And yet their sense of humor isn’t vicious or mean, but arises from a magnanimity that would not exclude from the circle of its liveliness anyone willing to admit to themselves the foibles of their own doing. Nor would it seek to diminish the dignity of the person or object whose circumstance or action precipitates the moment of laughter, but to allow that dignity to be dressed, if fleetingly, in the absurdity that belongs sometimes to our condition.