van helsing's thoughts on laughter

At one point Van Helsing gives a treatise on laughter which I thought was interesting. How often do we think about something as common as a laugh? What brings it on? Even when we think “I laugh because this is funny” we don’t always go further and think about why it was funny… We know some people have good humor or none, we even recognize that some people have different humors but beyond that do we question why? Maybe there is something more behind humor, something we have no power over. At times we laugh even when we know it will hurt another, or when they have warned us not to laugh, asked us not to, but we do so anyways without ever wanting to hurt the other. Laughter comes without our even wanting it at times and sometimes at the worst times.

A couple of excerpts from Van Helsing’s speech:

“Do not think that I am not sad, though I laugh… But no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come just the same. Keep it always with you that laughter who knocks at your door and say, ‘May I come in?’ is not the true laughter. No! he is a king, and he comes when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no time of suitability. He says, ‘I am here.’"

…

"We men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again; and we bear to go on with our labour, what it may be.”