In some areas of the world, laughter is dangerous. Several Germans were recently arrested in the Soviet zone of Germany after movie theater audiences had guffawed at (1) a film purporting to show Soviet ships unloading food for Germany; (2) newsreel pictures of barrel-bellied Wilhelm Pieck, German Communist boss, who reminds many of his compatriots of the late Hermann Goring. But whether laughter was the privilege of the free or the furtive solace of the oppressed, it continued as always to lighten man's burden:
Around London's Fleet Street last week went a story of how the Soviet government wished to...