Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die. — Mel Brooks

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

Author: Mel Brooks

Insight: Mel Brooks nails something we all feel but rarely say out loud: perspective is everything. We're wired to take our own small problems seriously—a bad day at work, a argument with a friend, a stubbed toe—while finding humor in other people's misfortunes. It's not that we're cruel. It's that distance plus surprise equals laughter. When something bad happens to us, it feels urgent and real. When the same thing happens to someone else, we can suddenly see the absurdity in it. What's tricky is that this gap between tragedy and comedy lives inside all of us simultaneously. You might be devastated about missing a deadline while your coworker finds it hilarious that you panicked over it. Neither of you is wrong. The thing you're taking seriously in this moment might feel genuinely hilarious to you six months from now—or to a stranger right now. This is actually liberating once you notice it. It means some of what feels crushing today has a built-in expiration date on its heaviness. It also means being a little gentler with others' concerns, even the ones that seem obviously small to us, because we're all living inside our own tragedy-to-us that's comedy to someone else.