It doesn't matter how many times the audience has heard it

“It doesn’t matter how many times the audience has heard it before. If it’s funny, it’s funny.” — thus spoke Tommy Cooper, the magician-comedian whose laughter was as timeless as his red fez. In this deceptively simple saying lies a truth that echoes across ages: that genuine joy, unlike fashion or novelty, never grows old. The power of laughter, Cooper reminds us, does not rest in invention alone, but in authenticity — in the spark of shared recognition between performer and audience, between human and human. It is not the newness of the jest that gives it life, but the truth it carries, for truth — when spoken with heart — forever renews itself.

When Cooper says, “If it’s funny, it’s funny,” he strips away the vanity of cleverness, the restless chase for originality that often blinds the artist. The ancients, too, knew that art need not always be new to be profound. The philosopher Aristotle, when writing of tragedy and comedy, spoke not of novelty, but of catharsis — the cleansing of emotion, the eternal cycle of laughter and tears that every generation rediscovers. A jest that endures across time does so because it touches something essential, something that belongs to all hearts — the simple, universal recognition of the absurdity of life. Thus, Cooper’s wisdom carries a sacred message: that the soul of comedy lies not in invention, but in connection.

His saying also honors the humility of the performer — the understanding that art is not about the artist, but about the audience. The ancients held this same reverence for the listener, the witness. In the amphitheaters of Greece, actors recited lines written centuries before their birth, and yet the people wept and laughed as though hearing them anew. For art is not frozen in time; it lives in the encounter, in the living moment when hearts meet. Cooper, like the old poets, knew that joy reborn is never stale. The same joke, told with sincerity, becomes a new miracle each time it awakens laughter in another soul.

Consider the wandering storytellers of old — the bards of Greece, the griots of Africa, the skalds of the North. They carried the same tales across generations, repeating them by firelight and moonlight, and still the people gathered eagerly, for they were not listening for novelty but for life itself. What mattered was not that the tale was old, but that the teller was alive within it. So it is with comedy: the joke, the gesture, the moment of laughter — all are reborn when shared by a living voice. Cooper, in his craft, understood this truth instinctively. His humor was not built upon invention, but upon spirit — the warmth of humanity that never fades.

And yet, beneath the mirth, Cooper’s wisdom carries a subtler meaning — one that speaks to all who seek meaning in repetition. Life itself, after all, is a cycle of repeated joys and sorrows, of sunrise and sunset. Each day we wake to the same world, and yet, if we meet it with open eyes, it feels new. The ancients taught that wisdom lies not in escaping repetition, but in finding freshness within it. So too with laughter — it is not the joke that changes, but the heart that receives it. When the soul is awake, even the oldest jest becomes a song of renewal.

In his words, Cooper also reminds us that truth is eternal. A joke that rings true will never die, for it speaks to something unchanging in the human spirit — the vulnerability, folly, and tenderness of being alive. The ancients carved their truths into stone; Cooper carved his into laughter. Both endure. The faces of the audience may change, but the human heart remains the same — yearning to laugh, to be reminded that life, though fragile, is still beautiful.

So let this teaching be carried forward: Never despise what is simple, familiar, or oft-repeated. If it stirs the heart, if it brings joy, it is sacred. Whether you are an artist, a teacher, or a friend, remember that the power of your gift lies not in its novelty, but in its sincerity. Tell the old story again. Share the same kind word. Repeat the same joke — not because you must, but because it still brings light. As Tommy Cooper reminds us, funny is eternal, for it is not the joke that lives — it is the laughter it awakens, and laughter, born of truth, never dies.