Introduction

Abstract

Comedy and pain should surely be uneasy bedfellows. There appears to be an obvious contradiction in linking the apparent opposites of comedy (with its connotations of pleasure and laughter) and pain (with its contrasting connotations of discomfort and tears). However, it is likely that we can all recall incidents when the pain or discomfort of others (our own pain rarely moves us to laughter) even in real life has made us laugh. Who, as a child, has not laughed at a classmate who missed their chair and landed unceremoniously on the floor (perhaps you might still laugh as an adult if you saw a colleague do the same thing)? Who has not laughed as some poor innocent struggles to keep their balance on a path made slippery by ice? So, is it in human nature to laugh when we see others in discomfort?