Peter Camejo had a great sense of humor until he discovered butterfly spreads and indexed options. He used to give these great recruitment speeches for the SWP. He'd say things like under socialism, the grocery stores would be places where you'd go to pick up your weeks supply. Everything would be free. So if somebody decided to walk out with 14 steaks under his arm, he wouldn't be arrested. He'd be referred to a psychiatrist. And everybody would laugh out loud. Not only was what he saying funny, it related to our sense of fair play and economic rationality.
But Camejo and I were always odd men out in the SWP. That is why we became friends. We always loved to sit around and make jokes about politics, not cynical jokes, just the sort of witticisms I make here. He doesn't have a cruel bone in his body.
Subcommandante Marcos also has a good sense of humor. So do most of the Sandinistas. Borge and Omar Cabeza's memoirs are filled with rollicking good humor. Castro is a complete pisser. Guevara was not much of a card, but he was a god-damned good and honest human being.
But the whole Russian tradition, from Stalin to Trotsky, is pretty humorless. Trotsky's "humor" mostly consists of biting observations on his opponents. In his defense, the 1920s to the time of his death were not conducive to lighthearted jests.
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)