The World is Irony

The Psychologist looked over at his patient and put down his pen. “So you say that laughter is the voice of the soul?”

The Jester settled himself better on the couch, the bells on his head jingling noisily. “Well I guess so; I do happen to be experienced in this field” he said “I mean, most people think that laughter is just happiness coming out, but that was never the case; never is”

“Interesting” the Psychologist lied.

“You see, laughter can be for fun. Laughter can also be angry, laughing at somebody to cause pain”. The Jester looked at the roof; suddenly it seemed constricting.

“Laughter at you? So it’s like teasing?” queried the Psychologist

The Jester screwed up his face. “No, not really”. He sat up in his chair, bells jingling boisterously, creases appearing in his loud costume. “you see its more of laughing because of anger; and it goes from being a ray of light into the point of a spear”

“Mmm” said the Psychologist, thinking about the pub.

“And then there’s the laughter you have when somebody makes a bad joke, and you feel you have to laugh so as to not hurt them. That’s more like a suffocating fog; constricting them and making them feel terrible (because its obviously fake)” he whispered the last part, making sure to accentuate the brackets.

“Of course” said the Psychologist, wishing he still laughed.

“But the most beautiful of laughs” said the Jester, going glassy eyed “is the laughter at irony. It’s the most painful, the most desperate, the most cutting laugh of them all. It can shatter iron, bring tears to the face. It’s the laughter of God himself, coming through humans. It is the laugher of somebody who has lost such a large part of him that he wants to break down and cry but then realises the STUPIDITY OF IT ALL!!!”

The Jester gets up and paces.

“She’s gone from me! It’ll never be the same!! How can I live in this place?! With this ironic laughter?! DRIVING ME MAD?!?!?!?! $^(%eugh$%^dgfdg (the Jester shouted a string of computer symbols and babble, which is very tough to pronounce, so the psychologist was quite impressed)”

The Jester, having exhausted himself, sat.

The Psychologist put his pen and notepad down, and reached out to the Jester (physically, not emotionally. The Psychologist had never emotionally reached out before and this was no acception)

The Psychologist reached over and took the Jesters hat off. The bells jingled, as if saying their last words. Plastered on it was the word ‘MELODRAMA’. The Psychologist said “here, try it now”

The Jester calmed down. “Yes…yes that’s much better”