Literary humor ...

"Humor is not a gift of the spirit, but of the heart." Ludwig Börne Humor is considered as a participant in literature almost from the first written texts. But officially it appears as a product subsequent to classical works and literary genres, as a creative reaction to "get out of the margins" and give a different vision to the existing one. In addition, it should be noted that there are classic works that are satires of the author's reality. Humor has always been a weapon of man; used to fight the misfortunes of life and laugh at them and even their own misfortunes. Seeing life with humor supposes a philosophy not of resignation but of optimism. Warning about the defiant nature of humor, someone said: "When the tyrant can be called a tyrant, humor is no longer necessary", however humor, no matter what happens, is essential to live in a good way: cheerful, quiet, optimistic, etc. Laughter is the best therapy and its companion, mockery is the intelligent weapon that even the most powerful armies have not been able to overcome. "The human being only has an effective weapon: laughter." Mark Twain The life of the humor goes from the folklore of each town (coplas, proverbs, sayings, etc.) to the works of classic and contemporary authors, in addition to the current Internet blogs and the spaces where each person expresses their feelings with their own ingenuity , demonstrating that laughter begins in reality. However, the challenge of humor is not only from the point of view of the issues it addresses but also in the way it does. Artists of all times have used humor to parody and fight the rulers, describing reality in a comical way. To construct an irreverent, ironic, cynical, satirical, sarcastic or burlesque text is not simple, much less it is about improvising, on the contrary, it responds to literary techniques and procedures that can be studied and dominated, to achieve a more effective communication . "The intellectual power of a man is measured by the dose of humor he is able to use." Friedrich Nietzsche The heterodoxy of the Royal Spanish Academy currently admits as humoristic the genre that judges reality highlighting the laughing or ridiculous side of things. And in those words they fit, from the Aristofanesque comedies to the most poetic of the greguerías of Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Some examples for each literary movement are: Antiquity - Homer and the parody of his own epics: "The Batracomiomaquia". In the Greek comedy Aristophanes and Menander stand out, while the Roman comedy offered Plautus, Terence, Horace and Marcial, the latter two using the genre they wanted to see as their own, satire. Middle Ages - Fables and apologetics were very important, as well as the sayings and the so-called "traditional literature". All these compiled by the nobles. The Renaissance - "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri, "Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio, François Rabelais, in his work "Gargantua y Pantagruel" in which he comforted the sick in his days of affliction and took humor as something healing in itself; the miscellanies of Luis Zapata or the "Silva de varia lección" by Pero Mexía; the humor used as a bitter contrast in "La Celestina" by Fernando de Rojas, with this work born the so-called tragicomedias. Used very often in the picaresque novel, especially in its maximum exponent "Lazarillo de Tormes". Others jokes can be find in https://www.shortjoke.net Baroque - Here is the masterpiece of humor "Don Quixote de la Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes, also the comedies of Tirso de Molina and Pedro Calderón de la Barca; Francisco de Quevedo and his games of wit, his epigrams and satires. In England William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson wrote excellent comedies, tragi-comedy and satire. 18th century - Voltaire stood out for the use of ironic humor, Jonathan Swift for his black humor, In Spain, Diego de Torres and Villarroel, León de Arroyal and doctor Manuel Casal stand out. Fables or broad satires in verse are also famous. Lawrence Sterne also stands out for its originality, with his work "Tristram Shandy". 19th century - Writers like Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Oscar Wilde. Through the press and political satire appears the work of Juan Martínez Villergas, the "Fables" by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, the humor magazines created by Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco and the poetic work, mainly political satire, by Miguel Agustín Príncipe . The finely ironic humor of the realistic novel by Juan Valera, as well as satirical articles by Leopoldo Alas and other authors who are members of the well-known Bilis club. ehouse, David Lodge, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, and Terry Pratchett (England); Cecil Saint-Laurent and Pierre Daninos (France); Giovanni Guareschi, Pitigrilli and Darío Fo (Italy); Álvarez Quintero, Carlos Arniches, Pedro Muñoz Seca, creator of the astracanada theatrical formula, Wenceslao Fernández Flórez and the creator of the greguería, Ramón Gómez de la Serna (Spain); Paco Poblet, author of the satirical novel "Viuda de Adán e Hijos", Conrado Nalé Roxlo, Roberto Fontanarrosa and Joaquín Lavado (Argentina); Alfredo Bryce Echenique (Peru); and occasionally Julio Cortázar with "Historias de cronopios y de famas" or in stories like "Do not blame anyone." "At the end of the day, everything is a joke." Charles Chaplin