Don't Misunderestimate W

Found an interesting quote that is pertinent to our times, even though it was written by Melville in the late 1800s. This from page 29 of my copy of Moby Dick:

So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and to be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.