Comedians committing suicide. Whose fault is it?

On August 11, 2014 Hollywood was in utter shock; slowly the news spread across the world, and everyone watching the TV screen was dumbfounded. Robin Williams, the man who has made the world laugh, the man who has made us believe in the beauty of laughter, the man who still continues to jump on Flubber on the screen, the man who devoted his life to entertaining the world, the same man decided that he had had enough of this world. On August 11, 2014, he decided to take his own life. 

Our shock at the news still continues to betray our misconceptions regarding comedians. Robin Williams’ suicide was not an anomaly, unfortunately it may not even be the last one, numerous famous comedians have followed the same approach. A day comes when the person who has stood on stage all his life making people laugh, does not want the same laughing people to see him anymore. This is irony at its purest.  

We usually believe that comedians love people, and that is why they want to bring happiness to others’ faces. This is a mistaken belief. Comedians do not make people laugh because they want to entertain them, rather they make people laugh after dragging them into the abyss of darkness that is so deep and distant that seeing light in it is an act of absurd hope, the only correct response to the exposure to such dark truth is resigned hopeless laughter. Laughter originates from hopelessness, such a contradictory remark requires an example to remove the element of contradiction in it. Ed Sheeran is loved by everyone, he is the sweetest musician alive perhaps, well who would not want him to run the world, he should be made the president of the UN, he is the right man to correct every wrong in this world, because he knows how to make this world a better place to live through his music. Hopefully you are smiling by now, perhaps chuckling, if you are not then you do not have a good sense of humor. Why does this provoke laughter? Simply because it is impossible for Ed Sheeran to become President. Political jokes are mostly in this category of jokes, called satire. It presents a scenario that can never happen in reality, all you can do is laugh at it. 

Life is a tragic-comedy, and no one other than comedians know this better. This perspective on life requires squinted eyes, one focused on tragedy, the other on comedy. Since both of these elements can only co-exist without dissolving into a unity, they have to be properly kept apart by comedians. The description of tragedy in comical rhetoric achieves the improbable. It keeps the audience laughing, pushes them to think about what is going on, and simultaneously make the politicians laugh. Everyone likes a comedian, because he makes fun of everyone, the leftists think the comedian is making fun of the right wingers, the right wingers think the comedian is making fun of the leftists. Comedian is the only figure who can make fun of everyone and still be loved by everyone, opposition and government alike. And this is precisely the truth of comedy, everyone laughs, and no one takes anything seriously; the status quo remains unchallenged. That is the tragic condition for a professional comedian. He is loved by everyone in public, he is hated by himself in privacy. 

Comedians live through life as tragic-comedy. They experience it every day, they witness tragedy played out everyday on streets, in political assemblies, reported in newspapers. That’s the raw material from which they make people laugh; to transform a dying person on street into a comical character is an extremely difficult artistic feat to accomplish. It is our mistake to consider comedy shows as entertainment shows, they are tragic shows. And maybe if we start considering them tragic shows the suicide rate amongst comedians will go down significantly.