Marks of Good Humor, Part 2

I don't know about you, but I love the Eloise movies. While she is very much a willful and spoiled child who is given her way far too often, you can't help be attracted to her big heart, zeal for life, and the innocent way she cuts to the core of a matter--not to mention she makes you laugh along the way.

Last week, I posted a clip from the second movie, Eloise at Christmastime, along with three questions, since we're currently studying humor: Was the clip good humor? Why or why not? What principles can we draw from this?

Overall, I believe this clip reflects good humor, the one profanity aside. Why? Because there is something true, something right, in watching snobbish and sharp-tongued Prunella being dressed down by the owner's daughter. As Eloise herself puts it, "Please tell me you're loving this as much as I am."

Again, why? Why does this ring true? Because good humor pokes fun at wrong thoughts, attitudes and actions--snobbery in this case. As it says in Psalm 2, "The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One," (v. 2), and at this God laughs (v. 4). Such arrogance and defiance in the face of an all-powerful God--that kind of attitude is laughable because from the outside, it is ridiculous.

And therein lies the power of humor--what we laugh at we also tend to withdraw from, for fear of being laughed at ourselves. The difference between good humor and bad, then, is not that we laugh at something, but rather at what we are laughing, and therefore subconsciously withdrawing from.

Thus, we have the first principle of good humor: It mocks what is evil, not what is good.