Once you study humor, it's not so funny.

Here's from one of my fav. letters by Sam, to Wm. Kennedy 13 July-31 Oct,
1888

"I have a superstition that humor is as much a part of a human being as it
is of God himself, who made it, enjoys it, and has exhibited his fondness
for it by casting examples and exponents of it in incredible number and
infinite variety of form--form whose fantastic animal and vegetable designs
relieve with ever-recurring levities the vast gravity of nature, and in
whose long procession you find things to charm and content all tastes; the
artillery bug and the squid, the insectivorous plant and the jackass, the
kitten and the polecat; and along down at the end, among the 'citizens in
carriages and on foot,' you observe Burdette and the monkey and me."

(Sam continues to discuss differences in national humors and why American
humor is different---"The more sunshine and the easier the life, the greater
the measure of humor will rise to the top.")

"The thing called American humor is misnamed; it has no patent, it is not
peculiar, it is mere human humor, with the pressure lifted off, its chains
broken, its spirit set free. Only once, in the world's history, have we seen
a nation enjoying these several things all at the same time: a bright sky, a
general freedom from the depressing bread-and-meat cares of life, and every
man entitled to hold his head as high as his neighbor's. The result is the
only example in history of human humor not in a state of arrested
development."

(Take that, blame-America-first crowd).