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we have relied on so heavily thus far are derived from the comic theory of
Henri Bergson. While not totally subscribing to Bergson s theory of comedy,
we follow him in holding that the appeal made by such themes is an appeal
to intelligence. We are interested in Bergson s approach because there is a
close correspondence between his theory of comedy and Keaton s practice
of comedy in The General. Though Bergson s theory may not be convincing
as a comprehensive philosophy of comedy, it is useful critically for discussing
Keaton s automatism gags.
While we are not suggesting any awareness on Keaton s part of Bergson s
theory, the latter can illuminate Keaton s work since in both the theoretical
work of Bergson and the applied, artistic approach of Keaton there is an espe-
cially high premium placed on responsiveness to the environment. Thus, the
two appear to be in agreement on the relevance for comedy of the themes
of adjustability and adaptability.
In Bergson, comedy performs a utilitarian function. Laughter is a social
corrective. It draws people away from undesirable modes of behavior. For
Bergson, the most undesirable form of behavior is that which is rote, habitu-
ated, or routinized, that is, mechanical in the most negative sense. Laughter
is meant to humiliate those who do not meet certain standards of intelligence.
The absent-minded, the inflexible, the unobservant are all to be chastised
by comedy and thereby driven to  wide-awake adaptability and the living
pliability of a human being. 17 For Bergson, terms such as inelasticity, inflex-
ibility, and rigidity carry special deprecation. Bergson stigmatized any tendency
of human life that relaxed a willingness to apprehend each situation in its
novelty. Intelligence, in this framework, becomes the ability to grapple with
and adjust to each new situation.
Bergson s theory of comedy, like his theorizing in general, is heavily
influenced by his conception of evolution. Indeed, Bergson writes of comedy s
role in society in terms of the way it fosters survival by conditioning people
away from complacent, absent-minded, inattentive, rigid, inflexible, inelas-
tic, mechanical, and automatic thinking. For Bergson, laughter becomes a
device that enables the human race to survive insofar as it excoriates risky
or dangerous habits of thought. Clearly, Bergson s interests in evolution also
color his idea of intelligence, because intelligence is identified with all that
46 Themes of The General
thought should be and not be. Intelligence, thus, is implicitly characterized
as adaptability and adjustability, rather than, say, knowledgeability.18 Bergson s
grand scheme does have flaws in it. After all, comic ridicule may serve the
most conservative and rigid viewpoints. Bergson does not consider such objec-
tions to his theory. But such objections are irrelevant to our use of Bergson,
since we are only interested in the correspondence between Bergson and
Keaton, and not in whether Bergson s approach affords a complete overview
of the nature of comedy.
Though Keaton has nothing to contribute on the score of laughter s
function in society, he does appear to share with Bergson a conception of
intelligence as adaptability. In The General, the bulk of gags involving
inattention and automatism all seem to presuppose a picture of the mental
operations of characters like Johnnie as fixated on an idea of a situation and
as heedless of the need to constantly enrich that map with fresh details from
the environment. Johnnie, in the automatism and inattention gags, seems
incredibly absent-minded and one-track-minded. His stupidities illuminate what
would be the contrary state of affairs, namely, one in which the character
is intelligent. The content of that conception of intelligence is embodied in
the audience s recognition of how the character ought to be behaving and
adapting. The content of that conception of intelligence in Keaton s The General
is coincident with adaptability.
Given that Keaton was unaware of Bergson s theory, we may wonder about [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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