What's funny? Terry Eagleton on Humour

Whether sassing Saussure, larking with Lukács or having a jaff with Julia Kristeva, a sharp sense of humour has been a characteristic of all Terry Eagleton’s work as a literary theorist and critic. Now, in Humour (Yale), he casts his penetrating eye over wit more widely. Why do we laugh? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define comedy?
There were some great questions for Terry, starting here: 25:27
Eagleton was speaking at the London Review Bookshop on 10 June 2019.
Read Eagleton's extremely funny piece about the Earl of Portsmouth in the LRB: lrb.me/eagletonpieceyt
Read more Eagleton in the LRB: lrb.me/eagletonyt
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[@shabirmagami146]

wow... mesmerizing ..brilliant lecture. Thank you

[@paulmatters2641]

Brilliant and very funny.

[@Alex0Hamilton]

Thatnks good lecture. At the begining Terry mentioned middle class woman's laughter as tinklying., as well as how animals don't laugh. A few years ago I was reserching rats, in particular thier social set ups, I learnt that rats do have laugher, which is also called tinkling.......

[@tonycarton8054]

a brilliant speaker ,addresses the compulsion of logic with the tyranny of anarchic reality ………...you can see his Irish background seeping through

He's from Salford where half the Catholics had very recent Irish descent, but Salfordian is what he is. Equally important is that before Cambridge he went to the top direct grant maintained Catholic Grammar School, St John The Baptist, De La Salle, Pendleton, run by Christian Brothers of that order. A bit strict, it was essential that a sense of humour was had and maintained, and Eagleton is simply typical of all my DLS Old Boy pals and the majority of OBs per se.

[@1330m]

very nice , good semiosis Longitude 127 Seoul Okinawa Soul Axis -- Bahai Faith Rael Jesus Huh kyung young Great aletheia .

[@thelaughingphilosopher2421]

Not funny.

[@Nai61a]

What's funny? Not Terry Eagleton, apparently.

[@LRBshop]

Mean!

[@Nai61a]

London Review Bookshop. I know. Naughty rather than mean ... I hope.

[@Nai61a]

@ Thank you. "With" rather than "at", I hope!

@@Nai61a No, at is what I meant. The seeming self-sufficiency of the ignorant endlessly amuses.

[@Nai61a]

@ And the absence of a sense of humour displayed by the pompous and self-important is, for me, a source of endless amusement.