"Тъй рече Йоан Златоуст"
“So Said St. John Chrysostom”

Summary/Abstract: In the present article the author tries to reveal the attitude towards the laughter on the Balkan during the formation of bourgeois ethic code. The data, collected from many Bulgarian, Greek, Serbian and Ottoman texts from XVIII and XIX centuries, show that the image of Balkan’s homo ridens is not undivided but depends on the entire ideological atmosphere, as it is presented by different texts. The demonic image of the laughing person is categorically shown in the texts, representative of the conservative circles, which were connected with Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire. The heralds of the Enlightenment’s new ideas defended a contrary opinion. The problem of the laughter is shown in the article as an intriguing issue in the context of the debates between church and the defenders of new ideas about modernization of society, burst forth on the threshold of the bourgeois era. It can be proved definitely by juxtaposition of the negative attitude of Nikodim of Mount Athos towards the laugh and the laughing person with the opposite viewpoints of Rigas Velestinlis, Adamandios Korais, Konstantin Fotinov, Neophit Bozveli, Emanuil Vaskidovich, Raino Popovich, etc.

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