Humour of the absurd, of which Lewis Carroll[8] was a master, deserves to have a comeback. Parody and satire, as practiced by Craig Brown and Private Eye, still contribute greatly to the gaiety of the nation, but too much of what passes for comedy on radio and television today is just vulgar and cruel.[9] And such “cutting-edge humour” is especially lowering in grim economic times.[10] What we now need to cheer us are kindly jokes with no targets or victims.

Here’s another one of my father’s (though perhaps not his funniest): two residents of a lunatic asylum are sitting in deckchairs by the sea when a passing seagull releases a dropping on to the bald head of one of them.[11] An attentive warder says he will run and get some lavatory paper.[12] “He must be as crazy as we are,” says the other lunatic. “By the time he gets back, the seagull will be miles away.”

Vocabulary

1. moo: 牛叫声;irritably: 急躁地，易怒地。

2. cutting edge: 深刻的，敏锐的。

3. push at the boundaries: 指现在人们开玩笑有些“越界”，为追求效果不择手段。

4. Trafalgar Square: 特拉法尔加广场，位于伦敦市中心。

5. keen: 热衷的，渴望的。

6. audition: 试音。

7. thumbs-down: 表示反对或拒绝的手势;bass: 低音;baritone: 中音。

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