To me, the humor aspect of the SMiLE era is misunderstood. The topic of SMiLE era humor is typically approached the same way one would approach Hawthorne humor from any point in Beach Boys history. Humor is understandably treated like, well, humor.
The following link is an example of this approach and ESQ subscribers may want to check out Andrew G. Doe's humor article in the Winter 2011 issue for another example of this tact.
http://333sound.com/2014/05/14/beach-boys-week-the-beach-boys-and-comedy/While this approach seems entirely reasonable and does apply to some of the SMiLE era's projects, Brian Wilson's SMiLE era ideas about humor and laughter definitely go well beyond this limited scope.
For example, David Anderle stated that, "He (Brian) would see the solutions to all problems in terms of humor," and Michael Vosse stated that, "He (Brian) felt that the moment somebody laughed, that while they're laughing, that all control was gone. They cannot control themselves. And at that moment they can have a spiritual experience." So we have humor entering the realm of problem solving as well as promoting spiritual experience. It seems that there is much more to Brian's SMiLE era take on humor than meets the eye.
In 2004, at the time of BWPS, Brian made some comments regarding Arthur Koestler's 1964 book The Act Of Creation (
http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/pop/12377/).
"It (The Act Of Creation) explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else.....The book's about the logic of laughter....."
Let's look closer at this quote. The Beach Boys' Hawthorne humor is one of ego driven one-upmanship. A good example of this is the track "'Cassius' Love vs. 'Sonny' Wilson" from the SHUT DOWN VOLUME 2 LP. The competitive Hawthorne comic style would therefore likely lead Brian Wilson to relate to The Act Of Creation's necessary ingredient for humor: the "self-asserting" tendency, and Arthur Koestler indicates that this "self-asserting" tendency is at its strongest level when associated with humor. From Brian's unique Hawthorne perspective Koestler was essentially explaining that, "people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else."
As one can see we're delving into the dynamics underlying humor and laughter and going forward these ideas might best be thought of as 'the logic of laughter' or 'the logic of humor' for, as The Act Of Creation maintains, this basic logic flows through, and can be detected in, all realms of creative activity. Most closely related to humor is the area of science and/or discovery.
Arthur Koestler maintains that the logic behind the greatest scientific discoveries in history is related to that of humor: that Archimedes' "Eureka!" cry at finding the solution to a problem is related to laughter as the result of getting a joke, that the riddle of science is related to the humor's riddle. With this in mind it is not too far-out of an idea that 'the logic of humor' might be the basic answer to any and all problems requiring creative solutions. With this in mind we can reread David Anderle's statement, "He (Brian) would see the solutions to all problems in terms of humor" in a different light as The Act Of Creation gives the idea credence.
The 'the logic of humor' is also related to the creative realm of art. Getting a joke is seeing the mind of the creator of the quip and similarly getting a piece of art is understanding the mind of the artist behind a work of art.
Michael Vosse stated that, "He (Brian) felt that the moment somebody laughed, that while they're laughing, that all control was gone. They cannot control themselves. And at that moment they can have a spiritual experience." The first part of this statement has to do with laughter resulting in a loss of control. This idea is summed up nicely in The Act Of Creation.
"Laughter, as the cliche has it, is 'liberating', i.e. tension-relieving....laughter prevents the satisfaction of biological drives, it makes man equally incapable of killing or copulating; it deflates anger, apprehension, and pride....the sole function of the luxury reflex seems to be the disposal of excitations which have become redundant..."*
The second part of Michael Vosse's statement has to do with spiritual experience. This is a touchy subject for many as it's not a common occurrence so I'd like to use a lengthy quote from the book Psychedelic Art to help address this matter:
'"On the deepest, integral level, the psychedelic experience is one of psychological integration, "illumination," and a sense of self-transformation. In our experimental work with psychedelics, only a small percentage of the subjects ever reached this deep level. How many artists have reached it, no one can say. Not in art or elsewhere do we find an entirely successful attempt to communicate experience that men of all times and places have tended to agree is essentially incommunicable.
The integral level seems always to be one of religious or mystical experience. Whether some other way of experiencing this level is possible, we do not know. Here the ideas, images, body sensations (if any), and emotions are fused in what is felt to be an absolutely purposive process culminating in a sense of self-understanding, self-transformation, religious enlightenment, and possibly mystical union. The person here experiences what he regards as a confrontation with the Ground of Being, God, Mysterium, Noumenon, Essence, or Fundamental Reality. The content of the experience is self-validating and known to be true. There is no question at all that these experiences are of profound depth levels of the self. In no apparent way do they differ from other religious and mystical experiences traditionally accepted as authentic.
After such an experience there is likely to be a powerful wish to communicate what has happened. Some of the psychedic art may be thus motivated. "'
I think the description of this level of psychedelic experience is likely similar to what happened to Brian Wilson prior to SMiLE. As is pointed out, this spiritual experience cannot be communicated by common means of communication, however, The Act Of Creation asserts it's possible for the consumer of a work of art to understand the mind of the work's creator (just as the person who gets a joke gathers a glimpse into the jester's mind). In this way Arthur Koestler's The Act Of Creation may have provided Brian Wilson with a potential means by which to communicate his spiritual experience.
Brian stated that "It (The Act Of Creation) explains that people attach their egos to their sense of humor before anything else..." and if we add to this Koestler's idea of laughter resulting in a loss of control one can gather that laughter could result in a temporary loss of ego which is often considered a necessary ingredient of a spiritual experience.
Viewing Brian Wilson's obsession with laughter through the lenses of Koestler's The Act Of Creation potentially gives us insight into the SMiLE era mind of Brian Wilson.
*Note the use of the word excitations.