It ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the lack of humor in situations where laughter is expected or needed.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the importance of humor in social contexts, suggesting that failing to be funny when the audience is eager for enjoyment is a moral failing. This statement reflects his belief that laughter is a vital element of human connection and should be acknowledged in circumstances where it is socially appropriate to be amused.
In practice
During a comedy night where the audience expects entertainment.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
I don't do jokes. The characters are my jokes.
Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.
I think when I was young, let's call it high school, and even before that, I just loved comedy, and I loved comedians. I grew up watching Laurel and Hardy. That's really a long time ago. I loved Jerry Lewis. I just loved comedians.
Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
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