Long live humour

You have published a few letters responding to the very amusing spoof by Ian McLaren (Letters, 5 October). The reactions his letter has provoked must be addressed, as they raise an issue which concerns other aspects of life in the early 21st century.

As anyone who has had to cope with a close relative who has suffered from any form of mental illness will be aware, it is deeply worrying and it causes one to examine how one can cope, especially when that person is deeply loved.

When my family had such an experience, the consequences of the often bizarre behaviour that resulted from the illness left us with two choices. We could either weep or laugh.

Not unnaturally, we chose the latter option and it was a terrific relief. Indeed, that is the function of humour – to act as a release for stress.

If we simply bottle up all the grief and treat everything as if it were a calamity, then the recovery process will never kick in. Long live humour, I say. It is essential, and attempts to prevent serious matters like mental health, racism and sexism being made the subject of jokes are highly dangerous, both for individuals and for society as a whole.

A society that condemns such a positive take on life, including the downside, is not the sort of society in which I, for one, would want to live.

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh