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The Gold Rush Clippings 363/363

Life, New York, February 13, 1950.

Gus Arnheim, Charlie Chaplin, Abe Lyman (creators),

Sing A Song, vocal score, Irving Berlin, Inc.,

New York (publisher), 1925, Robert Cushman collection

of sheet music, Margaret Herrick Library,

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

„From one dream-chattering experience to another“

Editorial content. „ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH“

      Photo. „Charlie Chaplin in ,The Gold Rush‘“

      „Al Capp, creator of the comic-strip world of Li‘l Abner,

comes up with some interesting observations

on laughter in an article on Charlie Chaplin in the February

Atlantic Monthly. Recalling Chaplin‘s famous

depiction of the little tramp who goes from one dream-chattering experience to another, Mr. Capp says, ,We didn‘t

laugh because we were heartless wretches. We laughed

because we are normal human beings,

full of self-doubt, full of vague feelings of inferiority,

full of desperate need to be reassured.

... No matter how badly off any one of us was,

we were all in better shape than that bum. The fact that we‘d had

enough spare cash to buy a ticket to that movie made

us superior to him. That was the first thing that made us feel

good. Next, we saw him starving. That wasn‘t going

to happen to us – another reason for feeling superior, better

off at least than one person.‘

      Philosopher Capp argues that all laughter has this sort

of psychological origin. The theory is provocative,

and addicts of the U. S. comic strip may well feel that Mr. Capp

has covered everything. But as an all-embracing

explanation Mr. Capp‘s notion is suspect. Mr. Capp has

explained practically everything about laughter

except one thing: he hasn‘t told us why we laugh when we are

just plain happy.“

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