king laugh

Setting us straight on the subject of why we sometimes laugh at those jokes about Mother Teresa or the holocaust or cancer or death, even when we know we shouldn't — and why political and religious people regularly hate comedy — your Great Literature April Fools' Quote for the Day:

Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, 'May I come in?' is not true laughter. No! he is a king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no time of suitability. He say, 'I am here.' ... It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall — all dance together to the music that he make.

Van Helsing says those words after laughing when he shouldn't. There are plenty of opportunities for just that in Bram Stoker's Dracula.