Comedy and Reality

Henry Bergson's theory is a hybrid of the superiority, relief, and incongruity theories of laughter. He believes that laughter is an important tool to regulate society. There are two sides to the debate: comedy as a means to speak truth to power and comedy as a forum for the absurd. Both approaches fall under the category of comedy, but tensions arise between them. Those who support truth to power comedy see the absurd side as potentially dangerous, while the absurd side sees truth to power comedy as limiting. Comedy serves different purposes for different people.