The village of Comedy was a small village of no more than fifty permanent residents. The villagers there led a very peaceful life, farming the fertile land around them and catching fish in the river just a quarter-mile from the village. Everyone did their part for the village, and so the people prospered and there was no poverty. Since everyone contributed to the village in their own way, the mayor made sure they all lived content lives.

Though their village was very small, it was near the Great Castle of Depression. Now back then the word depression had very little meaning, as did comedy, since such words had not yet been given a true meaning. In fact, the only emotion these people knew was happiness, since in those days everyone was happy with their life. In the Great Castle of Depression there lived a noble king, who was known as King Sad. Throughout the years the king's attitude slowly got worse until he became as we have come to know as being sad. Thus, King Sad was indeed sad, but no one had ever seen such a thing, much less know how to cure it. The heart of the king's most trusted advisor flooded with anguish at seeing his friend in such a state, and his anguish soon flooded the hearts of all the people in the Great Castle of Depression.

Now in the village of Comedy there lived two young men who were brothers. These two men were Humor and Laughter. Like the words sad, depression and comedy, humor and laughter had no true meaning either. By now the whole village had heard of the king's grave situation, and everyone wondered how they could help cure the king and get the reward that was being offered. When Humor heard about the condition of the king, and he became determined to be the one to discover the way to cure King Sad.

Growing up, Humor had preferred to keep to himself and had a vivid imagination. He refused to help his parents with the work around the house and was often scolded for his unusual behavior, even though he was only a child. So it came to pass that the village labeled him as an outcast and thought his behavior to be weird. Many of the villagers told him that he was strange and came to dislike his presence amongst themselves. Humor was indifferent to this treatment by his peers, and when the kids called him weird, he would oftentimes respond by saying they were wrong, he was not weird, but rather that he was simply gifted. So it came to pass that he got a nickname: Humor the Gifted. Whenever he was called that, he felt an odd sensation inside of him, but he didn't know what it was.

One by one the villagers traveled to the Great Castle of Depression to attempt to cure the ailing king. People took all the herbs and remedies they knew of, but none worked to better King Sad from his condition. Each villageer would return to Comedy, empty-handed and their hearts were flooded with anguish from their king's seemingly helpless condition and their futile attempts to cure him. Soon it came to be that it was Laughter's turn to try and cure the great king. Like the others before him, he could not do anything for the king, and his heart was flooded with anguish for the poor king.

Upon returning home, he searched for his brother to tell him that the tales of the king's condition were true and that there was nothing to cure him. Day became night and night back into day before Laughter found his brother in the forest, by himself of course. Laughter greeted his brother from a distance, shouting, "Ho, brother! How fare ye on this sunny day?"

Upon hearing his brother's voice, Humor looked up and smiled as he shouted back, "Ho, brother! I fare well on this fine and glorious day! How fare ye on this sunny day?"

Laughter, whose heart was flooded with anguish at the state of the king, could simply reply with a, "I fare well on this fine and glorious day, also. However, the king does not fare quite so well. Even his personal advisor, Lord Worried, is suffering from this strange sickness, I, too, suffer from the plague that has spread throughout the Great Castle of Depression and our village."

Of course, like the other people in the story, the word worried also had no true meaning as of yet, it was simply another name. Humor, upon hearing the words of his older brother, was gravely disappointed by the news. He knew the time would soon arrive when he would journey to the Great Castle of Depression to try to cure King Sad. He replied to his beloved brother's message with a simple, "I'm sorry."

Laughter was bewildered by this simple reply to such a great problem and could think of nothing to say except, "Sorry!? Is that all!? Just sorry!? Our king is sick with a plague that is infecting us all, and all that you can say is 'I'm Sorry'!? You are definitely weird like everyone else says!"

"I'm not weird, I'm GIFTED!" exclaimed Humor in response to his brother's harsh words.

"No, you are most definitely weird. Only a person who is weird would be out in these stupid woods all alone, away from everyone else in the village. You never contribute to our village and insist on living out here on your own like a hermit."

"Just because I choose to live differently than everyone else doesn't make me weird." Just then Humor's heart became flooded with a new feelinghe had never felt before. A smile crept onto his face and his eyes became filled with joy as he got an idea as to how to cure this tragic sickness amongst the people. "Brother, come with me to my hut where we can discuss the condition of our king over lunch."

This sounded like a good idea to Laughter since he had traveled all night and into the morning without eating a meal. "I would be honored to join you in your humble abode for a decent meal. I journeyed throughout the whole morning in search of you, and my stomach is telling me that it is a good time to eat. Let's go eat!" declared Laughter.

So it came to pass that the two brothers began walking toward the humble abode of Humor, when Humor dramatically stumbled over a root that was clearly in plain sight and fell onto his face. Laughter, upon seeing his brother's blunder, emitted a strange sound which we have come to know as a laugh. Humor, not wanting to end this fun activity cried out as if in surprise, "What hit me!? I didn't even see it coming! Did you see it? Where did it go?"

By now Laughter was laughing so hard that his face was red and tears flowed from his eyes. He managed to sputter out a response as he laughed, "Nothing hit you, you fool! You tripped on that root right there by your foot, and fell flat on your face! That is what happened."

Humor, who had slowly risen back to his feet, was laughing also. Both men's hearts became flooded with this laughter and brought about great joy. So it came to pass that Humor had found a cure for the sadness which plagued the king, and he set out for the Great Castle of Depression. Day became night and night became day again and day once more became night before Humor and his older brother, Laughter, arrived at the Great Castle of Depression.

The two brothers stayed the night at the inn, since the king was asleep and did not wish to be disturbed, Humor and Laughter soon got to discussing ideas for how to get the king to laugh. So it came to be that Humor decided he would dramatically trip over his own feet and fall to the floor of the throne room, right at the feet of the king himself. Their hearts flooded with laughter just from the thought of such an act and the reactions they would receive. Soon night became day and the two brothers set off into the Great Castle of Depression to see the king.

The two brothers entered the throne room, and as they had planned the night before, Humor dramatically stumbled right in front of the king and landed at his feet with a dull thud. Laughter immediately began to laugh, and, since we all know that laughter is very contagious, the king soon began to laugh also. Soon the whole throne room was in an uproar over the blunder made by Humor.

So it came to pass that King Sad and all of the Great Castle of Depression and the village of Comedy were cured of this unhappy state. The strange sound we know as a laugh was named after Laughter, since he was the very first to emit that sound. The intentional acts of Humor became known as comedy in honor of his village and people who did these acts were said to have a sense of humor, since he had been the one to develop it. It became widely known that laughter was the greatest cure for that condition, which came to be known as sadness in honor of the great king. The symptoms of the people became known as worry in honor of the king's wise advisor who suffered much from the king's sickness, and the widespread feeling became known as depression in honor of the kingdom who was so worried about their king throughout his troubles.