Abstract

This chapter describes the move from one resilient tradition in the philosophy of laughter, Homo ridens, or the laughing human being, to a newer tradition, Homo risibilis, or the ridiculous human being. Born from the former’s laugh at the other, Homo risibilis latter needs nurturing because it is predicated on referring that laughter to one's self, first, and then embracing in it the entire human condition. After describing each tradition of laughter, also in their relations to neighboring views, this chapter examines the viability, prevalence, and desirability of self-referential laughter. It tracks its presence in philosophers of laughter through a logic of laughing which discloses that, usually after a metanoia or change of heart from the tragic to the comic, laughing at the other may be reoriented towards self-referential laughter; and, by repeating the movement that associates laughing at another with laughing at self, the other is seen as one’s self, and one’s self as another, which enables us to abide in perpetual cheerfulness.Finally, this chapter introduces a comprehensive philosophy, Homo risibilis, which by the sole use of self-referential laughter grants the highest benefits, both epistemological and emotional: rather than laughing at the other, Homo risibilis indicates how to laugh with, rather than at, oneself, as if one were another.