From: the.wise.one@abel.co.uk   
      
        "Comedy can deal with the bitterest realities, the most cruel   
   facts.  It can tackle the most vital problems. Beaumarchais' Mariage de   
   Figaro was revolutionary in spirit.  It was the first outcry against   
   aristocracy and caused a severe tremor in the eighteenth century.  Yet   
   it was a comedy because, as Figaro himself said, he had to laugh to keep   
   himself from crying.  Among the Japanese it is held a virtue to laugh   
   when receiving bad news, thus avoiding an unseemly display of emotion.   
   All over the world people use humour as a shield against grief.  Only   
   comedies can fight against injustice and at the same time elude the   
   censor.  In fun we can get nearer to human understanding, nearer to   
   final truth than in all seriousness."   
      
      
   -- Alberto Cavalcanti   
   "Comedies and Cartoons", in Footnotes to The Film, 1938   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)