The sad clown paradox: A theory of comic transcendence

Abstract

One prevailing cultural sensibility of our time is a concern with the state of our mental health, another is our obligation and desire for a good ‘sense of humour’. At present the two are conflated, most often through a long-standing cultural trope: the sad clown paradox – those who make us laugh the most tend to be the most prone to mental health problems. This article views the ‘sad clown paradox’ as less about the peculiarity or exceptional status of a comedian's mind, more about how the cognitive burdens of modernity are rendered bearable and collectively recognised in thought and sentiment by humour. Accounts of comedy and mental health conflate good comedy with mental anguish. By unpacking this knotted relationship, it is argued that comedian's humour performs a way for contemporary people to deal with modernity's fragmentary character of life from within their own inner worlds and selves.