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Oh dear...as happens often with me....I have just seen something on TV which has shown me how wrong I am.
I was going to delete my above posts....but you have answered me..and so it will destroy the thread if I do any deleting.
Suffice it to say....your list is correct. I WAS WRONG. Humour comes a little way down on the list....although as you have so wisely said...it is essential.....an essential element....but that is all.
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.
He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....
Well, you've made me think. Apparently a lot has been written about whether animals laugh (rats can laugh apparently!) , but now I have those pictures of humans and evolution and wondering when they first showed a sense of humour.
It can't be irrelevant.
Now I'm feeling a bit impish- we have to imagine that language, printing, were discovered in different parts of the world (and some of the young upstarts probably invented computers, so we won't even mention that) but where would the first human being with a sense of humour have appeared?
I have been informed that Rats are one of the most intelligent of animals and that they make wonderful pets. Better than hamsters, gerbils etc..
I have been thinking about humour though. We don't all share the same sense of humour, do we?
I think we all like to see 'authority' get a custard-pie in its face. It is very funny if it hits the local policeman or the mayor, but not nearly so funny if it is the local vagrant.
And there are a lot of things which pass for humour now, which I feel are not funny at all....it seems to be the ability to shock, to make you laugh rather than a comic situation. I have seen some very cruel 'comedy' on our televisions recently.....but my children think it is funny.
I have thought that there is a great difference between generations, where humour is concerned.....I didn't laugh at what my parents thought hilarious. And I wonder what the first joke was!
Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but the idea of catching fish.
He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad....
Humor is important, but also seems a natural extension of language and intelligence Many animals can be said to have a sense of playfulness, like this wolf.
So, I would say the development of language ranks way, way, way up there. The neolithic revolution in which humans developed agriculture in many parts of the world simultaneously is way up there as well.
edit: added 'way, way'
Last edited by geo on Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
