It helps to get beat up a lot as a kid. If you learn to be funny, they stop beating you up. If you're very funny, they start to protect you, and if you're hysterically funny, they give you gifts.
I've always wondered how true this really is. The kids I observed getting bullied in middle school or whenever didn't really seem to react this way. I think you have to be naturally extroverted to an extent and a lot of kids that get bullied tend to be introverts.
If you are lucky it triggers a survival mechanism which drives you to become funny as a form of defense. This powerful response will push you from a beaten, defeated child into a broken, insecure adult who uses a thin veneer of humor to disguise the gaping void within... Or if you are one of the unlucky ones the beatings continue until you grow up to become a well balanced adult, never achieving your humor potential.
Tell me Kaius, how did you arrive at that conclusion. One very funny, formerly-beaten-up, former best friend of mine sadly has a deep gaping void within and definitely struggles with mental stability issues. I enjoyed the humour, but eventually could not deal with the gaping void. I miss him.If you are lucky it triggers a survival mechanism which drives you to become funny as a form of defense. This powerful response will push you from a beaten, defeated child into a broken, insecure adult who uses a thin veneer of humor to disguise the gaping void within...
This is so true.
I seem to remember that traumatic events that happen at a certain age can cause teenagers to use humour/sarcasm to cover up their feelings. Its similar to Disassociation. Someone can correct me but I think its a known trend seen in pre-teenage males whose parents divorce... Way out on a limb there so shoot me down if that's not correct but I remember hearing it somewhere. The gaping void I used above was an extreme exaggeration of course but the best comedy (for me) comes from a dark place. I think if you interviewed some of the funniest comedians you would find that many suffer with some form of depression. Its the gallows humour, the desperation, the frustration that hits home with people. Slapstick doesn't have the same range. That's pretty interesting though isn't it. A tragic event can result in someone who uses humour to cover their inner hurt, which in itself is tragic. Its like the circle of life.