The existential lament that ends in a punchline
Life is hard and humor eases everything: an analysis of an existential current that answers pessimism with dark humor.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Life is hard: the lament answered with dark humor
It is seven in the morning and the summary of existence fits in four words: keep your chin up and don't give in. It is not a self-help slogan, but the acknowledgment that life is, indeed, hard. In its bluntest version, the diagnosis is delivered with a "real pain in the ass" or an "in un mondo difficile" that needs no translation.
The cliché has two variants: the one from those who endure, and the one from those who recall, with a wry smile, that on top of it all you die in the end. In between, there are those who claim that hardship strikes men harder, though the argument is soon lost in a joke best not repeated in family-friendly hours.
The sharpest retort plays on the double meaning of "hard": if life is hard, the hardest thing about it is precisely everything that lasts. The circularity of the joke leaves no logical answer. Because, indeed, duration is the problem. If it were short, it would be a rough patch; as it stretches on, it becomes a routine of endurance.
And then comes the pessimist's clincher, that "and on top of it all you die," which serves as a reminder that the effort carries no final reward. The only figure this current deals in is the most irrefutable one: the ending is mandatory. Faced with that, the only possible consolation is humor, dark or otherwise, because the alternative —taking it seriously— is even harder.
It is seven in the morning and the summary of existence fits in four words: keep your chin up and don't give in. It is not a self-help slogan, but the acknowledgment that life is, indeed, hard. In its bluntest version, the diagnosis is delivered with a "real pain in the ass" or an "in un mondo difficile" that needs no translation.
The cliché has two variants: the one from those who endure, and the one from those who recall, with a wry smile, that on top of it all you die in the end. In between, there are those who claim that hardship strikes men harder, though the argument is soon lost in a joke best not repeated in family-friendly hours.
The sharpest retort plays on the double meaning of "hard": if life is hard, the hardest thing about it is precisely everything that lasts. The circularity of the joke leaves no logical answer. Because, indeed, duration is the problem. If it were short, it would be a rough patch; as it stretches on, it becomes a routine of endurance.
And then comes the pessimist's clincher, that "and on top of it all you die," which serves as a reminder that the effort carries no final reward. The only figure this current deals in is the most irrefutable one: the ending is mandatory. Faced with that, the only possible consolation is humor, dark or otherwise, because the alternative —taking it seriously— is even harder.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (54 replies).
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