Hey, you started it

    After some research for this blog post, I decided that I need to expand my original definition of "defense mechanism." Laughter not only dampens the mood during a particularly serious situations, it may also points out to the innate ridiculousness of that situation (though people may might fail to notice initially). So why does this qualify as a defense mechanism? In this case, I think it exposes the drama and madness around people as nothing more than the results of their own stupidity and ineptness.
    This is particularly true in movies. The following is an excerpt from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, featuring the great comedian Peter Sellers. 

Russian Ambassador: There were those of us who fought against us. But in the end, we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. And at the same time, our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our Doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a Doomsday gap.

Muffley: This is preposterous! I've never approved of anything like that!

Russian Ambassador: Our source was the New York Times.

    There are several factors that make this conversation funny. First, the Soviet government decides that the best way to save money is the construction of a Doomsday machine. The Soviets could easily reform their economic system yet they chose a path that led to the world's destruction. Ultimately, the Doomsday machine was not made to fend off a powerful enemy but rather to help make more "nylons and washing machines." The audience has no choice but to laugh at a solution that fails to solve the problem.
    The ineptness of the Soviet government is further exposed when the Ambassador reveals their source of information to be the New York Times. You'd expect the government to utilize more incredible sources (the KGB perhaps. Or why else waste all that time with James Bond?). But the mass media, which profits greatly through exaggeration and lies,  is taken seriously by the Soviets without doubt. Not only do we laugh at the idiotic Russians, but we also get a laugh at the expense at the media, whose tactics of using fear to emphasize its importance backfires.
    But we also need to keep in mind of the time period in which the movie was made. During the Cold War, the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was peddled as a way to prevent nuclear warfare. Ironically, MAD requires that each country build massive piles of nuclear weapons. Kubrick shows how foolish this line of thinking is. His comedic approach makes people realize their faulty way of thinking. Furthermore, the failure of MAD exposes the incompetence of the government. The characters in the film are portrayed as bumbling buffoons incapable of making the right decision and their failures to do their job eventually cause the destruction of human civilization. Kubrick and Sellers awaken the audience to the reality, in which the people they entrust to lead them are not as capable as they think. Laughter not only forces people to realize this, but helps them to cope with reality. After all, if people perceive the ineptness of their government in a non-comedic situation, they will probably be paralyzed with fear and despair.