Cruelty and Aggression Catharsis is the relief of emotions through one outlet or another. This can be the emotional buoyancy that comes from petting a cat (cat­tharsis), or from running over that gremlin who laughed at you when you fell down the stairs in high school (car­tharsis), or it could be the sense of lexiconic solace upon finding an optimal synonym (thesaur­sis). You may also find catharsis by watching someone hit someone else with a half brick in an old sock. If I had pushed Kelsey down the stairs back before I could be tried as an adult, and it had been caught on camera, and the uniformed viewers were sure she was ok and they knew I had been justly pummeled for my crimes, then they would have laughed. They would have laughed because it wasn’t hurting anyone and maybe they had wanted to do something like that themselves. Someone who knows more than I do said “we can enjoy aggression toward others safely through comedy. We sublimate aggression in real life, and seeing it happen safely can be a release” (O’Shannon 2). If there is enough distance from the event, then the event becomes funny and it is perfectly acceptable to give it a good laugh. There once was a tv show1 that should have been taken as a series of cautionary tales but was more of a laughable slideshow of potential Darwin Award nominees, it called ​
1000 Ways to Die and the title takes the work out of explaining the premise of the show. I imagine every week small families sit down elbow to elbow on the couch, like ​
The​
​
Simpsons​
without the jaundice, and cackle as other people die in new and interesting ways. If viewed alone, ​
1000 Ways to Die might be more of pain­based humor, but company allows for cruelty2. In this setting the cruelty is still generated by the audience, they take an active part, but it’s not always necessary for so much work to be done. Physical comedy takes the work out of cruelty. The audience can watch and let their violent thoughts drain away as Moe beats Curly with a lead pipe, or as Dennis, Dee, Mac, and Charlie poison a gaggle of frat guys in ​
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia​
. In either case, people do terrible things to each other and, because it’s a comedy, you get to enjoy those those terrible things. Again, a documentary about four alcoholics poisoning a bunch of college students would likely be less funny, but when the expectation is humor, humor is completely allowed and you can have a good laugh. You deserve it3. 1
Or maybe there still is; if it doesn’t have cats or funny sad people, I really wouldn’t know. For reference: ​
Lord of the Flies​
or any middle school. 3
Don’t ask yourself ​
why ​
you deserve it. Don’t go down that hole. Don’t look to the cerebral neon signs flashing behind your eyes vibrantly begging the question ​
have I earned this​
. Who really wants that answer when they can laugh at the funny things instead. The unacknowledged magic behind the cruel comic is that nobody really deserves it but everyone takes part in it because if it’s socially permissible to laugh, then you have license to look at a beautiful disaster and you have yourself a giggle. 2