Caricature: when laughter reveals the distorted truth of reality
What if laughter isn't an escape from reality, but the only way to see its true face?
Source: The laughter waiting at the end of time
A song of ascents. When the Lord brought back the exiles of Zion, we were like dreamers.
Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with joyous song, then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."
(Psalms 126:1-2)
Explanation: A crooked dream and laughter of understanding
The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 3b) says that ever since we went into exile, God no longer laughs. And indeed, the psalmist places laughter only at the very edge of history. Notice the word "then." Right now, in the present, we are "like dreamers"—reality seems surreal, fragmented, at times a nightmare and at times a comedy of errors (just like in a dream). But in the future, from the vantage point of redemption, we will understand that everything was part of a plan. This laughter (sechok) is a laughter of relief and of understanding: suddenly, the punchline of history becomes clear. What seems to us today like a terrible distortion (exile, suffering) will turn out, even to the nations, to be part of the grand story of "The Lord has done great things for them."
Perspective: Caricature as a bridge to higher worlds
Our world is itself a caricature of the higher worlds, and laughter is the only solution on our very narrow bridge to reach the higher realms.
Sarah our mother laughs when she is told she will give birth at age ninety, and that laughter is the only sane reaction to a miracle that defies logic. Rabbi Akiva laughs at his colleagues weeping at the sight of a fox emerging from the ruins of the Holy of Holies, because it is a distorted caricature of the world. They see reality (destruction), while he sees the caricature (which heralds repair and redemption). Many understand that when the human equation does not add up, the only thing to do is laugh a holy laugh.
Caricature says: "Look how crooked and deficient we are." The verse in Psalms answers: "True, but wait for the end of the joke." In the end, he who laughs last, laughs best.
Going Deeper: Purim masks: when distortion reveals the truth
In Hasidism, the joy of Purim is considered greater even than the fast of Yom Kippur (Kippurim—read as ke-Purim, "like Purim"). On Purim, we wear masks. Caricature is the mask we place upon reality to reveal the truth. Seriousness belongs to this world, limited and judgmental; laughter belongs to the infinite, where opposites unite.
Culture: The battle over the lost 'book of laughter'
The plot of the book The Name of the Rose (by Nobel laureate Umberto Eco) revolves entirely around a lost book by Aristotle on comedy, the 'book of laughter' that some believe Aristotle wrote. The battle is between the monk Jorge, who is willing to murder and burn down the abbey's entire library to prevent laughter, because "laughter eliminates fear," and the detective William (who realizes that laughter is the only shield against fanaticism). In the end, just like in the famous story of Rabbi Akiva (Makkot 24b)—the library burns down, but laughter wins. The ability to smile in the face of the absurd is the last refuge of humanity.