Jan 13, 2018
"In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy
stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose, is
an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of our
helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane.
I read a book about the Donner party who, on the way to California,
missed the route and were snowbound in the mountains of Sierra
Nevada.
Out of one hundred and sixty pioneers only eighteen survived, most
of them dying of hunger and cold. Some resorted to cannibalism,
eating their dead, others roasted their moccasins to relieve their
hunger.
Out of this harrowing tragedy I conceived one of our funniest
scenes.
In dire hunger I boil my shoe and eat it, picking the nails as
though they were bones of a delicious capon, and eating the
shoe-laces as though they were spaghetti.
In this delirium of hunger, my partner is convinced I am a chicken
and wants to eat me." - Charlie Chaplin
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