President Abraham Lincoln probably gave the best definition of humor when he said, " I laugh, because I must not cry."

That's exactly what the nature of humor. Whether it's written humor, from gags to jokes we get daily in e-mails; or visual humor, from cartoons to television sitcoms and the like. The purpose is always to express the truth in another manner that softens the hurt. Like slapping someone with reality wrapped in a pillow.

It is puzzling then that this humor; this uniquely human activity of laughter, by laughter, for laughter that everyone professes to like and to have is one of the most misunderstood forms of communication.The humorous elicit the most serious arguments and debate. Especially in these times of over sensitivity for 'political correctness' and self-esteem, people are more apt to get their backs up at the slightest perceived jab at their particular causes and fancies.

The irony of humor is that the foundation of comedy is tragedy.

Think of every joke you've told; every cartoon you've laughed at; every funny movie and situation comedy you have watched. And you'll realize that all of them, without exception, are premised on what we can term as tragic themes.Dumb and dumber is about two idiotic guys commiting all these dumb things.We find every act funny.But if you want to be serious about it, there's nothing funny about the mentally deficient.Every I love Lucy Show is based on another dumb blonde joke as Lucy gets into another stupid situation and worsens her predicament as she tries to extricate herself from them. Every exagerration Frank de Lima uses in the way Filipinos speak, the Japanese act and the Chinese do business are so funny in the truth that lies in the corner of our head. We laugh because the exagerrations make us recognize them easier. But whether it's a cartoon or a one-line joke, they all are still based on reality.And that is tragedy.

The main difference between comedy and tragedy then is not in the subject. Because all subjects are realirt. It is not in the theme. All themes are serious. The difference is in the attitude in communicating them. Tragedy communicates to elicit sympathy to a plight. When my house burns down and I want you to be sympathetic to my fortune, I communicate this in the most serious way; describing the fire, the firetrucks, the losses. I picture the house in ashes and ruin. All designed to make you sad with me.

Comedy communicates in another manner that makes me "not cry" with me.To look for a humorous relief or at best to lighten the tragic load of the situation.I picture firemen toasting marshmallows around the raging inferno of my house.

It's only when people mistake or misread the two attitudes that debates on what is proper, what is funny and not funny arise.When Gus Arriola draws a cartoon ( Gordo) about a fat, lazy Mexican,Mexicans are up in arms because they say Arriola is saying all Mexicans are fat and lazy. He is not. Gordo is fat and lazy.When Pat Oliphant drew blacks looting a store in the Detroit riot, the Blacks claimed racism because Oliphant was saying blacks were looters. He was not.Oliphant would have drawn those looters polka-dotted if they were polkadotted.

You'll always find someone who will read the wrong thing in humor.When I draw Martin Luther King, I'd always get a letter or a phone call from someone accusing me of racism because I draw him with kinky hair and big lips.When I draw China's Jiang with big teeth and small eyes, I get the same reaction. But have you seen their pictures lately?

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