One day in the newsroom, we were discussing a new horror movie, and one of the anchors asked, "Which do you think is harder? Comedy or horror?" I answered instantly: "Comedy."
Scaring somebody is simple. My children can do it, simply by creeping up silently and shouting, "Boo!" And they frequently do. It's one of their delights.
But to really frighten someone, to horrify them. To make something that will haunt your days and, worse yet, your nights for some time to come, that would be a real art. It takes some skill and study to discover the things that reach directly into the lizard brain, that core evolutionary part of the human mind that tells the animal we came from when to be afraid. And to find that place which, on good days, lets us sense the divine. On bad days, it makes us aware that there is something bigger, infinitely more powerful, and possible truly evil in a way that we can only vaguely comprehend.
Comedy, though, what a delicate balance. What is truly funny? And is what is funny to some funny to all? Is there a place, like that cold node of fear, in our mind that can always be addressed to make us laugh? I'm not sure, but I tend to think no.
Dying is easy; comedy is hard
-- Last words of British actor Edmund Kean, 1833
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