2013.11.2ML Sample response

　　Some people might argue that intelligent friends are more important than humorous ones, but that is because they have no sense of humor and are not very bright. It is much more important to have humorous friends.

　　First of all, humor is a form of intelligence, but intelligence is not a form of humor so with humor you get two-for-one. You can be smart and ruthless, which is no recipe for a friend of mine. But if you can make me laugh, even with an acerbic wit or sarcasm, I would more likely count you as my friend. Give me an example of somebody with a sense of humor who is not smart? You can't, but I can (and would) gladly give you a hundred people with intelligence who cannot make me laugh.

　　Second of all, life is absurd and humor is the only salve; geniuses and imbeciles can reach that same conclusion. There are plenty of kinds of intelligence that will do no good in comforting you when something tragic occurs, but humor can help you to cope in low moments with the cruelty of our solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short lives. For example, we have all had that moment when we were on the verge of tears and a friend made us chuckle, cackle, or belly laugh, rescuing us from getting our cheeks wet or worse.

　　Finally, humorous friends attract other people to a social circle, making people who have humorous friends more popular. If one surrounds himself with nerds and brilliant, morose philosophers, one cannot expect social success. Of course, it might be useful to have people who don't see everything as a lark or rib their chums incessantly, but the truly humorous know when enough is enough.