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"Humor is reason gone mad."

What meanings do you take from the Groucho Marx phrase...

"Humor is reason gone mad"

It might be helpful if you know who Groucho Marx is, so if you don't, then here's a link to his Wikipedia page HERE.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 1
Avatar for james.h
james.h
11
A reference to the fact that most humour, at heart, relies fairly heavily upon incongruity. :yep:
Reply 2
Avatar for mjeezy
mjeezy
OP
Original post by james.h
A reference to the fact that most humour, at heart, relies fairly heavily upon incongruity. :yep:


Ah, that's good!

Some things I was thinking:

1) True humor requires a certain amount of intellect

2) Maybe he is making fun of himself. He defines humor as "reason gone mad", and therefore (since his profession was humor) many of what he said was indeed just that, "reason gone mad". This was reinforced as soon as I saw the other 20 or so quotes from him that make no sense at all from a normal viewpoint :biggrin:

Thanks for the quick reply!
Reply 3
Avatar for james.h
james.h
11
Original post by mjeezy
Ah, that's good!

Some things I was thinking:

1) True humor requires a certain amount of intellect

2) Maybe he is making fun of himself. He defines humor as "reason gone mad", and therefore (since his profession was humor) many of what he said was indeed just that, "reason gone mad". This was reinforced as soon as I saw the other 20 or so quotes from him that make no sense at all from a normal viewpoint :biggrin:

Thanks for the quick reply!


:yes: I hadn't considered the second point you mention, but it makes sense, and is definitely in line with his other quotes. :biggrin:

It's a topic I've expended a bit of thought on myself, so I thought I may as well share. :smile:

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