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That's part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don't know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That's John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.

John Lennon#8

PoliticsHumorStrategySurvival

About this quote

What does it mean?
Using humor helps avoid serious conflict because opponents do not know how to handle it, noting that serious figures often face violence.
In plain terms
Humor protects you because enemies cannot handle it.
What can you take from it?
Use humor to deflect serious opposition.

Where it applies

  • political debates
  • public scrutiny

Putting it to work

  • use satire
  • maintain lightness

Questions to consider

  • How do you handle hostility?
  • Is humor a valid defense?

Another view

Humor can sometimes undermine serious messages.

More from John Lennon

  1. We thought being offered the M.B.E. [Member of the Order of the British Empire] was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? We didn't believe…

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  2. What's Bagism? It's like... a tag for what we all do, we're all in a bag ya know, and we realised that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round…

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  3. If art were to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness.

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