说起第16任美国总统亚伯拉罕•林肯,很多人会立即想起他对解放黑奴和维护美利坚联邦完整所做出的巨大贡献,想起他能言善辩的口才和妙语连珠的演讲,但却很少有人知道,林肯的“幽默感”也开创了一个新时代。
Something that has always intrigued1 me about Abraham Lincoln is, not surprisingly, his sense of humor. As far as I can tell, he’s the first American President to have one.
That’s because the term “sense of humor” really wasn’t in common usage until the eighteen-sixties and seventies. In the eighteen-forties and fifties, it was called “the sense of the ridiculous,” and didn’t have the positive connotations2 that “sense of humor” has today. Back then, what was ridiculous was what invited ridicule3. Funniness and cruelty went hand in hand. Of course, they still do a lot of arm-in-arm strolling in our day as well.4
Lincoln’s humor was very different because, for one thing, it was actually “humor” as the word was defined in his time. We don’t make the distinction between “wit” and “humor” anymore, but in the nineteenth century people did. Wit was sarcastic and antipathetic while humor was congenial and empathetic.5 It’s the differ—ence we note now when we distinguish between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” Lincoln was much more about “laughing with” than “laughing at.” And when “laughing at,” it was often himself he was mocking.
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