CLEVERNESS LACKING IN CURRENT LAMPOON

I have been asked to review the current issue of the Lampoon. I have read it, but I should hate to review it. This is not a review. It is a slam.

I have been asked not to write more than five hundred words on the subject. I could be content with one: Brainless.

The essence of a good joke is that it means something different from what the reader expects. The essence of a Lampoon joke is that it means nothing whatever.

Some of the material in the Lampoon is silly enough to be laughed at by a person drunk enough. It is fairly easy to be foolish, but it is the hardest thing in the world to be a clever Fool. Both wit and humor require intelligence, wit chiefly in the manner of presenting an idea, humor in the sympathetic study of life's absurdities. Satire, another form of art that makes its points by emphasis on the absurd, depends also for its force chiefly on the intelligence behind the ridicule. For satire is a form of criticism and as criticism gives opportunity for the highest critical ability, the most logical thought to discover and emphasize the fallacy that provokes the laugh. In America today the opportunity for satire is great. The American mind is well adapted to satire. Many absurdities in our life need the laughter of the intelligent. Where there are many subjects for ridicule it is foolish to laugh at nothing.

Though lack of substance and lack of though are the chief defects in the Lampoon, the imperfection in form is notable, especially in the verse. Slovenly verse is not funny though it may be ridiculous. Humorous verse requires the greatest perfection of form. A skillful rhymester uses his rhymes to point his wit and obtains additional effects by surprising rhymes. Everyone is familiar with the lamentable effect of even a good joke haltingly and redundantly told by a dullard who remembers it imperfectly and repeats it clumsily. Concise expression, accuracy, and fluency are essentials of wit in verse and even more in prose. Good humorous verse is not easy to write, but it is all the more worth writing.

The Lampoon boasts that it is the father of "Life", Let it then study Life and find subjects for intelligent thought and intelligent laughter.