Sense of Humor, Sense of Seriousness
One must have a sense of humor and a sense of seriousness to distinguish what is supposed to be taken literally or not. An even more keen sense is needed when humor is used to make a serious point. Psychologists have studied how humor is intended to be taken as having seriousness, as when court jesters used humor to convey serious information. Conversely, when humor is not intended to be taken seriously, bad taste in humor may cross a line after which it is taken seriously, though not intended.
Read more about this topic: Theories Of Humor
Famous quotes containing the words sense of, sense and/or seriousness:
“Like all men who are Napoleonic in their ambitions ... he has instincts about the nature of growth, a lover’s sense of the moment of crisis, and he knew ... how costly is defeat when it is not soothed by greater consciousness, and how wasteful is the profit of victory when there is not the courage to employ it.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“None of them has
the sense of evil that I have,
evil that jaw breaker,
that word-wife.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)