Laughter in a Sex Scene

"Pornographers will tell you that laughter in a sex scene is like a pistol shot at a concert. It ruptures the fantasy. In their guidelines for aspiring writers of eroticism, the publishers of Black Lace warn specifically against comedy. What they do not go on to say is that laughter is the operation of intelligence, an act of criticism, and the moment you subject porn, soft or hard, to intelligence, it comes apart like a mummified artefact exposed to light. Ditto The Da Vinci Code. Ditto the modern novel of highly responsible ideological intent."

Howard Jacobson, the Guardian newspaper, 2005