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A guest on Ken Myers' Mars Hill audio magazine discusses the humor of The Ladykillers. What, he asks, are we laughing at when we see the plots of criminals return on their own heads? He suggests that we are laughing at the folly of humanity, and at the way human weakness foils the "best-laid" plans. (He points to the character who has irritable bowel syndrome as an example; it's an almost Augustinian example of how we are, as Myers' guest says, "victims of our own body.")
This is true, but I think there's something else going on too. We are not merely laughing at human weakness; we are laughing at justice. This is the way the humor works in Scripture: Yahweh causes the wickedness of the wicked to return on their own heads, and that retribution brings joy to those afflicted by the wicked. Laughter is especially provoked by surprising acts of justice Ethe justice that the Lord deals to Pharaoh at the Red Sea, for instance.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 at 07:42 AM
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