Nothing tells us more about a given era than what the people of that era found—or didn’t find—funny. Contrast, say, the bawdy humor of Greek comedies 2,500 years ago with the Tao Te Ching, a document that could serve as the all-time greatest how-to manual on taking life way too seriously.

Lately, mainly in this pre-apocalypse, pre-rapture epoque that started with the coup of November, 2000, Americans—long noted for their unflagging willingness to chortle at the least sign of a joke—have shown symptoms of confusion about what is funny and what is not.

Some even suggest that we have, in our new role as heavily burdened subjects of The American Empire, altogether lost our sense of humor.

Certainly, looking at television and movies these days, you can understand how some would come to that conclusion (how many decades has it been since Robin Williams was funny?).

Social critics who examine television and movies expecitng to find humor are clearly looking in the wrong place. As social critics are wont to do, they are living in a past which they view, misty-eyed, as a lost Golden Age when Cid Caesar, Milton Berle, and Jackie Gleason, triumvirate deities, could do no wrong.

No, today’s comedy and its highly skilled practitioners have moved front and center, holding the nation’s, nay, the world’s attention with a level of absurdist content and a perfection of timing in delivery of their lines that few of the revered comedians in the past even came close to.

I speak naturally of our political leaders and their taste-shaping media minions. Only examine with a cold, social-critical eye the content of what these present-day masters of yoicks are saying, and you can come to only one conclusion: They are neither leading nor analyzing. The one function of our leaders and analysts today, which they have mastered to a level of true virtuosity that must leave the wraiths of comedians past green with envy, is to make us laugh.

You doubt me? Doubt here only indicates that you still inhabit that vaporous pseudo-intellectual realm occupied by the above-mentioned social critics who still think Charlie Chaplin was a genius nonpareil. Chaplin was a genius, but nonpareil? No way. Turn on any news or talk channel and see for yourself. In this new Golden Age of Comedy Chaplin’s humor is not only matched but surpassed daily.

To aid you in understanding the new order of things comedic, we have prepared a little test. Below, you will find pairs of names. In each pair, the first name, labeled "A", is one of the current reigning kings/queens of the New Comedy. The second name in each case, labeled "B", is a revered humorist from the past.

Your task is to decide in each pair which person you find funnier.

After you tally your answers, if you find have a preponderance of "B’s", the sad truth is you are hardly functioning as a well-informed, alert, concerned citizen of these pre-apocalypse, pre-rapture, imperial times. Indeed, we dare say you are finding it more and more difficult just to get out of bed every morning.

If on the other hand your answers show a preponderance of "A’s", you are in excellent shape rapture-wise, and we imagine your closet already contains one or more whiter-than-white raiments for that happy day coming soon when all jokes cease.


Get a piece of paper and indicate which person, in each of the following pairs, is in your view funnier.

1.
     A. George W. Bush.
     B. John Falstaff.

2.
     A. Dick Cheney.
     B. Dr. Stranglove.

3.
     A. Condoleezza Rice.
     B. Whoopi Goldberg.

4.
     A. Donald Rumsfeld.
     B. Charles Baudelaire.

5.
     A. Paul Wolfowitz.
     B. Franz Kafka.

6.
     A. Ariel Sharon.
     B. Adlai E. Stevenson.

7.
     A. Yasir Arafat.
     B. Henry David Thoreau.

8.
     A. John O’Reilly.
     B. P.T. Barnum.

9.
     A. Rush Limbaugh.
     B. Lou Costello.

10.
     A. Jerry Falwell.
     B. Chevy Chase.

11.
     A. Art Bell.
     B. St. Teresa of Avila.

12.
     A. Courtney Love.
     B. Gloria Steinem.

13.
     A. John Ashcroft.
     B. Jimmy Conners.

14.
     A. Osama Bin Laden.
     B. Sammy Davis, Jr.

15.
     A. Madonna.
     B. The Holy Ghost.

16.
     A. Bill Gates.
     B. Spiro Agnew.

17.
     A. Barbara Bush.
     B. Marie Antoinette.

18.
     A. Christopher Hitchens.
     B. Francis Bacon.

19.
     A. Martha Stewart.
     B. Martha Graham.

20.
     A. Mick Jagger.
     B. Jenny Lind.

END

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