Proust le fumiste

«Fumisterie transcendentale» – thus Marcel Proust once referred to ridicule, the laughable look of reality, in order to highlight that it may constitute a privileged way of access to the latter. Starting from such a perspective, this article aims to reconstruct Proustian usage of ridicule at different levels of narration – gnoseological, ethical and aesthetical – as well as pointing out how they relate and articulate altogether. As Proust idealistically considers reality the product of an individual esprit, exercising the ridicule proves to be beneficial to get to know experiences as exorcised from one’s personal obsessions and idiosyncrasies, so to mature a free and serene standpoint on life and art.