Humor, psychologists tell us, is a coping mechanism. That is, it's easier for us to tolerate something if we can laugh at it.
That takes strength of character, though. So while a kid will giggle when a clown blows a raspberry, people will laugh at something that's painful or tragic only when they have lived long enough to know that other reactions are worse. I mean, crying and raging are less healthful than laughing. Research shows that humor is even an aid in the aging process, and we're all getting older, you know.
So it was reassuring that people were laughing, chortling, chuckling, guffawing and snorting here two nights this week as they took in a musical show poking fun at New York state government. We New Yorkers are seasoned folks, after all, possessed of great character as a result of the tribulations we have recently encountered, like dreadfully wet spring weather and ridiculously corrupt politicians.
Altogether now, let's be mature enough to laugh at the fact that so far in June we've gotten triple the normal rainfall in Albany and so far in 2013 the state Legislature is on its way to a record number of indictments in a single session. Ha ha ha ha.
Doesn't that feel better?
Maybe I haven't given you enough of the flavor of the Legislative Correspondents Association show, the nation's longest-running political spoof staged by journalists. This week's show was the 113th time the reporters who cover state government in Albany have taken to the stage to help us laugh at official behavior that otherwise might evoke less salubrious emotions.
As a public service, I'll offer you some views into what you missed, in case you didn't ante up the $300-a-plate admission fee (partly for charity) or have the connections to get into the well-attended dress rehearsal.
Actually, the recent arrests of a few legislators made up just a minor element of the farcical LCA plot (to the extent any story line could be recognized). It's almost not worth fictionalizing what really happened criminally, according to prosecutors, with state senators blithely incriminating themselves on hidden microphones worn by fellow legislators or trying to bribe their way onto a ballot line that couldn't yield victory in any case.
What got a lot of laughs was the way the cast of Albany characters was shown viewing Gov. Andrew Cuomo, from the obligatory adoration of his aides to the suspicions of presidential ambition among his opponents.
NewsChannel 13's Phil Bayly, for example, offered a resonant baritone portrayal of Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy as a sycophant, to the tune of "God Bless America":
God bless the Governor,
Handsome and wise.
As a ruler, no one's cooler.
We'd be dead if not led by this guy.
The presumed 2016 White House campaign of Hillary Clinton, which would surely derail a Cuomo candidacy, was posed as a muscular dare by New York Public Radio's Karen DeWitt, to the tune of "You're 16":
I don't like satin and pearls,
Not like most girls.
Brass knuckles suit me just fine.
In '16, I'll clobber him,
He'll be mine.
Does humor often reveal hidden truths?
If you believe that reporters who practically live in the Capitol really see what's going on politically, then you would conclude that journalists consider the adulatory public relations machine of the Executive Chamber to be silly, and the former secretary of state to be itching to take out the ambitious governor if he dares to challenge her presidential bid.
Ambition is not a trait unique to the governor, of course, and it's ripe to be pricked by reporters' lyrics wherever it appears. Westchester County's Andrea Stewart-Cousins, leader of the state Senate Democrats, took aim at the handful fellow Democrats led by Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx, who allied with the Republicans to create a ruling coalition, in a version of "Over the Rainbow" that was given a lilting rendition by NY1's Erin Billups:
Someday I will be leader,
Wait and see.
Jeff Klein's IDC traitors
Soon will be crushed by me.
Issues, too, got their airing. At the end of the show's first act, Cuomo, portrayed by Gannett's Jon Campbell, led the imagined motley crew of pols and hangers-on in a version of the Notre Dame victory march that revealed what reporters seemingly imagine to be the governor's (currently hidden) agenda:
Dig, dig up the Southern Tier
Blow off the wackos, nothing to fear.
Drill more gas wells, drill 'em deep.
Fracking for dollars we will keep.
You may chalk up all this to the cynicism of journalists inclined to see tawdry and ugly instead of the sincerity in service that truly characterizes our public officials.
But if you read the newspaper regularly, you may just laugh and shake your head, and recall what Shakespeare wrote in "King Lear": "Jesters do oft prove prophets."