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erected by the social order. Humour works as a warped defence mechanism,
counteracting the unpleasant object which is too shocking to otherwise confront:
“[w]e take note of the fact that economy in expenditure on inhibition or suppression
appears to be the secret of the pleasurable effect of tendentious jokes” (Freud 1990:
29). Essentially, humour is a way of relieving tension, of indirectly expressing oneself
about something too unpleasant to confront directly. Humour functions through
certain presuppositions, for instance racist jokes assume certain stereotypes about
their targets. This is the role that the disclosure of the PigGate scandal performs. It is
not a real disclosure in any tangible sense of the term, yet it is one that keeps nonbelief at arm’s length while encouraging a tendency to engage in unpleasantness.
Conclusion
Zupančič (2008: 29) recounts the tale of a “toffee-nosed baron slips on a banana peel
(thus demonstrating that even he is subject to the laws of gravity), yet the next instant
he is up again and walking around arrogantly, no less sure of the highness of His
Highness” to elaborate how comedy frequently reduces men to their nature as
opposed to tragedy that elevates man as an exception to nature. Comedy, therefore,
levels the lofty; its function the reverse of tragedy which elevates man into a
remarkable being of admiration. Whereas tragedy evokes terror, awe and pity,
comedy evokes only the latter. Like bringing down the “toffee nosed Baron” and his
feeling of superiority, disparaging humour brings down the distance of accessibility
between the celebrity and the public, between those who can do and those who can
judge what is done. The suspension of non-belief in the disclosure is premised on
envy which is capable of momentarily collapsing the distance between the person of
importance and those who confer that status. Comedy continues to derive its weight
from the image of “abstract perfection” (Zupančič 2008: 29) belied by human
weakness, without losing belief in the abstract perfection all the while.