one hundred essays I don't have time to write*

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35. Is there an ethics of comedy?

Tragedy has a long history of ethics but does comedy have its own ethics? That is to say, ancient philosophers have philosophized about what it means to identify with a character in a tragedy and how the identification refines us morally. In terms of moral identification and cleansing, comedy seems to be more philosophically virginal terrain. Comedy isn’t, as we all know, serious. Or is it? I had a dream last night in which I was giving a radio address on the ethics of comedy. What did I say? I cannot remember.

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