Alain De Botton, Humorist

Humorists are allowed to say things that an ordinary person won’t want to address or express, thus; “serving a vital” role in society as said by Alain de Botton 2004 book, Status Anxiety. He argues that laughter is not the only reason for humor. Humorist are communicators that share information of past events and give support to their audience by letting them know that their suppressed feelings are normal.

Humor is is another form of free speech or free thought and also a means of entertainment. Laughter represents the acceptance of this free expression. Throughout history, the public has been swayed on controversial matters by humorists intellectually weaving their opinions into their work. Thomas Nast, the father of politics displayed this as early as 1860. One of his prominent cartoon is that of a wealthy businessman with a bag of money as a head. However, this cartoon was controversial during the Industrial Revolution era because it highlighted the elite for the country’s economic downturns. The cartoonist appealed to pathos of middle and lower class America because it displayed with humor the industrial obese money-made man that is the cause of their misfortunes.

However, humor has manifested in today’s society. Satirical comedians such as Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report political-satire television program satirical comedy talks about political problems and economic controversies. They are able to take real life scenarios and manipulate them into their carefully planned skits, whether it’s about political figures or any controversial current events: the cast and crew are able to dodge any repercussions because of the skit’s humorist nature. For example, Stewart represents the average liberal-minded political analyst who criticize certain materials shown in the news as a way of conveying how unreasonable they actually sound. He deploys certain materials that is being shown in the news