ABSTRACT
The reason of comedy is social reason. Like tragedy, it is based on convictions about what is necessary to social order. But comic reason holds that reason must keep convictions about social means and ends open to reason. Comic obscenity struggles to reduce gaps between what was once normal or ideal and what must be done to survive in a new situation. Comic obscenity is a kind of angry plea to others to "make sense", to conform to the demands of the situation. The moment of unmasking is the moment of comic truth. Great comic artists do not believe that salvation can be achieved by controlling forces outside of man—either in "Society", "Nature", or "God"—but only in the struggle of men to communicate in love and hate. Social tensions become unbearable, not when there are great differences between ranks or conditions of life, but when there are no common social symbols through which superior and inferior can communicate.
