> Comedians typically were in sad environments and coped by making people (and themselves) laugh. According to Richard Belzer's wikipedia page, he "declared th

> Comedians typically were in sad environments and coped by making people (and themselves) laugh. According to Richard Belzer's wikipedia page, he "declared that his comedy career began when trying to make her laugh to distract her from abusing him and his brother". Which is may be an extreme case, but illustrative of what drives some people to comedy.