and then put them back together. Kinda like what one does with a nice tight asshole.
Have a good weekend. I won’t be doing too much. Alex and I are having two date nights (his term, not mine, haha) Friday night and Saturday night. He starts working weekends at a part-time job on Sunday. It’s at a park he’s been working at seasonally for the past couple years. Runs till fall. We’re gonna have to plan around that from now on. No biggie.
Let me ask you something. You’ve dated younger guys before, sometimes much younger. One thing I’ve experienced so far is just how many people hit on your boyfriend, haha. I mean, it’s constant. Even when they know we’re together, they have no respect and are just like, hey, here’s my number, hit me up. Wtf? Is it just a matter of trusting your boyfriend and not worrying about it?
something mechanical encrusted on the living
Update The naan
Oh. My. God. So GOOD
I bit into it, right? Like my whole body was trembling, I feel to the floor then died but was resuscitated to life by pure euphoria of retasting the naan. Sobbing and salivating right now.
Sooo GOOOD. I didn’t put anything on it but, man, naan is naan.
naan is life.
Oh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUR8DPWxAsU
I thought you’d like this. Its Hawaii in the 40s on a 16mm film. Do you think fondly of Hawaii since you said you used to go there a lot? It fascinates me truly! I was born in Florida, though its been a while, but Miami is where a lot of my Hispanic family are who I haven’t seen in ages. Oddly missed, though I still kind don’t like Florida.
I thought of this channel when u did the Fredrick Wiseman post, which I’m glad you did because ive been procrastinating on seeing his stuff. I like those info 16mm videos.
Anyways have a good weekend. I’ll be seeing a local wrestling show with some friends tommorow (oooh!!)
Agota trilogy arrived today, I did not know the book was so big. I can’t wait to read. Are you happy for me, yes or yes?
Happy you found a place you consider for your collection. And big yay on totally finishing touches on the film. I too wonder about the laughing boy. It looks like from a French film or something and if it is I want to know
Oh you did mention that Pink Narcissus tribute before. That guy that plays in the original is so handsome. I mean I think he is the main guy has become something of an iconic figure by now. Also very curious about James Benning Breathless nice you got to see that. Do you like only sweet crepes? My dad used to make me crepes and send me in Athens and I look how to make them again. These that look like flute. But you would not like them as they have Kimas inside and ham and mushrooms and stuff What’s the word for Kimas is it minced meat? I don’t want to upset you by mentioning all that ha ha
I found a place where I can go and do gym session and gather the money to do that. It’s like 700m from my house And look possibly for ways to get out of the house more so I become more at ease in general and the auditory stuff get weaker. Please send good thoughts and I send you back
Good vibes from Crete
Enjoying today’s post a lot! Comedy is always worth thinking about imo. You ever heard of Caroline Aherne? Collaborated with Frank Sidebottom for a bit, and also went on to find some mainstream success. Sadly in 2016 she died of cancer aged 52. To me, she was just a naturally funny person who had it, whatever “it” might be.
Those are curious comments from Bergson, Dennis. I haven’t seen Stardust Memories in decades. That clip is so funny and poignant.
Oleg Vdovenko, wow, the technique is incredible.
I got enticed by friends to see Laurie Anderson last night, with an incredible old men backing band (Kenny Wolleson, Briggan Kraus etc). Entertaining, though I probably wouldn’t pay that much again.
Bill
Let’s manifest a beyond-the-grave Henri Bergson reaction channel, where he responds to BRASS EYE, THE ERIC ANDRE SHOW and #corecore TikTok.
Have you developed the ideas for your next film any further? Have you and Zac begun writing a treatment?
I liked the Ethiopian food, though I’d forgotten how filling it is. I’ll definitely order from that restaurant in the future.
I’m trying to relax for the weekend. It’s a great time, movie-wise: I plan to see LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL tonight, Bonello’s THE BEAST tomorrow, and something by Med Hondo or Wojciech Has Sunday. What are your plans?
Where did BREATHLESS play? I had not even heard about it.
Hi!!
I’m so glad you revived this post! It weirdly feels like exactly what my brain needs right now! Thank you!
I’ll let you know about the Melissa Broder book then!
Ah, that’s very, very sad news, love! I’d say I wouldn’t like to see a bunch of pretty, crying skateboarders, but… Love getting ready for bed at 10 PM, Od.
Hi Dennis, thanks for your faith in moi, it means a lot. I did actually listen to you and did most of the application today, will def submit by the 1st of April, which is the deadline. I want/ need this residency so bad, which makes me more anxious/ paralyzed, but I’m on it now! Yes, they diagnosed me with PTSD and told me, “you need long term therapy and we can only provide you with eight sessions at most, so no use in that.” The health care system is fucked here. I also need them to do some tests and procedures for my physical health, but they are super slow & dismissive about that as well. I’ll be very happy if I don’t die young, and actually see my middle age and perhaps even old age. I love your idea of seeing annoying misfortunes as just dark moments. It did help a lot. My friend/ guest also cheered me up by asking me to choose some men for him on Grindr. Did you find some exciting French patisserie to sweeten your Easter?
Hi Dennis. God, it’s been a crazy week. I’ll be visiting home for Easter, probably bumping into a lot of the characters I grew up around. I always get annoyingly sentimental at this time of year. Spring hasn’t come to London yet so I guess my body is a bit confused.
That was cool hearing about the kid with the ‘Pink Narcissus’ tribute. I remember the best art teacher I ever had let me do a video project which was a tribute to Warhol’s ‘Chelsea Girls’. Maybe there’s something about Bidgood, Warhol, Paul Morrissey, Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith etc. that still inspires ‘the youth’. Hopefully… I think so at least.
Also, I liked the Bergson post. I remember he said that it’s difficult for people to laugh when they’re on their own. It reminded me of when Warhol wrote in one of his books that he never laughed when he was by himself and I didn’t know if he was being tongue-in-cheek or not. I think there’s a lot of truth in that but it’s easy to get paranoid thinking about how much you laugh.
Have a good weekend,
Harper
Well summer for me starts never if you mean a break because even at home I’ll be doing work but still! Home! Forgetting who said this but I distinctly remember reading a pronouncement that comedy is pornography in another register. (Does that make laughter an octave shift from onanism?) I do love Blondie. Actual favourite band. Something about a slightly scratchy voice just scratches an itch in my head. (Also: Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Nina Simone). Oh and Louis Armstrong. Now I’m singing Give Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On.
Hi, Dennis! The clip of the guy being frightened by the game he was playing made me laugh out loud, so I’d say this was an effective post. Earlier today I read your interview with Brad Renfro in ‘SiH’ and then watched ‘Apt Pupil’, which I’d never seen. Not a classic by any means, but I didn’t hate it. Also, I absolutely loved the essay about Larry Clark’s ‘Perfect Childhood’ and how you tied in your brief stint with Mike (that’s my boyfriend’s name).