Le Rire ("Laughter") was a successful French humor magazine published from October 1894 through the 1950s. Founded in Paris during the Belle Époque by Felix Juven, Le Rire appeared as typical Parisians began to achieve more education, income and leisure time. Interest in the arts, culture and politics intensified during the Gay Nineties. Publications like this helped satisfy such curiosity. It was the most successful of all the "Journaux Humoristiques."
The Dreyfus Affair occurred in 1894 and Le Rire was one of many publications to tap anti-Republican sentiment in wake of that scandal. It was a time in which French governance was frequently characterized by corruption and mismanagement. Government ministers and military officials became frequent targets.
The satirical journal was filled with excellent drawings by prominent artists. It featured full-page chromotypographs on both covers and in the centerfold. Many of these pieces are now highly desirable collectibles. The most prominent contributor was Théophile Steinlen. His illustrations were biting caricatures of the political "jackasses" of the day. Illustrations were contributed by well-known artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Georges Goursat, René Georges Hermann-Paul, Juan Gris, Lucien Metivet, Georges Meunier, Jean-Louis Forain, Adolphe Willette, Joaquín Xaudaró, Leonetto Cappiello, Albert Guillaume, Manuel Luque, Jules Grandjouan, Abel Faivre, and Jules-Alexandre Grun.
Laughter is a collection of three essays by French philosopher Henri Bergson, first published in 1900. It was written in French, the original title is Le Rire. Essai sur la signification du comique ("Laughter, an essay on the meaning of the comic").
The three essays were first published in the French review Revue de Paris. A book was published in 1924 by the Alcan publishing house. It was reprinted in 1959 by the Presses Universitaires de France, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bergson.
In a foreword published in 1900, but suppressed in 1924, Bergson explains that through the three articles, he wanted to study laughter, especially the laughter caused by the comic, and to determine the principal categories of comic situations, to determine the laws of the comic. He also added a list of works and studies about laughter and the comic.
In the preface written in 1924 to replace the initial foreword, Bergson explains that his method is entirely new because it consists in determining the process of the comic instead of analyzing the effects of the comic. He specifies that his method does not contradict the results of the other one, but he assumes that it is more rigorous from a scientific point of view. He adds a larger bibliography.
Le Rire English: The Laugh, is a French comedy film from 1953, directed by Maurice Regamey, starring Louis de Funès. Louis de Funès gives a definition of the laugh.
Supreme sacrificial cultus
From olden times
The higher knowing
The higher will
Highest offering of human blood
Highest readiness
Who knows to sacrifice
Knows to speak to the great depth
Knows the breath of immortality
The blood eagle soars to the spheres
Beyond the trampled paths
Astral worlds open their doors
To a dimension of our origin
While the darkness from the past
Crawls back into this realm
We greet the ancient forces
Named demons of today
With blood given
The energies increase to high amount
Channel it to earn wisdom
Erase the lack of understanding
Fly with the blood eagle