There aren’t many people who are worthy of the distinction of someone who has solved comedy. There’s plenty of examples (George Carlin, Robin Williams, and Chris Farley, just to name a few), but they’re about as elusive as any of the universe’s deepest secrets.
Today, TikTok‘s @kevinthomason has joined this eclectic cast of jokesters, and the pride with which he carries this accomplishment is truly radiant.
You see, the greatest of the Gods of Guffaws are capable of glancing in any general direction, and picking out funny things that have happened there over the course of history. Kevin has one such eye; an eye that quite easily spotted the slickly-parted mud and abandoned sneaker that served as proof of a truly spectacular faceplant. Indeed, Kevin was in the residual presence of a kindred spirit of Larry, Curly, and Moe.
It’s not until he turns the camera back on himself, pondering what became of the muddy victim, that we catch a glimpse of the gargantuan brown smear coating the side of his face, casually outing himself as the very stooge that his heart goes out to. Setup, delivery, punchline; Kevin has served up a textbook comedy club sandwich.
One other little known fact about humor is that comedians attract comedians; the comments section was packed to the brim with team players asking for an update whenever Kevin stumbled upon the poor soul that became far too intimate with his front lawn. Others offered their best wishes for the slip-savvy character in hopes that they make a full recovery, whether it be from a chipped tooth, broken nose, or chronic embarrassment.
Now, we don’t actually see Kevin fall in the video, but that would have probably done just as fine a job of extrapolating chuckles from us, and there’s science to that silliness as well. According to psychologist Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, the reasons we laugh at something like watching someone fall range from being surprised at the incident, being struck funny by their resulting facial expression, or “externaliz[ing] our relief at not being in the shoes of that unfortunate person.” Moreover, the late philosopher Henri Bergson once suggested that we’re incentivized to laugh at reckless behavior so that we all pay attention to the world around us, lest we end up as the one who’s laughed at.
Indeed, there’s an undeniable fascination with thinking deeply about something that’s fundamentally not meant to be taken seriously, even if “haha he pretended that someone else fell but it was actually him,” is about all we need to confidently and satisfactorily press ahead with our day.
