Is ridicule an option in philosophy?

[MarcusA]

I treat the ridiculous seriously when I treat it with ridicule. - Karl Marx

Obviously, it's an option; and just as obviously, not the best option.

[MarcusA]

The religious are ridiculous, political or spiritual.

[MarcusA]

The ridiculous cannot be defeated by ridicule.

[Recusant]

To complete the quote from Marx (he was writing about censorship):

"... and the most serious immodesty of the mind is to be modest in the face of immodesty.

"Serious and modest! What fluctuating, relative concepts! Where does seriousness cease and jocularity begin? Where does modesty cease and immodesty begin? We are dependent on the temperament of the censor. It would be as wrong to prescribe temperament for the censor as to prescribe style for the writer. If you want to be consistent in your aesthetic criticism, then forbid also a too serious and too modest investigation of the truth, for too great seriousness is the most ludicrous thing of all, and too great modesty is the bitterest irony."

I don't know whether he goes on to describe what he means by "too serious." He had a lot to say, and I'm not sure I want to spend the time.

[No one]

When ridicule doth fail, clubs, bats, knives, chains prevail. Or so I've been told.

[MarcusA]

Seriousness takes a serious mind and screws with it.

[The Magic Pudding.]

Seriousness takes a serious mind and screws with it.

A mind would have to be pretty screwed to come up with that sentence, battle lost before begun.
Be Nice
But I'm so good at being horrible
!
OK

[MarcusA]

To dismiss out of hand any form of seriousness is a serious error. To inquire deeper, one should have an open mind, so as to dismiss any form of foolishness with a flip of the hand.

[MarcusA]

Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.
- Oscar Wilde

[MarcusA]

All ridiculousness must be exterminated within myself.