Abstract
This chapter aims at exploring the large corpus of comic songs performed on the British music hall stage during the Great War. Writings on humor generally begin by declaring how difficult it is to define the term itself;1 underlining the absurd or unexpected is often considered to be an essential element, while Bergson’s classic essay explains that humor is specifically human and social.
The comic does not exist outside the pale of what is strictly human. A land-scape may be beautiful, charming and sublime, or insignificant and ugly; it will never be laughable.2
[…]You would hardly appreciate the comic if you felt yourself isolated from others. Laughter appears to stand in need of an echo.3
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© 2015 Clémentine Tholas-Disset and Karen A. Ritzenhoff
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Mullen, J. (2015). “You Can’t Help Laughing, Can You?” Humor and Symbolic Empowerment in British Music Hall Song during the Great War. In: Tholas-Disset, C., Ritzenhoff, K.A. (eds) Humor, Entertainment, and Popular Culture during World War I. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137436436_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137436436_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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