The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be performed, at the same time that one is giving loud pledges of performance. The balking of the intellect, is comedy and it announces itself in the pleasant spasms we call laughter.


Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (ed. 1880)

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be...

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be...

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be...

The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be...