“Humor takes the iron out of life without causing anemia”

Humor, according to literature professor Jorge Freire, can make life lighter without making it meaningless. He describes it as “taking the iron out of life without causing anemia,” creating distance from problems while preserving the ability to act.

Freire says people can learn to laugh through literature, philosophy and spiritual practices. These disciplines do not simply explain the world, he argues. They help people step back from it, a condition he considers necessary for irony.

He draws a sharp line between two kinds of laughter. Social media often favors an aggressive, hierarchical form that humiliates others. The better form, which the Greeks called gelos, laughs at the shared, contradictory and ridiculous nature of being human. The first kind, katagelan, targets people and reinforces power; the second can bring people closer.

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Humor takes the iron out of life without causing anemia.

Freire sees laughter as political because democracy requires people with different feelings and opinions to live together. Humor can hold those tensions without turning them into hostility or demanding complete agreement. Laughing together lowers defenses and makes people feel more equal.

He also argues that laughter tests certainty and power. Those who hold power have rarely welcomed being mocked, while laughing at fears, superstitions and obsessions can reduce their grip. Comedy can oppress and shame, he says, but it can also liberate and bring people closer to happiness. As Victor Borge put it, laughter is “the shortest distance between two people.”

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The shortest distance between two people.