An Altared Christmas - LIVE in 2007

Do I laugh or cry?
By Professor Taeksmi Upindown

While listening to these “altared” renditions of holiday tunes, or any song for that matter, you may wonder just what emotion you are supposed to have. For example, in “Deck the Halls” (An Altared Christams, Vol. 1), I often find myself experiencing moments of both joy and sadness, particularly when the singer barely manages to sing the line, “Tis the season to be jolly”.

To that, I offer the following theory:
It is often thought that sadness and happiness lie on the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. But if we were to take that straight line and bend it into a circle, we would see that the two emotions are actually very closely related, if not one in the same.

To help us appreciate this dynamic, let’s examine a scene from The Mary Tyler Moore show, episode #127: “Chuckles Bites the Dust.” Perhaps you remember this scene:

In this classic episode, Mary was upset at her fellow workers, as they were making jokes about the death of Chuckles the Clown.

(At the funeral.)
Lou: [low voice] I wonder which ones are the other clowns.

Murray: You’ll know soon. They’re all gonna jump out of a little hearse.

Mary: Oh, Murray! Enough is enough! This is a funeral. A man has died! We came to showrespect, not to laugh.

Murray: I’m sorry, Mary. All right. No more jokes.

Rev. Burns: (beginning the eulogy) Chuckles the Clown brought pleasure to millions. The characters he created will be remembered by children and adults alike: Peter Peanut, Mr. Fee-Fi-Fo, Billy Banana, and my particular favorite, Aunt Yoo Hoo.
(Mary begins to laugh, stifles it, then feigns coughing.)

Rev. Burns: Not just for the laughter that they provided. There was always some deeper meaning to whatever Chuckles did. Mr. Fee-Fi-Fo would always pick himself up, dust himself off, and say, ‘I hurt my foo-foo.’
(Mary stifles another laugh and everybody in the row ahead of her turns around.)

Rev. Burns: From time to time we all fall down and hurt our foo-foos.
(Mary again tries to hide her laughter and everybody assembled looks at her.)

Rev. Burns: And what did Chuckles ask in return? Not much. In his own words: ‘a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.’
(Mary breaks out in loud laughter and everybody looks at her, including Rev. Burns.)

Rev. Burns: Uh, excuse me, young lady. . . (Mary looks behind her but nobody is there.)
Yes, you. Uh, would you stand up, please?

Mary: Uuuh.

Rev. Burns: Please, please, won’t you?
(Mary stands up.)

Rev. Burns: You feel like laughing, don’t you?

Mary: Uh huh. (stifles more laughing and makes futile gestures)

Rev. Burns: Don’t try to hold it back. Go ahead, laugh out loud! Don’t you see, nothing would’ve made Chuckles happier. He lived to make people laugh. Tears were offensive to him, deeply offensive. He hated to see people cry. So, so go ahead, my dear--laugh for Chuckles!

(Pause--then Mary breaks down in uncontrollable crying.)

So you see, even in the real world of television sitcoms, there is often that blurred line where we wonder what the appropriate response is. Mary was sad, she was happy, she was sad again.

In conclusion, all reactions to this music performed this evening, whether be they tears, sobs, guffaws or snickers - they are all good to express and are encouraged.

Cell phone conversations or unrelated chatter on the other hand will be dealt with quickly and severely, and most certainly will result in public humiliation.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my lecture and took appropriate notes. There will be a test on this subject.

Enjoy the show!