In his essay entitled “Laughter,” Henri Bergson utilizes the specific example of societal ceremonies as a fertile comical phenomenon. These occurrences fall under his classification of “inelastic mechanisms.” He often refers to automatism in humanity as a comical quality. The comedy of these situations comes from either the repetition or the demise of this expected mechanical continuation of life as expected. The rigidity of these expected, repeated aspects of life create comedy when they are foiled. In the case of society, ceremonial aspects are those which exhibit rigidity plainly. Bergson states that societal ceremonies “owe their seriousness to the fact that they are identified, in our minds, with the serious object with which custom associates with them.” (Bergson 45) This fabricated gravitas makes these phenomena easy to imitate and stereotype. The isolation of the cultural practices, removing them from their possible reason for existing, makes them seem entirely ridiculous.
The comic example which this point relates to is the film Metropolitan written and directed by Whit Stillman. This film is a comic interpretation of high society in New York City. The film aligns with many different sources of comedy written about by Bergson. Firstly, the characters in this film do not contain exceptional depth, instead their vagueness makes them seem like more accurate representations of their kind to the viewer. Secondly, an overarching theme in the film is the inevitability of each character to become their parents. This automated view of life and their blasé attitude toward undeniably important aspects of life makes the contrast to their cut-throat attitude towards dancing very comical. The most serious aspect of this film are the parties, the rest of the issues are addressed with a ludicrous nonchalance. This imitation of the high society class displays its automation in an unflattering way bringing an audience to laughter.
The most obvious application of Bergson’s theory is the societal ceremony aspect of the film. The stiffness of these ceremonies creates physical and verbal comedy throughout. The seriousness and severity of certain aspects of the rituals exhibited in this film is ridiculous to an audience. Although the film is entirely about exclusion, the insertion of a character who is not naturally a member of the exclusive group allows the audience to receive the same welcome. It is comical that the character adjusts rapidly to the rigidity of society as the audience sees this as ridiculous rituals and loses identification with the character as he assimilates.
Although they speak in this film about society in a self referential way which gives the illusion that the characters are self aware, the audience remains with the puppeteering power as they know the ridiculous ceremonies will continue as expected. By Bergson’s logic, Metropolitan, through imitation, inclusion, and characters with absurd priorities, creates a successful comic situation.
Bergson, Henri, Henry Brereton, and Fred Rothwell. 1914. Laughter.
Whit Stillman (Director.) (1989.) Metropolitan (Film). Westerly Films.
This example works really well in highlighting Bergson’s point about societal ceremonies and the inherent comedy that seems to often arise from them! It also made me think about the how ideas of performance overlap with notions of comedy in social situations such as this, and the ways in which the over-the-top nature of characters can seem caricaturish, which, when played out in such public ways, can spark a lot of laughter to watch.