One pervasive feature of contemporary American culture as it involves language is
the constant resort to what passes for humor, no matter who is conversing and what the subject of the exchange. This can be observed in the most ordinary situations, e.g. among adults of both sexes in a gym while exercising or diners sitting together at the bar of a restaurant. No topic, no matter how seemingly immune to hilarity, is nowadays discussed without the intervention of jokes and wan attempts at humor. This kind of typical repartee comes with a debasement of whatever linguistic material is being exchanged.
Americans in the twenty-first century seem to treat their speech as merely a vehicle for humor whenver they find themselves speaking to each other in informal contexts. There is thus a fundamental undermining of what constitutes seriousness as distinct from humor.
Language, being the main instrument of both thought and intentionality, now tends to serve only one primary purpose: the purveying of platitutudes masquerading as ideas.
MICHAEL SHAPIRO
I couldn’t disagree more. Humor is a universal language allowing people to probe each others’ humanity. It can often more effectively convey a point concerning the human condition and open possibilities of human interaction more effectively than “serious” prose.
You missed the point of my post. Humor has its place but not as an accompaniment of all speech.
So, too much humor? How much less would be OK?
It’s a matter of appropriateness, not quantity, so it’s a matter of style. Humor should be reserved for situations where it’s appropriate stylistically.
I see. And yet style is akin to taste raising issues of subjective standards and decisions. We can probably agree that humor can be in bad taste or unsuccessful, which could also raise the question that if it’s not funny it’s not humor, just stylistically poor speech.