Painting of thirty-five expressive heads.

Thirty-Five Expressive Heads, by Louis-Léopold Boilly, c. 1825. Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France.

Comedy

Volume VII, Number 1 | winter 2014

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Preamble

The Solid Nonpareil

By Lewis H. Lapham

From Mesopotamia to Mark Twain, the question has remained the same for thousands of years—who’s laughing now?

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Black and white photograph of a clown laughing in front of a storefront.

Split Personalities

By Andrew McConnell Stott

Is it a condition of comic genius to be always wrestling with demons?

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Map showing comedic theater tropes from around the world.

Map

The Human Comedy

Theatrical fools and buffoons from around the world and across time.

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Miscellany

Dorothy Parker was once asked to use the word horticulture in a sentence. “You can lead a horticulture,” she replied, “but you can’t make her think.”

1838 | Springfield, IL

Abraham Lincoln Loses the Girl

Before he was president, Abraham Lincoln went on a terrible blind date. More

1875 | London

Self-Incrimination

“Habitual laughers are silly, giddy, frivolous, superficial persons.”More

1947 | Washington, D.C.

New Hires

President Harry Truman appoints a Secretary of Semantics.More

Charts & Graphs

a list of people who literally died laughing through history, from 450 BC to 2013

I Died Laughing

Comedians and jokes that just killed it, literally.

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color photograph of Victor Frankl with his hand on his chin looking pensive

Flann O'Brien in an overcoat standing next to a Dublin Diversion sign

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Depiction of Greek philosopher Plato.

Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer Baldassare Castiglione.

Henri Bergson

Painting of Jean de la Bruyère wearing a red cape.

Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1678

Color mosaic of earl Church father St. John Chrysostom.

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

St. John Chrysostom & Charles Baudelaire

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