Of course, the laughter of the book of Proverbs goes deeper than a good joke or a witty reply.
Part of the pleasure of a good story, or a good joke, or a good speech, is fulfillment of expectation.
He told BBC News the 92-year old was "almost completely blind and hard of hearing" but still loved "a good joke and a glass of wine".
It would be more accurate to say not that Twain hated art, but that he never let it or anything else stand in the way of a good joke.
ECONOMIST: A man who never let anything stand in the way of a joke
It's a good joke, from a slightly unexpected source (neither the rapper nor his possibly even more famous partner, Kim Kardashian, are best known for their self-deprecating sallies, although the title Kanye is supposed to be contemplating for his new album, I Am God, is said to be "half tongue-in-cheek").
Though perhaps a bit catty, the joke makes a good point, which is that Opus Dei has sometimes been better at explaining what it is not rather than what it is.
It is also easy to confuse a conviction with what is merely a good set-up for a joke.
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While it was a long-standing joke among tax and estate planners that 2010 would be a good year to die because there is no estate tax imposed in that year, in practice, this is less than certain.
"This is all in good fun, but it's not a joke, " says Mr. Olsen, a lawyer in Tahoe City, Calif.
"This must be a joke, " said one trendy-looking young woman who frequents good restaurants in Tokyo.
Such good fortune seems to require a certain wry detachment: You're in on the joke, or you risk becoming it.
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