humor can deepen the reader’s feeling of worth and dignity as a person, and remove blinds from his eyes as he confronts the issues facing him. But in general humor and laughter in our day mean “laughs” in quantitative form, produced by mail-order, push-button techniques, as is the case, let us say, of the productions of the gag writers for the radio. Indeed, the term “gag” is a fitting one: the “laughs” serve as “laughing gas,” in Thorstein Veblen’s vivid phrase, to furnish a dulling of sensitivities and awareness just as gas does in actuality. Laughter is then an escape from anxiety and
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