Well, I’m not sure why, because there is plenty of dark humour in his plays like Waiting For Godot, but I just never think of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) as a laughing kind of man so I was startled by this wonderful photograph of the man, not just laughing, but, well, corpsing. It is truly charming and, for any of us feeling a bit down at the moment, inspiring. If, after-all, Beckett can laugh, well, then I’m pretty damned sure I can too even though I’ve got the ‘flu.
Here’s a Beckett joke: “There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet.” – well I thought it was funny.
I’m indebted to the fine Irish poet Noel Duffy for this Utube clip of another Irish poet, the charming John Montague, who has some amusing Beckett anecdotes: