The Existential

Nothing really answers this question for us, and ultimately it feels really up to us to answer it for ourselves.

Many times I have felt the overwhelming nature of existentialism. What overwhelms us about the existential is the pondering of a "something" too abstract for us to understand. It makes us feel needlessly trapped in ourselves and conversely at the same time, in the perceived endlessness of the universe. What is out there is not for us to know, but us pondering is not a bad thing.

Because when we forget to question ourselves and our realities, we get too sucked into our own reality and forget how to regulate ourselves mentally.

So is the best option a balance? My opinion? yes, and no.

I believe that it is important to give an equal amount of attention to both extremes. Living only in reality and forgetting abstractness might feel limiting because it disallows freedom of thought, but reality is important. Living only in the abstract might feel limiting because going too far into the existential can make us feel nihilistic, but the abstract is important. We can not accurately perceive our world or ourselves from either extreme.

Where does comedy lay here? Well, what does comedy ask of us?

It demands us to be aware of our condition while maintaining a distance from it. We demand of it a release from our issues while directly confronting them. It pulls the rug out from under us, but then provides a cushion before we fall too deep into the grit of our issues. A joke, when it works, stops our minds from going too deep into an issue. It brings us close to existentialism before grabbing us back to earth. It, just for a moment, gives us a birds eye view of "the bullshit."