Caricature: When laughter becomes a mirror for the rigidity within us
Why do we laugh at someone who behaves like a machine, and how did we turn into caricatures ourselves?
Source: Bergson on laughter as society's revenge
"Laughter is, above all, a means of correction. Since it is intended to humiliate, it must leave a painful impression on the person who is its object. Through laughter, society takes its revenge for the liberties taken against it. Laughter is a social punishment... directed at everything mechanical superimposed upon the living."
(Henri Bergson, "Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic", 1900)
Explanation: The mechanical superimposed upon the living: When people become puppets
The philosopher Henri Bergson argues that life is characterized by flexibility and flow. The comic emerges when a person suddenly behaves like an object or a machine (someone slipping on a banana peel and losing control, or a character repeating the exact same movement over and over). Caricature takes a human "tic" or facial feature, freezes it, and turns the person into a puppet on a string. We laugh in order to "punish" this rigidity and certainty, and to restore flexibility to society.
Perspective: We are our own caricatures
We live in an era where Bergson's theory has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The modern politician is a robot of talking points and plastic smiles; he is a walking caricature before he is even drawn.
It isn't just politicians—social media has turned all of us into machines. We react automatically, reciting tribal slogans ("boomer," "messianist," "leftist," "Bibist"), flattening into predictable characters. In such a world, people turn themselves into caricatures through lip-filler surgeries, bizarre hairstyles, and shocking fashions. Bergson's laughter has become today's weeping: we have lost our human flexibility and become cardboard cutouts of ourselves. We are the machine superimposed upon the living.
Going Deeper: Talmudic caricatures: From Rabbi Eleazar's belly to Titus's gnat
The Talmud is full of caricatures. It tells of two sages who were so fat that if they stood facing each other with their bellies touching, a yoke of oxen could pass between them (Bava Metzia 84a); the gnat in Titus's ear that grew fat from devouring his brain (literally driving him out of his mind...) (Gittin 56b); and, of course, the tales of Rabbah bar Bar Hana, which are all political, religious, or philosophical caricatures (Bava Batra 73a–74a).
Culture: The Tortel family: A caricature of Israeli society
The television show 'Eretz Nehederet' is one of the most-watched programs in Israel. The show is infuriating, funny, biting, mocking, and above all, full of stereotypes. Caricature is born from stereotypes, and one of the show's recurring sketches is 'The Tortels.' The wealthy and foolish Tortel family is a caricature of consumer fads, the race for status and beauty, and above all, a caricature of a world where fools live in luxury and pleasure while mathematicians need crumbs from their table.