Play and Utility
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Where it appears in the corpus (1)
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.146
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.
What distinguishes play is not its lack of seriousness but the break from social utility that occurs when we play. We don't play to accomplish social goals but to find respite from the pursuit of these goals.