Leunig

Yes, there’s a spiritual quality in jokes. I mean I don’t want to say that joking is not part of truth. When you’ve got a good joke you’ve often got a great truth there too, somewhere in there. The lovely thing about humour is not the practised humour, but the spontaneous humour that occurs between people you see. And it’s quite an impulse to joke that the producers of truth, lo and behold, we find ourselves saying something we didn’t think we were saying, you know. And in our jokes we speak our truths that we can’t say seriously. And I like that; the jokey tendency is often a way of accessing what we really feel.

Taking a moment out from my manic preparational activity I’ve been exploring this new Leunig site, found via John Davies. The quote above is a radio one, hence its unpolished quality. It is taken from this interview, one of many linked to from the site. Don’t miss the cartoons and the philosophies, both of which contain some gems.

I’ve been a fan of Leunig’s cartoons for a few years now, but hadn’t any of his books until Ian from Australia kindly sent me one the other day. Thanks Ian, thanks John, thanks everyone.