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“We must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature — or go insane.” — Charlie Chaplin
In the unravelling, in the insanity and brutality of our world, in our powerlessness, when our leaders’ actions are out of sync with humanity's needs, when legacy media enact scenes out of Orwell’s 1984, there is one thing we can hold onto and cherish: our laughter.
When trouble descends on the world, if we do not turn to despair, Charlie Chaplin reflected, one resorts either to philosophy or humour.
Laughter is subversive, it’s a form of resistance. Fascists and aspiring authoritarians have always despised our ability to laugh and be joyful. Even more so when they are the source of our laughter. What unites many of the real or aspiring authoritarian figures in our countries is a lust for power, coupled with gigantic albeit fragile egos, desperately seeking adoration.
So instead of giving them what they seek: our attention and our outrage, we should laugh. Enter, the comedian, these brave souls whose practice consists in ridiculing themselves first in order to elicit laughter from the audience. In these dark times, it is no mean feat to be able to take the world’s pain and make us laugh. And like many artists, comedians remain the few voices willing to challenge power, or punch up, and who remind us, through laughter, of our common humanity.
Charlie Chaplin, whose precarious childhood in London led him onto the stage at a young age, once declared “I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.” To this day, Chaplin remains one of the most well known and much loved comedians, who through his characters like the little Tramp, provided visionary critiques of society’s failures, with wit and tenderness. Even though he made a fortune in Hollywood and was sought after by heads of states, he always stood on the side of the immigrant, the refugee, the factory worker, the poor.
When Hitler came to power in the 1930s and adorned the same moustache as Chaplin, the physical similarities were so uncanny, a friend suggested he write a satire. He eventually did and The Great Dictator, which came out in 1940, was a story of mistaken identity between the dictator and a Jewish Barber, Chaplin playing both characters. The film ends with the best political speech never made.
However, rarely are those who challenge power celebrated by the majority. His film proved too controversial. The United States (and Britain) had still not made up their minds about Hitler, antisemitism was widespread and many people were supportive of the nazi ideology. Hollywood shunned him, he was told his film would be censored, but Chaplin did not back down and used his own money to fund its production.
“For me the funniest thing in the world is to ridicule imposters and conceited people in high places. The greater the imposter you take on, the better… [Hitler] was the best target in the world for satire and mockery,“ he said. (He later writes in his autobiography that had he known about the concentration camps and the ‘homicidal insanity of the Nazis,’ he could not have made the film.)
Chaplin’s work was unapologetically political and he wanted to persuade America to take the right stand. This made him the victim of malicious attacks by the press, politicians, and Hollywood. Even though the film became a huge success, and the Second World War ended in victory over Hitler, the US soon became engulfed in the anti-communism craze, known as the ‘red scare,’ or McCarthyism, after the senator who led the witch hunts. Tactics and behaviours we are witnessing today.
Character assassinations, FBI investigations and other threats continued for over a decade, until eventually, while travelling to Britain with his family, he was told he would not be allowed to return to the US. It was 20 years before he returned and was welcomed by the film industry with a series of awards, and apparently, the longest standing ovation in its history.
Funny how it is only in hindsight that everyone celebrates the brave outspoken moral voices, yet remain silent when it matters.
While laughing can be a distraction, a relief, a way to seek consolation, it is also a tool, a form of resistance, a weapon against mad leaders and their destructive powers. Anyone who is driven by hate, greed or lust for power is not only ridiculous but most likely miserable. Hate is neither funny nor nourishing.
So we must save our breath for laughter. When we laugh, it’s a physical release, a letting go, we are present in our bodies, usually in communion with others, it’s a way of being truer to ourselves. Perhaps laughter can even awaken moral courage.
Words, Veronica Yates and illustration, Miriam Sugranyes
See also: The Need for Laughter / Joy as Fuel / The Artist as Historian
My Autobiography, Charlie Chaplin.
The Great Dictator, MCMXL Charles Chaplin Films Collection.
‘Filming The Great Dictator,’ Charlie Chaplin website. Read here.
Final speech from the Great Dictator here.
‘Charlie Chaplin: His Life and Work.’ Documentary by The Great British Channel. Watch online.
‘Chaplin Today: The Great Dictator - Documentary by Serge Toubiana with Costa-Gavras.’ Watch here.
‘The Great Dictator: The film that dared to laugh at Hitler,’ Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture, 5 February 2021. Read here.
‘Fighting fascism: Political lessons from Charlie Chaplin,’ Len Yannielli, People’s World, February 21, 2025. Read here.
‘Laughter: An essay on the meaning of the comic,’ Henri Bergson. Read online here.
‘Introduction to Moral Dimensions of Humour: Essays on Humans, Heroes and Monsters,’ B. Nickl & M. Rolfe. (Eds.), 2024. Tampere: Tampere University Press, 13–21. Read here.
‘Social Justice Jihadi,’ Sammy Obeid. Watch here.
‘Monsoon Season,’ Vidura Bandara, 1 August 2023. Full Comedy Special here.
The Guilty Feminist Podcast, with Deborah-Frances White here.
‘Winning Is EVERYTHING, Right?’ Sindhu Vee - Live At The Apollo 2019. Watch here.
‘Totally Normal,’ Nazeem Hussain. Full Comedy Special, 2025, here.
Led By Donkeys: Art, activism and accountability. Highlights, ‘Yes, it’s a Genocide’ and ‘Musk and German elections’.
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“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
“From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, … but nothing I did before the age of 70 was worthy of attention. At 73, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am 86, so that by 90 I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At 100, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at 130, 140, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.”— Katsushika Hokusai, also known as Gakyō Rōjin Manji (The Old Man Mad About Art)
“I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.” — Charlie Chaplin
"I’m aware, you know, that I and the people I love may perish in the morning. I know that. But there’s light on our faces now." — James Baldwin
"Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior … It is the story, not the others, that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind."– Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah
