Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-07
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE
HY does an audience laugh?

" HY does an audience laugh?
w This is not a conundrum. but
quest for light on a dark mys-
terry. The more plays one sees, th-
less one understands the elemental rea-
sons for amusement. The more one
analyses laughter the less one laughs,
which is certainly a pity. Perhaps we
can approach the dramatic phase of
the mystery by the routes of negation
and exclusion.
Certainly an audience does not laugh
with any premeditation. Many a time
and oft on the Rialto does a critic enter
a playhouse firmly resolved to litter
and to bawl, whatever the degree or
lack of provocation, if only to con-
jure up a mood in which he can write
adequately of what he sees. The gen.
eral public is under no such compul-
sion. The general public merely has
TO see the play. 1t pays its money for
the right to be impartial. The critic
surrenders his pass for the duty Of
nnding something to be partial either
for or against. That quest often leaves
him scant time for laughter
But the big public would inevitably
fee at home in Missouri. 1t requires
ocular and auditory proof. The man
ager who said contemptuously to the
confident comedian, Elm Komicker, ist
es? Make me laugh" was uncertain
as to his true racial tongue, but cor
rect in his comprehension of the phi
losophy of humor.
No, the public does not want to
laugh. If it did, it wouldn't come to
the theater. 1t would laugh at home,
or on the street, or at business. Laugh
ing would be an art as the caryers
of gargoyles conceived it to be
For one reason or another, the play
goer buys his seat. Along comes a
sad and soulful drama. The hero
meets things dire and cumulative, or
the heroine is entrapped in swift and
sudden horror. But all at once in this
chaos and welter of suffering in which
the modern serious drama abounds, 1
there intrudes a bit of comedy, a fash
of the human spirits invincble deter
mination to fling a dare in the face OF
to ride on the crest of terror |
Itself, and eXult in it's own triumphant /
merriment. Sapho and Camille, in the /
worst of their theatric tortures, found |.
something to laugh at. The laugh was |
half a Sob but instantly from pit to /
balcony the audience Joined in. You .
have heard it again and again in the /
course Of the ordinary sentimental, /
emotional play.
Serious critics often affect to scof
at this levity. But serious critics are
wont to forget to be human beings. 1t
is in reality a divine and a glorious
thing. For by laughing with the char
acter that is battling with the ultimate
Of tragedy and woe. the audience spon-
taneously affirms its faith in the fun
damental decency and sanity Of things
and filings a gauntlet i'm the face of
danger IfC revolt AGAINST ]
tiOnal sorrow and the conventional Wlil
of the sad modern dramatist is like the
first smile of "a boby-mysterious and
inyulnorablc
This is the secret Of laughter, and
especially laughter in a theater. We
are surprised into merrimcut We
leap into the full current of ~ laugh
even as a boy leaps into manhood
without observation There is a point
at which heartstrings are stretched
to the breaking point and break into
giggles and Erins and OUTLAWS. We
often speak Of these moments in an
impassioned tragedy as comedy relief.
The designation is true, but too re-
stricted. All comedy is relief The
pun is relief from the unbearable ac-
curacy Of imprisoned thought. 1t is
language breaking out Of jail The
burlesque situation is q blithe defiance ,
flung at the supposed perfection Of
chilled propriety. 1t reminds us Of an t
older etiquette, whose name is 10Y. the {
primeyal and eternal order and So Z
briefly of the human spirit.
The play was never written at which ]
IN audience would not laugh ana
augh again. The playwright can
neither command nor interdict nor &
understand this instinct of mirth. But I
ne must believe in it, for upon his faith
n it's reality depends the practical and
laily regularity of his bread and
1utter. {
In the above ratiocinations ] have i
united to consider one sort of alleged :
lumor-it is really rather a depraved
yit-the double entendre in which the :
modern stage abounds to a degree un- Y
Inspected by the ordinary playgoer I
n many musical comedies, and even q
audeville acts, there are really two :
anguages spoken. One embodies the =
uperficial meaning, sometimes witty, r
apparently mere assist
nee to the action. Underneath all, | |
oweYer, is the argot of the Tender
,in. An apparently pleasing jest may
1close the most suggestive and Of
snsive of innuendos The occasional l