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I came across a quote

Life isn't too funny, to be too serious

Unfortunately, I can't get the right meaning out of it, even though I'm familiar with all of the words. Can anyone explain in a much simpler form using an example?

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    The quotation is not grammatical. I suspect it was supposed to be something like: “Life is too funny to be so serious.” Does it make sense written that way?
    – Tyler James Young
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 15:51
  • I don't think the original poster has the quote right, or maybe he's getting it from a source that garbled it, because it doesn't really make sense. Maybe the original was, "Life is too funny to be taken seriously"?
    – Jay
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 21:19
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    It's a garbled version of Life Is Too Funny To Take Seriously, where I don't think anyone could seriously argue with the grammar. It means life (the human version, with self-awareness) is either too amusing (or too strange, take your pick) to treat seriously. An amusing philosophy, but people who laugh in the face of danger (as opposed to being careful and/or running away) don't tend to leave many descendants - they just win Darwin Awards
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 22:32
  • @FumbleFingers +1 can you post this as an answer?
    – Maulik V
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 4:50
  • @FumbleFingers. Thanks for your answer. Wish you add as answer. Sorry for quoting wrongly, I forgot exact one.
    – Pkrishna
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 8:00

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OP probably came across the Facebook page Life Is Too Funny To Take Seriously or something similar.

The basic format X is too funny to take seriously (or more often, ...to be taken seriously) can be applied in many contexts. Obviously it would be a completely pointless thing to say about something intended to be funny/amusing (a slapstick comedy sketch, for example). So there's always some "tension" between two ways of looking at the thing (if your mother slipped on a banana skin that might seem funny to many, but probably not to you - certainly not to her - if she broke her back and was paralysed for life).

One well-known (but arguably, sick) example is The Darwin Awards (people who actually die doing stupid things, and hence improve the genetic stock of humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool). The general sentiment (for those not personally involved) can be summed up by the oft-quoted...

If you didn't laugh, you'd cry.
or
You've got to laugh, haven't you?

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