Chekhov revisited

Alan Davies, stand-up comedian and actor, tells in The Times today how great an influence Chekhov was on him when he was studying to be an actor. He draws particular attention to the opening of "The Seagull": "I've always loved the play's opening where Medvedenko, the smitten but hapless teacher, asks the world-weary Masha why she always wears black. 'I'm in mourning for my life,' she replies. That tickled me the first time I read it and seems as good a test for an appreciation of Chekhov as any."
I agree with that but then he then goes into a rather heavy-handed description of why the line is so funny; I don't think that's needed - you either get it or you don't.
Chekhov doesn't go for the big laugh; you tend to chuckle at his lines and at the characters who say them. The characters are not comical but perfectly serious. The humour is there because they are so sad and do not understand how out of date they are: society is changing but they aren't changing with it. Another playwright would hate these people but Chekhov is too humane for that: he loves them but at the same time wishes they would prepare themselves for the new life that's ahead. The ageing actress in "The Seagull" says at one point when her son (?) is about to stage a modern-type avante garde play "I don't care what they do as long as they leave me out of it" which, I think, is as funny - and as tragic - as Masha's "in mourning for her life". But you either get it or you don't.