Wit and Politics: An Essay on Laughter and Power

Abstract

Originally published in German in 1975, this reflective essay draws on material from a wide range of epochs and societies to analyze the uses, intricacies, and paradoxes of wit in political relationships great and small. Topics include wit as a weapon, the crucial element of surprise, the uses of nonsense, the laughter of both the mighty and the weak, whispered jokes in totalitarian regimes, and wit and death. The essay returns repeatedly to the paradox of timelessness, that is, the recurrence of similar forms of political humor, indeed identical jokes, in different centuries and among different peoples.

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