It ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the lack of humor in situations where laughter is expected or needed.
Christopher Hitchens highlights the importance of humor in social contexts, suggesting that failing to be funny when the audience is eager for enjoyment is a moral failing. This statement reflects his belief that laughter is a vital element of human connection and should be acknowledged in circumstances where it is socially appropriate to be amused.
In practice
During a comedy night where the audience expects entertainment.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
I've been to many funerals of funny people, and they're some of the funniest days you'll ever have, because the emotions run high.
You can't study comedy; it's within you. It's a personality. My humor is an attitude.
I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.
Oh, Jeeves,' I said; 'about that check suit.' Yes, sir?' Is it really a frost?' A trifle too bizarre, sir, in my opinion.' But lots of fellows have asked me who my tailor is.' Doubtless in order to avoid him, sir.' He's supposed to be one of the best men in London.' I am saying nothing against his moral character, sir.
The same ten minutes that magazines urge me to use for sit-ups and triceps dips, I used for sobbing.
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