A sense of humour can also lift a person up from the troubles of everyday life. Any person with a sense of humour is able to laugh at himself and find something funny in the sticky situations he gets into. By laughing at mundane problems, such as accidentally dyeing an entire load of laundry pink or being chased round the block by someone's poodle, he shows that he has, in a way, risen above these problems and, to quote Shakespeare who has a great sense of humour, he was "born in a merry hour."
A sense of humour also prevents people from taking life too seriously and, consequently, from worrying about everything that happens. Needless to say, a person who cannot laugh at life's little ironies - and there are a lot of ironies and worries - will certainly not find life a barrel of chuckles. Once a person has lost his sense of humour, life can become drab.
A sense of humour can also be educationally useful. It allows us to appreciate comedy - not just slapstick and verbal humour, but also black humour and satire which usually have very serious messages to bring across about human nature. By laughing at black comedy or satire in plays, books or movies, we recognise particular traits in ourselves and in our newfound self- knowledge, we can change and correct our faults. A person who cannot find humour in the experience probably will not understand the message and, hence, is unable to edify himself.
A negative aspect which comes to mind where a sense of humour is concerned is that a person might be tempted to take everything too lightly, and nothing seriously. A sense of humour is supposed to lighten the burden of life, not let it slip entirely off our shoulders.
A sense of humour is not finding amusement in someone else's misfortunes. It