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No Laughing Matter
Let's face it, folks: humor is no laughing matter. Indeed, your life may depend on it, for medical research is increasingly demonstrating what we
have long suspected: laughter is good for what ails us. Not only is it now being hailed as the perfect antidote for stress and a remedy for depression but researchers at Loma Linda University's School of Medicine have also
shown that humor and laughter lower blood pressure and actually stimulate the immune system by producing essential T cells. No wonder comedian Bill Cosby claims, "If you can laugh at it, you can survive it."
But the benefits of humor and laughter are more than medical; they serve a social purpose, too. Researcher Robert Provine calls laughter "the quintessential human social signal. It solidifies relationships and pulls people
into the fold."
How ironic it is, then, that humorous literature, books that tickle the funny bone of the mind, are not taken seriously. As I noted in my book WHAT'S SO FUNNY, "humor
is the Rodney Dangerfield of literary forms: it gets no respect."
Why is this? Well, Gordon Korman, who has been writing splendidly humorous books for kids since he was himself a teenager, puts the blame on
Aristotle, "the guy who in his POETICS said that the two forms of drama are comedy and tragedy and that comedy is the lower art." The result, Korman continues, is that "when the awards are handed out, when
the starred reviews come down the pike, when the key selections are made, relatively few of these honors find their way to the funny books."
That's the bad news. The
toss-your-hat-in-the-air-and-cry-"huzzah" good news is that this situation seems at last to be changing. Consider this year's winners of the super prestigious Newbery and Caldecott Medals. They are,
respectively, Richard Peck for his novel of refreshingly--and delightfully--character-driven humor DOWN YONDER and David Small for his illustrations of Judith St. George's SO YOU WANT TO BE PRESIDENT? which the Caldecott
Committee hailed for their "wry humor" and "wiry and expansive lines with an echo of political cartooning."
But, wait, there's more! Three of the four Newbery Honor Books were also humorous: HOPE WAS
HERE by the great Joan Bauer, who has often said that "where you find the humor, you find the hope;" BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Kate DiCamillo, and JOEY PIGZA LOSES CONTROL by Jack Gantos. And all three Caldecott Honor
Books are splendidly humorous, too, in their pictorial content and execution: Christopher Bing's CASEY AT THE BAT; Betsy Lewin's CLICK, CLACK, MOO, and Ian Falconer's irrepressible and irresistible OLIVIA.
And speaking
of awards: how about a posthumous Nobel Prize to Walter R. Brooks for his hilariously indispensable series of books about Freddy the Pig? The best news I can report is that this critically overlooked series about one of the
greatest characters in children's literature is now being brought back into print by The Overlook Press. Huzzah, indeed!
As always, though, the real winner is the reader. Not only of the Freddy books but also of any humorous title. If I were a doctor, my prescription would be
this: "Read two funny books and call me in the morning."
After all, your life may depend on it!
Michael Cart is a "Booklist" columnist and author of WHAT'S SO FUNNY? WIT AND HUMOR IN AMERICAN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE (HarperCollins, 1995).
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