Comic Distance-Proximity Paradox
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.147
Distance and Proximity > Laughing from a Distance
Theoretical move: The passage argues that comedy requires a paradoxical combination of disinvestment from an event's social utility AND investment in the event itself, dismantling the simple "distance = comedy" adage by showing that pure distance produces indifference, not laughter; representation is identified as the privileged site where this dual requirement is most reliably met.
Distance or disinvestment does not alone produce comedy. They lead to a lack of interest and an inability to find any humor in the object of the comedy... Though we don't typically associate psychic proximity with humor, it is just as necessary as distance.