Fun, according to the Oxford English Dictionary:
1. A cheat or trick; a hoax, a practical joke.
2.
a. Diversion, amusement, sport; also, boisterous jocularity or gaiety, drollery. Also, a source or cause of amusement or pleasure.
b. Phr. to make fun of , poke fun at (a person, etc.): to ridicule. for or in fun : as a joke, sportively, not seriously. (he, it is) good, great fun : a source of much amusement. like fun: energetically, very quickly, vigorously. what fun! how very amusing! for the fun of the thing: for amusement; to have fun (with) : to enjoy (a process); spec. to have sexual intercourse.
c. Exciting goings-on. Also fun and games, freq. used ironically; spec. amatory play. colloq.
Given that “fun” describes both enjoyment and pleasure and amusement and ridicule we have, in one word, not so much a dichotomy as a profound synthesis. These are all aspects of fun—good fun, bad fun, healing fun, angry fun, kind fun, cruel fun—all fun. Games in which we devote our skills and cunning to destroying the enemy can be at least as much fun as games in which we build new worlds.
Because the English word for fun seems to embrace all those aspects, it becomes key to understanding our selves, our games, our society, our history.
Fun is not a moral or ethical choice. That choice becomes manifest in the kinds of fun, the flavors of fun we seek out for ourselves, our children, our communities.
Choosing fun is choosing life, is embracing the human reality, all of it. Denying fun, denying the fun of any aspect of fun, you deny yourself.
