I’ve been researching the use of humor as a coping mechanism for PTSD in soldiers, and while I can’t link the full text here, I managed to find a complete copy of Linda Henman’s “Humor as a coping mechanism: Lessons from POWs” from the Humor-international Journal of Humor Research in 2001. In it, Henman says that frequently POWs will make use of humor even when imprisoned and tortured by the enemy. One soldier even said “I figured that if I died that day, at least I would have laughed.” He also said that some soldiers risked further torture by joking to other prisoners while being tortured. While this is not only a display of complete badassery, it also reveals a window into Toby’s psyche.
Toby is a drunkard (which is another typical habit of people suffering from PTSD), and constantly uses humor even when he should be sad or worried (particularly during Feste’s singing and when Malvolio threatens that Olivia will kick him out of the house). Neither of these are, in my opinion, because Toby is an idiot or a hedonist. He drinks and he jokes because if he doesn’t, he is forced to face a stark reality that he simply doesn’t want to see.
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