The Wellington Enterprise

THE FOLLY OF BEING FUNNY.

An Inclination That Should Be Sternly Repressed—Life Is Not a Circus, but a Solemn Reality.
[N. Y. Hour.]

The inclination to be funny should be carefully repressed. Ridicule and humor are easy and natural to many people, but if anyone hopes to have a high career, he must so conduct himself that the idea of seeing him in an elevated position will not make people laugh. A man had better be dishonest than funny, so far as the attainment of high position is concerned.

It is the same in private life. People who are funny are not those whom we generally respect most. We come to think of them with a kind of contempt. They are likely to be sought for as diners-out or to make after-dinner speeches. When they appear, or when their names are mentioned, people are wont to grin. Now, grins never signify any great esteem or admiration. Let every reader of the Hour think over the list of after-dinner speakers who generally talk at all public banquets. Some of the same men are always on the list. That is because they do the 'funny business' and set the table in a roar.

There are always, or almost always, speeches at these banquets which make a lasting impression. Actual contributions are even sometimes made to the fund of thought or general information by addresses delivered on state occasions; but the accepted 'funny man' never makes one of these. He never says anything worth remembering. The list of jokes soon grow stale and tiresome. Yorick will never be forgotten; yet that will not be due to any of the good things he said, but to what Hamlet said.

The truth is, life is real and earnest, and he will succeed best in it who recognizes this fact. Men of intelligence and right sentiment appreciate it. The great minds of the world have never been in the heads of the world's jesters. There is enough in life to make anyone serious. There are the problems of making an honest living, of maintaining a good reputation, of establishing a pure character, and of leading a respectable life. Jests do not help us on in any of these things. It is serious thoughts which aid us and so gain our admiration, love and esteem. There are times when anything amusing grates upon our nerves, and then the perpetrator of a joke is hateful unto us. But even in our gayest moods we do not scorn a thought or sentiment of real worth, although we may not heed it. Its utterance, at least, never excites our scorn.

The moral of it all is—do not cultivate any fatal facility of jesting which you may have. Strike out in life with a serious purpose and make a serious business of pursuing it. This does not mean sanctimonious facial expression; but it does mean intense earnestness, and where that exists there will be little temptation to be funny.

A young man who has the gift of speaking should be particularly careful. Many times when he rises to talk his impulse will be to make his auditors laugh. It would be easy, and he would instantly catch their attention. But he should be careful not to do it too often. Let him say something worth saving, or let him keep quiet. It is better to be respected as a stupid grave man even, than to be laughed at as a clown. The jesting lawyer; the punning judge; the fun-making clergyman; the writer of humorous books or paragraphs—who ever has any high regard for them?

Herein lies one of the drawbacks which actors have to contend with, and one of the reasons why they so generally occupy inferior social positions. Their main object is to amuse and entertain. Anyone of their number, therefore, who hopes to be recognized as a man of worth and prominence must have extraordinary talents which will induce men to respect him and give him a place in their esteem, despite the fact that merely to amuse is his business. So hard is it for us to place a high value on people who only entertain us!

But life is not a circus; and clowns and jesters will not succeed.