[I have] been asked, on occasion, why someone like myself, with pretensions to intellect, should content himself with endless joke-telling while shunning the ardent discussions of politics, philosophy, and literature which might be proceeding in another corner of the room.
To this my my answer is threefold, in order of increasing importance:
1) I spend most of my day being intellectual at my typewriter, and telling jokes on an evening now and then helps balance the situation.
2) Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
3) I like to.