The Joke as Javelin --- How does humor play in the language of diplomacy? One of the significant contributors to our understanding of language and humor is Henri Bergson, a French writer, philosopher and diplomat, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927.

Bergson was, the first to elaborate what came to be called a process philosophy, which rejected static values in favor of values of motion, change, and evolution. This is a practical contribution with implications to our study of Language as Action.

He is noted for his writing on war under the title “Meaning of War: Life & Matter in Conflict (London 1915). The Government of France sent Bergson as a special envoy on a diplomatic mission to help overcome America’s initial neutrality in the European conflict; and, to urge the Americans to enter the war, which it did on 6 April 1917. He subsequently worked with President Woodrow Wilson on the formation of the League of Nations.

Bergson’s contribution to our understanding of humor is contained in “Laughter: An Essay on the meaning of the Comic.” According to Bergson, “Laughter is, above all, a corrective. Being intended to humiliate, it must make a painful impression on the person against whom it is directed. By laughter, society avenges itself for the liberties taken with it. It would fail in its object if it bore the stamp of sympathy or kindness.”

Bergson’s approach to humor provides a counter, even controversial, viewpoint to this week’s study on the role of humor in language. He would deploy humor not merely as a barb, excluding the other, but as a javelin aimed at the heart.

Source author: John D. Hipsley jhipsley@igc.org