ABSTRACT
The philosopher Thomas Hobbes (author of Leviathan, 1651) characterised laughter as a ‘sudden glory’ at a triumph of our own or at an indignity suffered by someone else. This could explain why people laugh at the many variations of the slipping-on-a-banana-skin scenario; there's an urge to laugh at the (literal) downfall of another. Hobbes claimed that those who laugh are momentarily released from awareness of their own lack of ability This accords with a commonsense perception of much humour being a form of mockery — a way of attacking others, so maintaining power and status by gaining support from others who join in the laughter. People most likely to laugh, according to Hobbes, are those ‘that are conscious of the fewest abilities in themselves; who are forced to keep themselves in their own favour, by observing the imperfections of other men.’ Ambrose Bierce offers this definition in The Devil's Dictionary (1957): ‘CONSOLATION, n. The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself.’
