Loathing In Las Vegas Analysis

Thoughtful laughter could be described as something that immediately amuses the reader, and simultaneously makes them think about the ideas being presented by the author. In both Candide and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the authors use obvious satire to further develop the themes that they wanted to address.
In Candide, Voltaire portrays him as an overly naive character who believes that he's in the best of all worlds regardless of the countless horrors that he and the people he love must witness and go through. It is done so in a way that the reader laughs because of how ridiculous it all seems for someone to remain optimistic throughout such turmoil, but it also points out our own character flaws. Throughout the novel Voltaire takes jabs at religion, philosophical views, classism, love, etc., so that the reader
Optimism itself isn't bad, but Pangloss's views can be best described as reaching. For instance when Candide asks Pangloss if the devil is responsible for the invention of syphilis, Pangloss replies "Not at all..."it was a thing unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not in an island of America caught this disease, which contaminates the source of life, frequently even hinders generation, and which is evidently opposed to the great end of nature, we should have neither chocolate nor cochineal."(Voltaire 16) His view is that had Columbus not brought syphilis from the new world he wouldn't have been able to bring chocolate or red dye as well, which is certainly not a fair trade off. Pangloss is the exaggeration of sanguine philosophers trying to find any positive explanation in things that just sometimes are truly egregious for no reason. The comedy presented in Voltaire's philosophical mocking is called comedy of ideas; where characters, or in this case Pangloss, represents the foolish ideas of other